| Author | Message | | Alpha | | Posted: Mon May 10, 2004 6:24 pm Post subject: The Israeli Torture Template |
| May 10, 2004
The Israeli Torture Template
Rape, Feces and Urine-Dipped Cloth Sacks
By WAYNE MADSEN
With mounting evidence that a shadowy group of former Israeli Defense Force and General Security Service (Shin Bet) Arabic-speaking interrogators were hired by the Pentagon under a classified "carve out" sub-contract to brutally interrogate Iraqi prisoners at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison, one only needs to examine the record of abuse of Palestinian and Lebanese prisoners in Israel to understand what Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld meant, when referring to new, yet to be released photos and videos, he said, "if these images are released to the public, obviously its going to make matters worse."
According to a political appointee within the Bush administration and U.S. intelligence sources, the interrogators at Abu Ghraib included a number of Arabic-speaking Israelis who also helped U.S. interrogators develop the "R2I" (Resistance to Interrogation) techniques. Many of the torture methods were developed by the Israelis over many years of interrogating Arab prisoners on the occupied West Bank and in Israel itself.
Clues about worse photos and videos of abuse may be found in Israeli files about similar abuse of Palestinian and other Arab prisoners. In March 2000, a lawyer for a Lebanese prisoner kidnapped in 1994 by the Israelis in Lebanon claimed that his client had been subjected to torture, including rape. The type of compensation offered by Rumsfeld in his testimony has its roots in cases of Israeli torture of Arabs. In the case of the Lebanese man, said to have been raped by his Israeli captors, his lawyer demanded compensation of $1.47 million. The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel documented the types of torture meted out on Arab prisoners. Many of the tactics coincide with those contained in the Taguba report: beatings and prolonged periods handcuffed to furniture. In an article in the December 1998 issue of The Progressive, Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb reported on the treatment given to a 23-year old Palestinian held on "administrative detention." The prisoner was "cuffed behind a chair 17 hours a day for 120 days . . . [he] had his head covered with a sack, which was often dipped in urine or feces. Guards played loud music right next to his ears and frequently taunted him with threats of physical and sexual violence." If additional photos and videos document such practices, the Bush administration and the American people have, indeed, "seen nothing yet."
Although it is still largely undocumented if any of the contractor named in the report of General Antonio Taguba were associated with the Israeli military or intelligence services, it is noteworthy that one, John Israel, who was identified in the report as being employed by both CACI International of Arlington, Virginia, and Titan, Inc., of San Diego, may not have even been a U.S. citizen. The Taguba report states that Israel did not have a security clearance, a requirement for employment as an interrogator for CACI. According to CACI's web site, "a Top Secret Clearance (TS) that is current and US citizenship" are required for CACI interrogators working in Iraq. In addition, CACI requires that its interrogators "have at least two years experience as a military policeman or similar type of law enforcement/intelligence agency whereby the individual utilized interviewing techniques."
Speculation that "John Israel" may be an intelligence cover name has fueled speculation whether this individual could have been one of a number of Israeli interrogators hired under a classified contract. Because U.S. citizenship and documentation thereof are requirements for a U.S. security clearance, Israeli citizens would not be permitted to hold a Top Secret clearance. However, dual U.S.-Israeli citizens could have satisfied Pentagon requirements that interrogators hold U.S. citizenship and a Top Secret clearance. Although the Taguba report refers twice to Israel as an employee of Titan, the company claims he is one of their sub-contractors. CACI stated that one of the men listed in the report "is not and never has been a CACI employee" without providing more detail. A U.S. intelligence source revealed that in the world of intelligence "carve out" subcontracts such confusion is often the case with "plausible deniability" being a foremost concern.
In fact, the Taguba report does reference the presence of non-U.S. and non-Iraqi interrogators at Abu Ghraib. The report states, "In general, US civilian contract personnel (Titan Corporation, CACI, etc), third country nationals, and local contractors do not appear to be properly supervised within the detention facility at Abu Ghraib."
The Pentagon is clearly concerned about the outing of the Taguba report and its references to CACI, Titan, and third country nationals, which could permanently damage U.S. relations with Arab and Islamic nations. The Pentagon's angst may explain why the Taguba report is classified Secret No Foreign Dissemination.
The leak of the Taguba report was so radioactive, Daniel R. Dunn, the Information Assurance Officer for Douglas Feith's Office of the Under Secretary of Defense, Policy (Policy Automation Services Security Team), sent a May 6, 2004, For Official Use Only Urgent E-mail to Pentagon staffers stating, "THE INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THIS REPORT IS CLASSIFIED; DO NOT GO TO FOX NEWS TO READ OR OBTAIN A COPY." Considering Feith's close ties to the Israelis, such a reaction by his top computer security officer, a Certified Information System Security Professional (CISSP), is understandable, although considering the fact that CISSPs are to act on behalf of the public good, it is also regrettable..
