S. Depriving a Detainee of Clothing

Several agents told the OIG that they saw or heard about detainees who were deprived of clothing. Removal of clothing was an explicitly authorized interrogation technique at GTMO between December 2, 2002, and January 12, 2003. Church Report at 117-121. As described in Chapter Five, two witnesses stated that Al-Qahtani (#63) had been at least partially deprived of clothing during part of his interrogation by the military.¹⁵⁴ The other incidents reported by the agents did not involve the removal of clothing as an interrogation technique, but rather as a disciplinary measure in response to detainee misconduct.

For example, one agent reported that the DOD's Joint Detention Operations Group confiscated the long pants from a segment of the detainee population that was notorious for throwing urine and feces on the guards, leaving the detainees with only short pants or underwear. The agent said that there were no other comfort items left to confiscate from these detainees. She said the incident was referred to as "Pants Jihad" because other detainees protested by refusing to come to scheduled interrogations and generally being very uncooperative. Another agent stated in his survey response that detainees told him that the guards took away a detainee's clothing due to repeated suicide attempts.

Notes

154. The Schmidt-Furlow Report found that in December 2002 interrogators forced Al-Qahtani to stand naked in front of a female interrogator, and used strip searches as an interrogation technique. Schmidt-Furlow Report at 20-21. This contradicted a finding in the Church Report that removal of clothing was not a technique used in the interrogation of Al-Qahtani. Church Report at 158.

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