There is now no way we can continue to argue that the torture of prisoners by American military personnel is the work of “a few bad apples,” as our truth-loving generals told us last spring when the Abu Ghraib scandal broke. Torture is used by Americans at Guantanamo routinely, and most officials know it. And I’m sure we’re using it just as liberally in Iraq.

Detainees at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, were shackled to the floor in fetal positions for more than 24 hours at a time, left without food and water, and allowed to defecate on themselves, an FBI agent who said he witnessed such abuse reported in a memo to supervisors, according to documents released yesterday.

In memos over a two-year period that ended in August, FBI agents and officials also said that they witnessed the use of growling dogs at Guantanamo Bay to intimidate detainees — contrary to previous statements by senior Defense Department officials — and that one detainee was wrapped in an Israeli flag and bombarded with loud music in an apparent attempt to soften his resistance to interrogation.

In addition, several agents contended that military interrogators impersonated FBI agents, suggesting that the ruse was aimed in part at avoiding blame for any subsequent public allegations of abuse, according to memos between FBI officials.

The accounts, gleaned from heavily redacted e-mails and memorandums, were obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union as part of an ongoing lawsuit. They suggest that extremely aggressive interrogation techniques were more widespread at Guantanamo Bay than was acknowledged by military officials.

“…extremely aggressive interrogation techniques.” Like putting lighted cigarettes in prisoners’ ears. What role models we are, and what masters at winning the hearts and minds of the world.