The reference to "third country nationals" in a report that restricts its dissemination to U.S. coalition partners (Great Britain, Poland, Italy, etc.) is another indication of the possible involvement of Israelis in the interrogation of Iraqi prisoners. Knowledge that the U.S. may have been using Israeli interrogators could have severely fractured the Bush administration's tenuous "coalition of the willing' in Iraq. General Taguba's findings were transmitted to the Coalition Forces Land Component Command on March 9, 2004, just six days before the Spanish general election, one that the opposition anti-Iraq war Socialists won. The Spanish ultimately withdrew their forces from Iraq.
During his testimony before the Senate Armed Service Committee, Rumsfeld was pressed upon by Senator John McCain about the role of the private contractors in the interrogations and abuse. McCain asked Rumsfeld four pertinent questions, ". . . who was in charge? What agency or private contractor was in charge of the interrogations? Did they have authority over the guards? And what were the instructions that they gave to the guards?"
When Rumsfeld had problems answering McCain's question, Lt. Gen. Lance Smith, the Deputy Commander of the U.S. Central Command, said there were 37 contract interrogators used in Abu Ghraib. The two named contractors, CACI and Titan, have close ties to the Israeli military and technology communities. Last January 14, after Provost Marshal General of the Army, Major General Donald Ryder, had already uncovered abuse at Abu Ghraib, CACI's President and CEO, Dr. J.P. (Jack) London was receiving the Jerusalem Fund of Aish HaTorah's Albert Einstein Technology award at the Jerusalem City Hall, with right-wing Likud politician Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz and ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party Jerusalem Mayor Uri Lupolianski in attendance. Oddly, CACI waited until February 2 to publicly announce the award in a press release. CACI has also received grants from U.S.-Israeli bi-national foundations.
Titan also has had close connections to Israeli interests. After his stint as CIA Director, James Woolsey served as a Titan director. Woolsey is an architect of America's Iraq policy and the chief proponent of and lobbyist for Ahmad Chalabi of the Iraqi National Congress. An adviser to the neo-conservative Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, Jewish Institute of National Security Affairs, Project for the New American Century, Center for Security Policy, Freedom House, and Committee for the Liberation of Iraq, Woolsey is close to Stephen Cambone, the Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence, a key person in the chain of command who would have not only known about the torture tactics used by U.S. and Israeli interrogators in Iraq but who would have also approved them. Cambone was associated with the Project for the New American Century and is viewed as a member of Rumsfeld's neo-conservative "cabal" within the Pentagon.
Another person considered by Pentagon insiders to have been knowledgeable about the treatment of Iraqi prisoners is U.S. Army Col. Steven Bucci, a Green Beret and Rumsfeld's military assistant and chief traffic cop for the information flow to the Defense Secretary. According to Pentagon insiders, Bucci was involved in the direction of a special covert operations unit composed of former U.S. special operations personnel who answered to the Pentagon rather than the CIA's Special Activities Division, the agency's own paramilitary group. The Pentagon group included Arabic linguists and former members of the Green Berets and Delta Force who operated covertly in Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, and Uzbekistan. Titan also uses linguists trained in the languages (Arabic, Dari, Farsi, Pashto, Urdu, and Tajik) of those same countries. It is not known if a link exists between Rumsfeld's covert operations unit and Titan's covert operations linguists.
Another Titan employee named in the Taguba report is Adel L. Nakhla. Nakhla is a name common among Egypt's Coptic Christian community, however, it is not known if Adel Nakhla is either an Egyptian-American or a national of Egypt. A CACI employee identified in the report, Steven Stephanowicz, is referred to as "Stefanowicz" in a number of articles on the prison abuse. Stefanowicz is the spelling used by Joe Ryan, another CACI employee assigned with Stefanowicz to Abu Ghraib. Ryan is a radio personality on KSTP, a conservative radio station in Minneapolis, who maintained a daily log of his activities in Iraq on the radio's web site before it was taken down. Ryan indicated that Stefanowicz (or Stephanowicz) continued to hold his interrogation job in Iraq even though General Taguba recommended he lose his security clearance and be terminated for the abuses at Abu Ghraib.
