This may be considered old news by some, as it was originally revealed in an report (PDF) released last year by the DoJ OIG.
In September 2002, representatives from the Chinese government were allowed to pay a visit to the Uighurs being held at Gitmo. Before and during these visits, U.S. soldiers applied abusive "softening up" techniques to the Uighurs. The Uighurs were denied food and sleep, held in cold rooms in stress positions, and at least one detainee reported being held down by U.S. troops while the Chinese questioned him. Most of the Uighurs were left alone in a room with the Chinese for several hours with no U.S. supervision present. Also disturbing is the fact that the U.S. handed over to the Chinese files on the Uighurs that included information about their families and details that the detainees only agreed to give the U.S. under the condition of confidentiality.
On 16 July, the House Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights and Oversight held a hearing to investigate the incident. While there is yet no transcipt of the hearing, details about it can be read in news reports by the AP, AFP, and McClatchy. Prepared statements for the hearing can be found here.
Jason Pinney, counsel to the Uighur detainees, gave this testimony:
Statements from our clients’ Combatant Status Review Tribunal ("CSRT") transcripts exemplify the Uighur experiences at the hands of Communist Chinese interrogators. Remarkably, these CSRT statements were all made in response to direct questions from tribunal panel members. Sometimes, it was the first question that was asked. It appears that some military officers were concerned that the Chinese were allowed to interrogate the men.
Salahidin Abdulahat (now in Bermuda) described to his Combatant Status Review Tribunal ("CSRT") panel how he was forcibly interrogated, threatened, and deprived of sleep and food by the Chinese delegation. Furthermore, he described how "there was on American person . . . representing the president’s house" who threatened to send him back to China if he did not cooperate with the delegation. He said that the Chinese "took our picture forcefully and recorded our voices and threatened to hit us and do other things." He pleaded with his CSRT panel "to not let those things happen again to us [because] it would hurt us really bad."
Sabir Osman (still in Guantanamo) echoed these remarks. He said that the Chinese made threats against him, and told him that the American government had already agreed to turn him over to China. He also described a conversation with an MP in which "[t]he MP came in and said that they had orders from higher up and we have to hold you by your neck and they will take your picture."
Ablikim Turahun (now in Bermuda) said that he was told if he agreed to return to China he would only be in prison for three to four years. The Chinese baited him by telling him that he could be with his family afterwards. Mr. Turahun knew the risks of believing the Chinese. He chose to stay in Guantanamo.
Adel Abdul Hakim (now in Sweden) was told that he was "lucky" to be in Guantanamo; if they took him back to a Chinese jail, he would be "finished."
Most of the Uighurs refused to cooperate with the Chinese interrogators. As punishment, the Americans put all but two of them in solitary confinement for up to twenty days. No light, no air, no human contact.
A couple of Congressmen reportedly became frustrated by the evasive answers given by the DoD's director of detainee affairs, Allan Liotta. According to the AFP report:
Representative Jim Moran, who sits on the appropriations subcommittee that sets the defense budget, threatened to cut funding for the office, set up in 2004 under then president George W. Bush, until he received answers.
A visibly angry Moran told the official from the office, Alan Liotta, that he was "singularly uncooperative, uninformative and evasive."
"To take up two hours of our time and to not specifically answer any of the relevant questions I think is an absolute insult to the United States Congress," said Moran, a Virginia lawmaker and member of President Barack Obama's Democratic Party.
As a final note, it is incredibly interesting that at the same time the Bush administration was denying access to detainees from independent human rights groups and memebers of Congress it decided that the totalitarian government of China should be granted such access. It is very ironic, especially when you consider the hatred some conservatives still have of the "ChiComs."
Authoritarianism creates strange bedfellows.