WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Defense Department interrogators impersonated FBI (news - web sites) agents at the Guantanamo Bay prison to avoid being held accountable when they used "torture techniques" on a prisoner held there in the U.S. war on terrorism, according to FBI e-mails made public on Monday.
Another FBI e-mail made available in the same package said that President Bush (news - web sites) had issued an executive order authorizing a series of harsh methods for interrogations.
The White House said no such directive existed and Justice Department (news - web sites) and FBI officials echoed the denial.
The documents were made public by the American Civil Liberties Union (news - web sites) which obtained them under the Freedom of Information Act.
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May 22, 2004, e-mail, sent by an FBI agent in Iraq to senior FBI officials, referred repeatedly to what it said was an executive order signed by Bush, listing some of the methods the order authorized.
These included sleep deprivation, sensory deprivation by forcing detainees to wear hoods, the use of military dogs and stress positions such as forced squatting for an extended period, the e-mail stated.
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Update: Here's the news release from the ACLU.
Yep, that's compassionate conservatism. /snark