In an even more bizarre twist, the Philadelphia Daily News identified a former expatriate public relations specialist for the government of South Australia in Adelaide named Steve Stefanowicz as possibly being the same person identified in the Taguba report. In 2000, Stefanowicz, who grew up in the Philadelphia and Allentown areas, left for Australia. On September 16, 2001, he was quoted by the Sunday Mail of Adelaide on the 911 attacks. He said of the attacks, "It was one of the most incredible and most devastating things I have ever seen. I have been in constant contact with my family and friends in the US and the mood was very solemn and quiet. But this is progressing into anger." Stefanowicz returned to the United States and volunteered for the Navy in a reserve status. His mother told the Allentown Morning Call in April 2002 that Stefanowicz was stationed somewhere in the Middle East but did not know where because of what Stefanowicz said was "security concerns." His mother told the Philadelphia Daily News that her son was in Iraq but she knew nothing about his current status.
Wayne Madsen is a Washington, DC-based investigative journalist and columnist. He served in the National Security Agency (NSA) during the Reagan administration and wrote the introduction to Forbidden Truth. He is the co-author, with John Stanton, of "America's Nightmare: The Presidency of George Bush II." His forthcoming book is titled: "Jaded Tasks: Big Oil, Black Ops, and Brass Plates."
Madsen can be reached at: WMadsen777@aol.com
http://www.counterpunch.org/madsen05102004.html | |  | | Alpha | | | | Alpha | | Posted: Mon May 10, 2004 11:06 pm Post subject: Fine essay by Mr. Madsen: The Israeli Torture Template |
| Subj: Fine essay by Mr. Madsen: The Israeli Torture Template
Date: 5/10/04 3:47:52 PM Pacific Daylight Time
From: captainmay@prodigy.net
To: Wayne Madsen
CPTMAYSEZ 2 Mr. Madsen:
Sir, I found much of interest in your May 10 CounterPunch analysis of Israeli parallels in our current interrogation woes. I published an essay in Al-Jazeerah.info last week making the same observation, though without much more than intuition and a knowledge of military intelligence (I was a Cold War, Russian-area specialist).
I believe a bit of investigation will reveal that the moderate US war parties realized by summer that the blitzkreig victory we'd been tempted with was going to bog down into mud. Ergo the grudging passage of the war continuation budget in September, and an instant emphasis on improving "human intelliegence" to win the War on Terror.
I believe that in the event of Abu Grayhib prison (and, no doubt, numerous others), we see the immediate increase in brutality in the fall, corresponding to the importation of Major General Miller, the former commandant of Gitmo (our proto-concentration camp). All of this is the same trend, originated in D.C. by the Establishment (Bush being the current psychotic cheerleader) in the fall:
"Let's get mean and root out this insurgency once and for all."
The reaction of EVERY echelon of command between the commander-in-chief and the night shift of cell block 1A was to look the other way while the brutality was allowed. "This is a violation of the rules of land warfare," military scholars in the officer and non-com corps rationalized, but not a violation of the laws of guerilla war, for there are none."
And they got mean. They used short-term high-stress tactics (i.e., torture) to extract information in an enviornment that both told them it was important and permissable to violate the norms of military conduct -- after all, it was their commanders (all the way to the prez) who were pushing the tactics, though perhaps maintaining "plausible deniability."
It's really boring and banal, just as Hannah Arendt, a Third-Reich survivor, said it would be when the Nazis (in this incarnation, the NeoCons) returned. Believe me, all that is under the surface is in the Third Reich parallels -- where the hell do you think they got the inspiration for the Reichstag Fire of 911, or the Gestapo of Homeland Security (in the works on 912). That's why the tie-in of the Bush diary entry on 911: "We've just had the Pearl Harbor of the twenty-first century." Bush didn't have the wit to figure that much history out in half a day, he was staying on script. 911 was a scripted Pearl Harbor -- a USS Maine if you prefer. It was just the right amount of disaster to make us follow the leader. The Germans did it with more style -- they had better uniforms.
Understand the recent revelations in light of the 912 statement by Bush: "I'm a nice guy, but I've got a tough job to do." Better yet, think about Cheney's 915 message on one of the networks: "In this new kind of war on terror, we'll have to embrace DARK SIDE tactics that we wouldn't usually embrace." (The quote is approximate, but the "dark side" part is verbatim, brother.)
