The US military has begun an investigation into allegations by FBI agents of torture at the Guantanamo prison and newly released documents showed 26 agents saw detainees abused.
Miami-based Southern Command, which oversees the prison camp for foreign terrorism suspects at the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, said two officers will look into abuse allegations described in numerous FBI documents released by the American Civil Liberties Union.
The group obtained the documents under court order through the Freedom of Information Act, and an ACLU lawyer questioned over whether the FBI aggressively pursued the charges.
The FBI documents have described suspects being shackled hand and foot in a fetal position on a floor for 18 to 24 hours, and left to urinate and defecate on themselves. Others said Pentagon interrogators impersonated FBI agents at the base and used "torture techniques" on a prisoner.
Southern Command spokesman Raul Duany said Brig. Gen. John Furlow will lead the investigation, and will be joined by a Navy captain. The two were ordered to report back by Feb. 1 to Gen. Bantz Craddock, head of Southern Command.
In previously released documents one FBI agent reported seeing a barely conscious prisoner who had torn out his hair after being left overnight in a sweltering room. Another told of an interrogation in which a prisoner was wrapped in an Israeli flag and bombarded with loud music and strobe lights.
"It is specifically going to concentrate on those allegations raised by the FBI in e-mails and memoranda but it's not limited to that," Duany said of the investigation.
Duany said evidence gathered in the probe potentially could be used later to bring charges against military and civilian interrogators.
The ACLU released a batch of FBI documents concerning Guantanamo last month and made public a new batch yesterday .