Fourteen inquiries into US abuses of terror suspects disclosed

Agence France-Presse

The US Justice Department is conducting 14 investigations into alleged abuses and mistreatment of post-September 11 detainees, including a charge that a guard used a Muslim inmate's shirt to polish his shoes, according to a new government report.

The cases, detailed Monday by the department's inspector general, range from accusations of use of excessive force, verbal abuse, religious insensitivities to illegal searches by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

But the investigated cases represent only a tiny fraction of the total number of 1,073 civil rights complaints received by US authorities from people imprisoned under the Patriot Act adopted in the wake of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, according to the document made public Monday. ---

Also being probed is a charge by an unnamed Egyptian national arrested by the FBI immediately following the September 11 attacks who insists he was submitted to multiple and repeated body cavity searches, denied access to counsel and the Egyptian consulate and forced to consume food prohibited by the Koran.

Several FBI agents are being probed following allegations they conducted an illegal search of an Arab-American's apartment, vandalized it, stole items, called the complainant a terrorist and later, having failed to find any evidence of his terrorist connections, tried to frame him on drug charges, according to the report.

An immigration officer is accused of holding a loaded gun to an alien detainee's head, while a prison doctor allegedly told a Muslim patient: "If I was in charge, I would execute every one of you ... because of the crimes you all did."

And the newly created Department of Homeland Security is investigating an employee accused of mistreating a Muslim visitor by asking him in front of others if he "wanted to kill Christians and Jews." ---