Last part, the media in the fall, while the War Party (the Establishment) was "getting tough" (euphemised as exploiting human intelligence), the media set up three Moslems busted at Gitmo for a show trial. Captain Josef Yee was the chaplain, and was a definite political target. (It's my field, man... I know the marks.) I personally got involved, from my dubious leverage point in the underground media, to stand up for Chaplain Yee. I attach the essay below for your perusal -- and I hope you find mine as enlightening as I found yours. Should you want to look into the investigative work my associates (collectively known as Ghost Troop) and I have done on the particular issue of the cover-up and desecration of our comrades in Iraq by the US media, please look at the website report (magazine length) www.geocities.com/onlythecaptain/ and check out the intro essay. If you want to see how an ex-intelligence officer can get an assassination coming his way from the prez, read the Supporting Documents / July 03 Letters from July 15 to 18 (they're at the site).
Ciao, CPTMAY, CO, Ghost Troop, 3/7 Cybercav+
PS: Please w/b if you'd like to read more of our ongoing analysis of the military/media matrix. I'm prepared to explain the rationale behind the timing of the Abu Grahyab (and Niteline KIA recitation, for that matter) from the strategic point of view, should you be interested -- just remember that the media is taking its marching orders from the Establishment (indeed, they're its best henchmen, in the detached, distorted way). If we make it out of this mess without a world war, they must be reformed to the root.
September 24 essay: “Capt. James Yee, a new Capt. Alfred Dreyfus?”
By Captain Eric May
A captain from a suspect religious group is arrested for espionage by his government, tired by a court martial declared secret for purposes of national security, convicted and sent into confinement and disgrace…
But after a dozen years the whole affair is revealed to have been a right-wing frame up to fan nationalist fanaticism. The military, the media and majority religious groups are revealed as having plotted in a frame-up. The captain’s contrite country ends up acclaiming and decorating him, and promoting him major.
Will this be the history of Capt. James Yee, the American Moslem? I don’t know, but it is the history of Capt. Alfred Dreyfus, the French Jew, and it happened a century ago.
So is the past prologue in the case of Capt. Yee? Again, I don’t know, but as a former Army officer myself (alas, another mere captain), I’d like to examine the possibility that he is not receiving his fair due from the country he has served, both in war and peace, after his graduation from WestPoint.
As I watched Fox News broadcast the breaking story Saturday afternoon, I was a bit taken aback that there were already two “experts” on hand to state that the government always had strong evidence before it made an arrest. That seems a bit suspect to me because Capt. Yee still has not been charged with anything at all, although Fox News mentioned “suspicions” of treason and espionage.
I have to admit a bit of skepticism about Fox News. In a recent interview, CNBC’s Tina Brown asked CNN’s Christiane Amanpour whether media had been intimidated by the White House into modifying its war coverage. Amanpour’s answer was disturbing:
“I think the press was muzzled and I think the press self-muzzled. I'm sorry to say but certainly television and, perhaps, to a certain extent, my station was intimidated by the administration and its foot soldiers at Fox News. And it did, in fact, put a climate of fear and self-censorship, in my view, in terms of – of the kind of broadcast work we did.” [Topic A, Tina Brown, host, Sept. 10.]
I’ve kept the TV on Fox News since, and I’ve been a bit concerned by the announcements of the arrests of Capt. Yee and now Senior Airman Ahmad al-Halabi within a two-day period, when there were two months between their arrests. I’m a bit more concerned that Fox News is mentioning the possibility of a death penalty, because it smacks of intimidation. I’m even more concerned that talk radio is already beginning to talk of an Islamic Fifth Column in the United States.
We of the military and we of the media (and I’ve served both masters) are creating a strong climate of prejudice against American citizen service members who have yet to speak on their own behalf. Once you’ve fostered mistrust of the military, you’re pretty close to declaring a loyalty crisis in America.
It all seems a bit like the kind of half-suggestive, half-coercive manipulation of public affairs and military justice that happened a century ago in France – and that Ms. Amanpour alluded to on CNBC two weeks ago.
Capt. Yee and any other alleged participants in espionage deserve to have fair, open hearings, free from the veil of secrecy that ominously surrounds affairs at Guantanamo Bay. If they do not, the rest of the world, who also skeptically doubt our motives, may think that Capt. Yee, Airman al-Halabi, and any others swept up in the investigators’ net are victims of a political/military lynching intended to strengthen public paranoia, perhaps even launch a new McCarthyism.
A fair and open hearing is in order, and, if warranted, a fair and open trial, preferably in a civilian venue so as to remove any hint that a military kangaroo court rendered a political decision on White House orders. That’s all this true soldier wants. I yield to no one in loyalty to my country and its Constitution, and if loyalty means talking about foreign fall-guys like Capt. Alfred Dreyfus or domestic tyrants like Senator Joseph McCarthy, so be it. As President Bush mentioned when he recently honored the 3rd Infantry Division, this is America, not Iraq, and here no one gets executed for speaking their mind. That’s good to know. As long as we can discuss the prospect of oppressive government we need not fear it.
