[JURIST] A Pentagon spokeman has said that four members of an elite US military special operations team have received administrative punishment for using Tasers – electronic stun guns – on Iraqi prisoners. Taser devices subdue human targets by delivering a shock of up to 50,000 volts that disrupts muscle activity. The Pentagon spokeman said said the four had been reprimanded for excessive use of force, had been reassigned to other duties, and could still be subject to criminal charges. The statements in a Wednesday press briefing came a day after an ACLU Freedom of Information application brought to light a memo [PDF] written by the chief of the Defense Intelligence Agency reporting that DIA personnel who had witnessed special operations abuse of Iraqi prisoners had been threatened and told not to talk to anyone about what they had seen. The memo was written in June 2004, two months after the Abu Ghraib prison scandal broke. The full transcript of Wednesday's press briefing is avialable from DOD here. Reuters has more.