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Testimony of the Department of Justice


                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            
One SSA who served two rotations as OSC at GTMO told us that he initially told the agents to write up detainee abuse allegations to a "war crimes" file so the FBI could retrieve the information if it was needed for further investigations […] At some point in 2003, however, the OSC at GTMO received instructions not to maintain a separate "war crimes" file. The OSC stated that the MLDU Unit Chief told him that investigating detainee allegations of abuse was not the FBI mission (Review of the FBI's Involvement in and Observation of Detainee Interrogations in Guantanamo Bay, Afghanistan, and Iraq, pp. 206f).


Prompted by the instances of prisoner abuse in Guantanamo reported by FBI personnel (see here), the Inspector General of the Department of Justice carried out a Review of the FBI's Involvement in and Observation of Detainee Interrogations in Guantanamo Bay, Afghanistan, and Iraq. For this review, which was issued in May 2008, the Office of the Inspector General interviewed more than 230 witnesses and reviewed more than 500,000 pages of documents. It also took two trips to Guantanamo, interviewed five prisoners still held there, and interviewed a released prisoner by phone. CSHRA has posted below the relevant portions of that important document below.