Capt. Eric May served as a military intelligence officer and public affairs officer on the General Staff of the Army’s 75th Division. He was the editorial writer for NBC affiliate KPRC in Houston, Texas.
justicequest2000 <morris434@aol.com> wrote:
May 10, 2004
The Israeli Torture Template
Rape, Feces and Urine-Dipped Cloth Sacks
By WAYNE MADSEN
With mounting evidence that a shadowy group of former Israeli Defense
Force and General Security Service (Shin Bet) Arabic-speaking
interrogators were hired by the Pentagon under a classified "carve
out" sub-contract to brutally interrogate Iraqi prisoners at
Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison, one only needs to examine the record of
abuse of Palestinian and Lebanese prisoners in Israel to understand
what Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld meant, when referring to
new, yet to be released photos and videos, he said, "if these images
are released to the public, obviously its going to make matters
worse."
According to a political appointee within the Bush administration and
U.S. intelligence sources, the interrogators at Abu Ghraib included a
number of Arabic-speaking Israelis who also helped U.S. interrogators
develop the "R2I" (Resistance to Interrogation) techniques. Many of
the torture methods were developed by the Israelis over many years of
interrogating Arab prisoners on the occupied West Bank and in Israel
itself.
Clues about worse photos and videos of abuse may be found in Israeli
files about similar abuse of Palestinian and other Arab prisoners. In
March 2000, a lawyer for a Lebanese prisoner kidnapped in 1994 by the
Israelis in Lebanon claimed that his client had been subjected to
torture, including rape. The type of compensation offered by Rumsfeld
in his testimony has its roots in cases of Israeli torture of Arabs.
In the case of the Lebanese man, said to have been raped by his
Israeli captors, his lawyer demanded compensation of $1.47 million.
The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel documented the types
of torture meted out on Arab prisoners. Many of the tactics coincide
with those contained in the Taguba report: beatings and prolonged
periods handcuffed to furniture. In an article in the December 1998
issue of The Progressive, Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb reported on the
treatment given to a 23-year old Palestinian held on "administrative
detention." The prisoner was "cuffed behind a chair 17 hours a day
for 120 days . . . [he] had his head covered with a sack, which was
often dipped in urine or feces. Guards played loud music right next
to his ears and frequently taunted him with threats of physical and
sexual violence." If additional photos and videos document such
practices, the Bush administration and the American people have,
indeed, "seen nothing yet."
Although it is still largely undocumented if any of the contractor
named in the report of General Antonio Taguba were associated with
the Israeli military or intelligence services, it is noteworthy that
one, John Israel, who was identified in the report as being employed
by both CACI International of Arlington, Virginia, and Titan, Inc.,
of San Diego, may not have even been a U.S. citizen. The Taguba
report states that Israel did not have a security clearance, a
requirement for employment as an interrogator for CACI. According to
CACI's web site, "a Top Secret Clearance (TS) that is current and US
citizenship" are required for CACI interrogators working in Iraq. In
addition, CACI requires that its interrogators "have at least two
years experience as a military policeman or similar type of law
enforcement/intelligence agency whereby the individual utilized
interviewing techniques."
Speculation that "John Israel" may be an intelligence cover name has
fueled speculation whether this individual could have been one of a
number of Israeli interrogators hired under a classified contract.
Because U.S. citizenship and documentation thereof are requirements
for a U.S. security clearance, Israeli citizens would not be
permitted to hold a Top Secret clearance. However, dual U.S.-Israeli
citizens could have satisfied Pentagon requirements that
interrogators hold U.S. citizenship and a Top Secret clearance.
Although the Taguba report refers twice to Israel as an employee of
Titan, the company claims he is one of their sub-contractors. CACI
stated that one of the men listed in the report "is not and never has
been a CACI employee" without providing more detail. A U.S.
intelligence source revealed that in the world of intelligence "carve
out" subcontracts such confusion is often the case with "plausible
deniability" being a foremost concern.
In fact, the Taguba report does reference the presence of non-U.S.
and non-Iraqi interrogators at Abu Ghraib. The report states, "In
general, US civilian contract personnel (Titan Corporation, CACI,
etc), third country nationals, and local contractors do not appear to
be properly supervised within the detention facility at Abu Ghraib."
The Pentagon is clearly concerned about the outing of the Taguba
report and its references to CACI, Titan, and third country
nationals, which could permanently damage U.S. relations with Arab
and Islamic nations. The Pentagon's angst may explain why the Taguba
report is classified Secret No Foreign Dissemination.
