H. Touching or Acting Toward a Detainee in a Sexual Manner

Over 20 FBI agents reported in interviews or survey responses that they had seen or heard about female interrogators touching or acting toward a detainee in a sexual manner. We determined that several of these reports related to one interrogator and possibly to the same incident. In most of the other cases, the agents did not have personal knowledge of the incident and were reporting detainee allegations or information they had heard from others at GTMO. We describe the most specific and significant of these reports below.

According to the Church Report, sexual acts and mock sexual acts have always been prohibited interrogation techniques. The Church investigators found a single incident of an interrogator violating this prohibition, involving sexually suggestive comments and body movements. Church Report at 174-176. The Schmidt-Furlow Report stated that some conduct by female interrogators "designed to take advantage of their gender in relation to Muslim males" were authorized under military policies as "futility," and "mild non-injurious physical touching." Schmidt-Furlow Report at 7-9, 16-17.

As discussed in a prior Section of this chapter, SSA Brett told the OIG that during his deployment to GTMO in November or December 2002 he observed a female military interrogator apply lotion to the arms of a detainee, bend the detainee's thumbs back, and grab his genitals. As also discussed in that Section, another agent reported an incident involving the same female interrogator in which a detainee fell when he sought to evade the female rubbing lotion on him.

Another agent who was deployed to GTMO during March through May 2003 described a claim by detainee Adel Fattough Ali Algazzar (#369) that Algazzar had seen another unnamed detainee return from an interrogation with blood on his face and head. Algazzar told the agent that when the other detainee did not cooperate with a female interrogator, she called four guards into the room to restrain him, removed her blouse, embraced him from behind, put her hand on his genitals, and wiped menstrual blood on him. The agent said he did not know the identity of the female interrogator and that at the time he suspected that the story was a lie or had been embellished. The agent said he reported the allegation to the FBI OSC, and that at the OSC's instruction the agent put the information in an FD-302 report dated April 21, 2003. We interviewed the OSC, who stated that he had no recollection of the agent or the fact that any agent reported such an allegation to him.

However, the Schmidt-Furlow investigation found that in March 2003 a female military interrogator retaliated against a detainee who had spit on her by showing him red ink on her hand and saying she was menstruating.¹³⁹

According to an FBI FD-302 interview report that was dated April 8, 2003, detainee Abdul Latif Nasir (#244) made allegations of possible rapes of more than one detainee by either a military guard or interrogator during the 1:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m. shift. The FD-302 also stated that Nasir described instances when detainees were searched in the groin area and touched sexually by male guards in the interview rooms. Nasir also described the possible attempted suicide of a Saudi detainee who had allegedly been raped and beaten by guards. Neither of the agents identified in the FD-302 stated in their OIG survey responses that they had heard these allegations. As previously noted, the FBI did not have a formal procedure for communicating allegations of this type to appropriate military officials until February 2005. According to the FBI, Nasir's allegations were transmitted to military officials at GTMO.

Several FBI SSAs told the OIG that they received reports about military interrogators behaving in a sexually provocative manner toward detainees. An SSA who served as OSC at GTMO from June 2003 to August 2003 stated in his survey response and interview that while he was at GTMO FBI agents told him that they observed female military interrogators straddling detainees, whispering in their ears, and generally invading the detainees' personal space. The SSA stated that one agent told him a female military interrogator unbuttoned her blouse while straddling a detainee. The SSA said he could not recall the agents who provided this information to him.

Two other FBI SSAs told the OIG that an FBI Intelligence Analyst told them that a female military interrogator named "Sydney" had exposed her breasts and performed sexual lap dances on detainees to make them uncomfortable and ashamed, although the analyst had not witnessed this conduct personally.

Also, one FBI agent indicated in his survey response that he had information that detainees Slahi (#760) and AI-Qahtani (#63) were subjected to sexual conduct or touching. The agent was not specific about the actual techniques that were employed on Slahi and Al-Qahtani. Further information regarding the interrogation of Slahi and AI-Qahtani is provided in Chapters Five and Eight.

Notes

139. The Schmidt-Furlow Report found that the interrogator wiped the ink on detainee's arm after showing him her hand and telling him that it was menstrual blood. The report found that this technique was authorized under military policy as an act to demonstrate the "futility" of the detainee's situation, but faulted the interrogator for using a technique that was not approved in advance and recommended that she be formally reprimanded. Schmidt-Furlow Report at 9.

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