[JURIST] US military interrogators allegedly abused Afghan detainees in 2003 at the Gardez Detention Facility [Globalsecurity.org backgrounder] in southeastern Afghanistan, according to Pentagon documents [text; press release] released Wednesday under a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) [text] request by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) [advocacy website]. The documents indicate that eight Afghan detainees complained of abuse by interrogators, and that a 2006 review by the Army Criminal Investigation Command [official website] determined interrogators found misconduct that did not rise to the level of abuse. The review also concluded that the alleged abuse did not cause the 2003 death of Jamal Nasser, who died in custody. In the documents, some interrogators admitted using techniques they learned in a course designed to expose them to the conditions they may face if captured by foreign forces. AP has more.

The ACLU has opened several FOIA lawsuits [ACLU materials] trying to obtain information about alleged detainee abuse at US military bases for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Last month, the ACLU filed a lawsuit [complaint, PDF; JURIST report] seeking to compel the US government to release unredacted transcripts of military hearings conducted at Guantanamo Bay in early 2007 for 14 "high-value" prisoners [DNI profiles, PDF] during which the prisoners allegedly described torture and abuse sustained during detention in CIA secret prisons [JURIST report].