The leak of the Taguba report was so radioactive, Daniel R. Dunn, the
Information Assurance Officer for Douglas Feith's Office of the Under
Secretary of Defense, Policy (Policy Automation Services Security
Team), sent a May 6, 2004, For Official Use Only Urgent E-mail to
Pentagon staffers stating, "THE INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THIS REPORT
IS CLASSIFIED; DO NOT GO TO FOX NEWS TO READ OR OBTAIN A COPY."
Considering Feith's close ties to the Israelis, such a reaction by
his top computer security officer, a Certified Information System
Security Professional (CISSP), is understandable, although
considering the fact that CISSPs are to act on behalf of the public
good, it is also regrettable..
The reference to "third country nationals" in a report that restricts
its dissemination to U.S. coalition partners (Great Britain, Poland,
Italy, etc.) is another indication of the possible involvement of
Israelis in the interrogation of Iraqi prisoners. Knowledge that the
U.S. may have been using Israeli interrogators could have severely
fractured the Bush administration's tenuous "coalition of the
willing' in Iraq. General Taguba's findings were transmitted to the
Coalition Forces Land Component Command on March 9, 2004, just six
days before the Spanish general election, one that the opposition
anti-Iraq war Socialists won. The Spanish ultimately withdrew their
forces from Iraq.
During his testimony before the Senate Armed Service Committee,
Rumsfeld was pressed upon by Senator John McCain about the role of
the private contractors in the interrogations and abuse. McCain asked
Rumsfeld four pertinent questions, ". . . who was in charge? What
agency or private contractor was in charge of the interrogations? Did
they have authority over the guards? And what were the instructions
that they gave to the guards?"
When Rumsfeld had problems answering McCain's question, Lt. Gen.
Lance Smith, the Deputy Commander of the U.S. Central Command, said
there were 37 contract interrogators used in Abu Ghraib. The two
named contractors, CACI and Titan, have close ties to the Israeli
military and technology communities. Last January 14, after Provost
Marshal General of the Army, Major General Donald Ryder, had already
uncovered abuse at Abu Ghraib, CACI's President and CEO, Dr. J.P.
(Jack) London was receiving the Jerusalem Fund of Aish HaTorah's
Albert Einstein Technology award at the Jerusalem City Hall, with
right-wing Likud politician Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz and
ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party Jerusalem Mayor Uri
Lupolianski in attendance. Oddly, CACI waited until February 2 to
publicly announce the award in a press release. CACI has also
received grants from U.S.-Israeli bi-national foundations.
Titan also has had close connections to Israeli interests. After his
stint as CIA Director, James Woolsey served as a Titan director.
Woolsey is an architect of America's Iraq policy and the chief
proponent of and lobbyist for Ahmad Chalabi of the Iraqi National
Congress. An adviser to the neo-conservative Foundation for the
Defense of Democracies, Jewish Institute of National Security
Affairs, Project for the New American Century, Center for Security
Policy, Freedom House, and Committee for the Liberation of Iraq,
Woolsey is close to Stephen Cambone, the Undersecretary of Defense
for Intelligence, a key person in the chain of command who would have
not only known about the torture tactics used by U.S. and Israeli
interrogators in Iraq but who would have also approved them. Cambone
was associated with the Project for the New American Century and is
viewed as a member of Rumsfeld's neo-conservative "cabal" within the
Pentagon.
Another person considered by Pentagon insiders to have been
knowledgeable about the treatment of Iraqi prisoners is U.S. Army
Col. Steven Bucci, a Green Beret and Rumsfeld's military assistant
and chief traffic cop for the information flow to the Defense
Secretary. According to Pentagon insiders, Bucci was involved in the
direction of a special covert operations unit composed of former U.S.
special operations personnel who answered to the Pentagon rather than
the CIA's Special Activities Division, the agency's own paramilitary
group. The Pentagon group included Arabic linguists and former
members of the Green Berets and Delta Force who operated covertly in
Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, and Uzbekistan. Titan also uses
linguists trained in the languages (Arabic, Dari, Farsi, Pashto,
Urdu, and Tajik) of those same countries. It is not known if a link
exists between Rumsfeld's covert operations unit and Titan's covert
operations linguists.
Another Titan employee named in the Taguba report is Adel L. Nakhla.
