Abuse continued in Abu Ghraib even after scandal became public

US/IRAQ: Several weeks after disclosure of abuses at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, which caused an international furore, brutal…

US/IRAQ: Several weeks after disclosure of abuses at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, which caused an international furore, brutal treatment of prisoners there continued, according to classified Defence Department memos obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). Conor O'Clery reports from Washington.

The Pentagon announced last night that four soldiers connected with the abuse have been disciplined. They have been given administrative punishments for excessive use of force involving the unauthorized use of Taser electric shock weapons.

The memos showed Defence Department intelligence agents who witnessed acts of brutality were threatened when they complained, according to a memo dated June 15th and sent by the director of the Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) to a senior aide to US Defence Secretary Mr Donald Rumsfeld.

Separately, an FBI official complained of incidents of abuse continuing at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, including a female interrogator squeezing the testicles of a detainee and bending back his thumbs painfully.

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The Abu Ghraib memo states that when two members of the DIA objected to the treatment they had observed they were threatened and told to keep quiet.

The interrogators, members of a clandestine military task force known as Task Force 6-26, confiscated their photographs and vehicle keys and told the DIA officials that they could not leave the base and that their e-mails were being monitored.

The memo, sent to Under-Secretary of Defence Mr Stephen Cambone, details how the intelligence officials saw prisoners with burn marks on their backs and complaining about sore kidneys. One officer saw an interrogator punch a prisoner in the face so hard that he needed medical attention.

Other memos obtained by the ACLU describe furious rows when FBI and DIA officials complained about the ineffectiveness of brutal interrogation techniques at US-run prisons in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay.

One FBI agent reported that he had been told by two major-generals (Geoffrey Miller and Michael Dunleavey) in Iraq that Mr Rumsfeld was the source of their authority to use such techniques.

The Bush administration tried to block the ACLU obtaining the documents and maintains that such incidents are isolated. A Defence Department spokesman pointed out that US policy "condemns and prohibits torture" and said that US personnel were required to follow this policy and "applicable law".

Meanwhile, in Toronto, a former marine staff sergeant has testified that marines routinely shot and killed wounded Iraqis. He said that his unit had killed some 30 Iraqis during 2003. Speaking at an immigration court in support of an application by a US army deserter for refugee status in Canada, Mr Jimmy Massey said that he and his comrades shot four Iraqis staging a demonstration as well as a man who had his hands up. They had also killed women and children in cars which failed to stop when approaching checkpoints.

Mr Massey said that the killing of innocent Iraqis who had failed to stop at checkpoints "plagued him every waking moment".

A Marine Corps spokesman said that Mr Massey had made his charges before and insisted that they were unproven. Lawyers for the soldier, Jeremy Hinzman, and two other deserters, argue that, if sent to Iraq, they could be required to act in breach of the Geneva Conventions.