Female interrogators used sexual tactics to break Muslims prisoners at Guantanamo

Suspected Taliban and al-Qaida detainees sit in a holding area at Camp X-Ray at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, during in-processing to the temporary detention facility in this Jan. 11, 2002, file photo. (AP Photo/U.S. Navy, Shane T.McCoy, file)

Associated Press Writer

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Female interrogators tried to break Muslim detainees at the U.S. prison camp in Guantanamo Bay by sexual touching, wearing a miniskirt and thong underwear and in one case smearing a Saudi man’s face with fake menstrual blood, according to an insider’s written account.

A draft manuscript obtained by The Associated Press is classified as secret pending a Pentagon review for a planned book that details ways the U.S. military used women as part of tougher physical and psychological interrogation tactics to get terror suspects to talk.

It’s the most revealing account so far of interrogations at the secretive detention camp, where officials say they have halted some controversial techniques.

‘‘I have really struggled with this because the detainees, their families and much of the world will think this is a religious war based on some of the techniques used, even though it is not the case,’’ the author, former Army Sgt. Erik R. Saar, 29, told AP.

Saar didn’t provide the manuscript or approach AP, but confirmed the authenticity of nine draft pages AP obtained. He requested his hometown remain private so he wouldn’t be harassed. Saar, who is neither Muslim nor of Arab descent, worked as an Arabic translator at the U.S. camp in eastern Cuba from December 2002 to June 2003. At the time, it was under the command of Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller, who had a mandate to get better intelligence from prisoners, including alleged al-Qaida members caught in Afghanistan.

Saar said he witnessed about 20 interrogations and about three months after his arrival at the remote U.S. base he started noticing ‘‘disturbing’’ practices.

One female civilian contractor used a special outfit that included a miniskirt, thong underwear and a bra during late-night interrogations with prisoners, mostly Muslim men who consider it taboo to have close contact with women who aren’t their wives.

Beginning in April 2003, ‘‘there hung a short skirt and thong underwear on the hook on the back of the door’’ of one interrogation team’s office, he writes. ‘‘Later I learned that this outfit was used for interrogations by one of the female civilian contractors ... on a team which conducted interrogations in the middle of the night on Saudi men who were refusing to talk.’’

Some Guantanamo prisoners who have been released say they were tormented by ‘‘prostitutes.’’

Events Saar describes resemble two previous reports of abusive female interrogation tactics, although it wasn’t possible to independently verify his account.

In November, in response to an AP request, the military described an April 2003 incident in which a female interrogator took off her uniform top, exposed her brown T-shirt, ran her fingers through a detainee’s hair and sat on his lap. That session was immediately ended by a supervisor and that interrogator received a written reprimand and additional training, the military said.

In another incident, the military reported that in early 2003 a different female interrogator ‘‘wiped dye from red magic marker on detainees’ shirt after detainee spit (cq) on her,’’ telling the detainee it was blood. She was verbally reprimanded, the military said.