Nakhla is a name common among Egypt's Coptic Christian community,
however, it is not known if Adel Nakhla is either an Egyptian-
American or a national of Egypt. A CACI employee identified in the
report, Steven Stephanowicz, is referred to as "Stefanowicz" in a
number of articles on the prison abuse. Stefanowicz is the spelling
used by Joe Ryan, another CACI employee assigned with Stefanowicz to
Abu Ghraib. Ryan is a radio personality on KSTP, a conservative radio
station in Minneapolis, who maintained a daily log of his activities
in Iraq on the radio's web site before it was taken down. Ryan
indicated that Stefanowicz (or Stephanowicz) continued to hold his
interrogation job in Iraq even though General Taguba recommended he
lose his security clearance and be terminated for the abuses at Abu
Ghraib.
In an even more bizarre twist, the Philadelphia Daily News identified
a former expatriate public relations specialist for the government of
South Australia in Adelaide named Steve Stefanowicz as possibly being
the same person identified in the Taguba report. In 2000,
Stefanowicz, who grew up in the Philadelphia and Allentown areas,
left for Australia. On September 16, 2001, he was quoted by the
Sunday Mail of Adelaide on the 911 attacks. He said of the
attacks, "It was one of the most incredible and most devastating
things I have ever seen. I have been in constant contact with my
family and friends in the US and the mood was very solemn and quiet.
But this is progressing into anger." Stefanowicz returned to the
United States and volunteered for the Navy in a reserve status. His
mother told the Allentown Morning Call in April 2002 that Stefanowicz
was stationed somewhere in the Middle East but did not know where
because of what Stefanowicz said was "security concerns." His mother
told the Philadelphia Daily News that her son was in Iraq but she
knew nothing about his current status.
Wayne Madsen is a Washington, DC-based investigative journalist and
columnist. He served in the National Security Agency (NSA) during the
Reagan administration and wrote the introduction to Forbidden Truth.
He is the co-author, with John Stanton, of "America's Nightmare: The
Presidency of George Bush II." His forthcoming book is titled: "Jaded
Tasks: Big Oil, Black Ops, and Brass Plates."
Madsen can be reached at: WMadsen777@aol.com
http://www.counterpunch.org/madsen05102004.html
Is Israel behind the orders for the tortures in Iraq?:
http://www.warwithoutend.co.uk/middle-east-and-asia/2004/05/09/is-israel-behind-the-orders-for-the-tortures-in-iraq.php | | | | Cowboy | | Posted: Tue May 11, 2004 12:04 am Post subject: |
| These are just a handful of the pictures of mass graves filled by Saddam and his cronies. Estimates of the dead in them range from 500,000 to 1,000,000 Iraqis.
Israel wasn't behind these murders. Saddam was. The guy you would prefer to have still running Iraq.
 | | | | Alpha | | Posted: Tue May 11, 2004 12:49 am Post subject: Israeli link possible in US torture techniques |
| Israeli link possible in US torture techniques
By Ali Abunimah
Special to The Daily Star
Tuesday, May 11, 2004
In exchange for interrogation training, did Washington award security
contracts?
CHICAGO, Illinois: The head of the American defense contracting firm
implicated in the torture of Iraqis at Abu Ghraib prison has close ties to
Israel and visited an Israeli "anti-terror" training camp in the occupied
West Bank earlier this year.
Jack London, chairman, president and CEO of CACI International Incorporated,
traveled to Israel in January this year as part of a high-level delegation
of US Congressmen, defense contractors and pro-Israel lobbyists, sponsored
and paid for in part by the Jerusalem Fund of Aish HaTorah, a pro-Israel
lobbying and fundraising group, and Greenberg Traurig, LLP, a prominent
Washington law and lobby firm.
The purpose of the visit, according to a CACI press release, was "to promote
opportunities for strategic partnerships and joint ventures between US and
Israeli defense and homeland security companies."
As one of the highlights of the visit, London was presented with the Albert
Einstein Technology Award by Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz at a gala
dinner at Jerusalem city hall, for "achievements in the field of defense and
national security."
Delegates also spent several hours in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights with
Housing and Construction Minister Effie Eitam, a former Israeli general, who
is notorious for his view that Israel should "transfer" - that is, expel -
all the Palestinians.
According to the official itinerary for the Jan. 11-17 Defense Aerospace
Homeland Security Mission, obtained from the Jerusalem Fund of Aish HaTorah,
London's trip included a visit to Beit Horon, "the central training camp for
the anti-terrorist forces of the Israeli police and the border police," in
the occupied West Bank. The visitors were also "briefed by top experts," and
were able to "witness exercises related to anti-terror warfare."
Two CACI employees, Steven Stephanowicz and John Israel, were named in the
leaked report by US Major General Antonio M. Taguba on the abuses at Abu
Ghraib prison. Taguba wrote that Stephanowicz, a "contract US civilian
interrogator," "allowed and/or instructed MPs (military police), who were
not trained in interrogation techniques, to facilitate interrogations by
'setting conditions' which were neither authorized or in accordance with
applicable regulations/policy. He clearly knew his instructions equated to
physical abuse."
John Israel, an interpreter, did not have the appropriate security
clearance, according to Taguba.
Although Taguba recommended that Stephanowicz be terminated and his security
clearance revoked, a May 5 statement from CACI confirmed, "at present, all
CACI employees continue to work on site providing the contracted for
services to our clients in that location." It added: "We have not received
any information to stop any of our work, to terminate or suspend any of our
employees."
Although no evidence has emerged directly linking CACI's involvement in the
Abu Ghraib atrocities to Israel, it has long been known that the US military
has been interested in "learning" from Israel's experience attempting to
suppress the Palestinian uprising. In March 2003, for example, the AP
reported that the "the (US) military has been listening closely to Israeli
experts and picking up tips from years of Israeli Army operations in
Palestinian areas and Lebanese towns."
This cooperation has included briefings of US personnel by Israeli officers,
and, according to AP, "In January and February (2003), Israeli and American
troops trained together in southern Israel's Negev Desert ... Israel has
also hosted senior law enforcement officials from the United States for a
seminar on counterterrorism."
Meanwhile, more evidence has emerged undermining the US thesis that the
abuses at Abu Ghraib was the work of a "few bad apples." The Guardian
reported that the "sexual humiliation of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib
prison was not an invention of maverick guards, but part of a system of
ill-treatment and degradation used by special forces soldiers that is now
being disseminated among ordinary troops and contractors."
This system, known to insiders as "R2I," short for resistance to
interrogation, also includes such methods as "hooding, sleep deprivation,
time disorientation and depriving prisoners not only of dignity, but of
fundamental human needs, such as warmth, water and food." These are all
techniques long employed by Israel.
The visit of the US delegation that included the CACI head exposes a
rarefied web of influence sharing in which US government officials and
congressmen, defense contractors and lobbyists parcel out huge contracts,
and siphon significant portions off to Israel.
As Batya Feldman of Israel's Globes financial news service put it, the visit
provided Israeli companies with "an excellent opportunity to encounter big
bucks in homeland security."
To help Israeli companies pry some of these "big bucks" loose, the visit
included seminars for Israeli companies given by US pro-Israel lobbyists
called "How to Approach the Homeland Security Department," and "How to Sell
to the US Defense Department."
Israeli participants would have had a chance to test the helpful tips, since
present on the trip were Assistant Secretary for Homeland SecurityRobert
Liscouski and many leading US legislators, including top members of the US
House and Senate Armed Services Committees, which jointly oversee tens of
billions of dollars in military spending.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=
3446 | | | | Cowboy | | Posted: Wed May 12, 2004 5:29 am Post subject: |
| Islamic Web site claims revenge killing
Video shows beheading of man identified as American
The Associated Press
Updated: 8:46 p.m. ET May 11, 2004CAIRO, Egypt - A video posted Tuesday on an Islamic militant Web site showed the beheading of an American civilian in Iraq, and said the execution was carried out by an al-Qaida affiliated group to avenge the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by American soldiers.
The video bore the title “Abu Musab al-Zarqawi shown slaughtering an American.” It was unclear whether al-Zarqawi — an associate of Osama bin Laden — was shown in the video, or was claiming responsibility for ordering the execution.
Al-Zarqawi also is said to have ties to terrorist groups ranging from Ansar al Islam in Iraq to Egyptian Islamic Jihad. He’s believed to be behind many attacks in Iraq, including numerous high-profile operations.
The video images of the execution showed five men wearing headscarves and black ski masks, standing over a bound man in an orange jumpsuit — similar to a prisoner’s uniform — who identified himself as Nick Berg, a U.S. civilian whose body was found on a highway overpass in Baghdad on Saturday.
“My name is Nick Berg, my father’s name is Michael, my mother’s name is Suzanne,” the man said on the video. “I have a brother and sister, David and Sarah. I live in ... Philadelphia.”
There was no way to be certain the tape was authentic.
Gruesome scene
After reading a statement, the men were seen pulling the man to his side and putting a large knife to his neck. A scream sounded as the men cut his head off, shouting “Allahu Akbar!” — “God is great.” They then held the head out before the camera. | | | | | ©2002-2009 WarWithoutEnd.co.uk |
