| Author | Message | | Alpha | | Posted: Sat Jun 19, 2004 6:01 am Post subject: MI Personnel Carried Out Wishes of Senior Military/Admin |
| http://www.scvhistory.com/scvhistory/signal/iraq/
http://www.absitinvidia.com/mt/archives/000110.html
Like a Sieve: Prisoner Abuse Documents Keep Leaking
• Intelligence personnel swear they carried out the wishes of senior military and administration officials. By Leon Worden
Signal City Editor Saturday, June 19, 2004 O
ne by one, sworn statements from all four military intelligence officers and contractors identified as "responsible" parties in the Taguba report have now been leaked to the press — and each to a different news organization.
Army officials don't know the sources of the leaks but say they must be springing in several places.
"I wish I knew, so I could have a private talk with them," Lt. Col. Pamela Hart told The Signal.
The signed statements are among the estimated 6,000 pages that comprise Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba's investigation of abuse at Abu Ghraib prison.
Technically, the Army still considers the entire report classified — even the widely disseminated 53-page summary that was leaked in late April, around the time CBS broke the initial story on "60 Minutes."
One of the first signed statements from intelligence personnel to be reported was that of John B. Israel, a 48-year-old Iraqi-American translator from Canyon Country.
The New York Times obtained his testimony around May 26. In it, Israel, a private contractor, simply answered, "No I have not," when asked by an Army investigator if he had witnessed any abuses, the newspaper said.
Among the latest to leak was the statement of Lt. Col. Steve L. Jordan, the No. 2 intelligence officer at the prison. USA Today said Thursday it had received a copy.
According to USA Today, Jordan told of "instances where I feel that there was additional pressure" to extract information from detainees.
Jordan named nearly everyone above him as a source of that pressure, and he even described a visit in November from an aide to National Security Adviser Condoleeza Rice. Jordan said Rice's aide told him "many, many, many times" to make interrogators work harder to "pull the intelligence out" of prisoners.
The aide, Fran Townsend, told USA Today this week that she had gone to Iraq to learn more about the increasing attacks by insurgents, and to make sure intelligence units were sharing information effectively. She said she spent about 15 minutes in the cell blocks at Abu Ghraib and saw no abuse. She termed it "ridiculous" to think she hounded Jordan to squeeze more from detainees.
In his statement, Jordan discussed the intelligence value of a female detainee with ties to Saddam Hussein, who was then at large. Jordan claimed the woman told one of his interrogators that Saddam "had a big white beard, that he was basically living in a hole, that he was driving a taxi." Indeed, when Saddam was found in a hole Dec. 13 he had a long beard, and a taxi was parked nearby.
* * *
Jordan testified that he worked out a "joint venture" with CIA operatives to hide "ghost detainees" from Red Cross inspectors when they visited in October. (Some Arab news organizations have faulted the International Committee of the Red Cross for hiding its findings from the public until they, too, were leaked in early May.)
In his report, Taguba determined that MP guards, acting on behalf of "OGAs" — a common euphemism for the CIA — had indeed shuffled six or eight "ghost detainees" around the facility so Red Cross officials wouldn't find out about them. "This maneuver was deceptive, contrary to Army doctrine, and in violation of international law," Taguba wrote.
He may not have checked with Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld before he denounced the practice.
In a press conference Thursday, Rumsfeld said he made good on a request from former CIA Director George Tenet to hide one such "ghost detainee" last fall. Rumsfeld acknowledged that the detainee, a suspected leader of a Kurdish militant group, was hidden from Red Cross inspectors at a detention center for high-value prisoners near Baghdad International Airport.
"I was requested by the director of Central Intelligence to take custody of an Iraqi national who was believed to be a high-ranking member of Ansar al-Islam, and we did so," Rumsfeld said.
The detainee was held in secret for more than seven months before he was released into the regular prison population. Rumsfeld wouldn't say why Tenet wanted him hidden.
The remaining statements from accused intelligence personnel are those of Thomas M. Pappas, commander of the military intelligence brigade, and Steven A. Stefanowicz, a hired interrogator.
Pappas' statement was "provided to" the Washington Post in late May, the newspaper said, and The Associated Press came up with a copy of Stefanowicz's testimony on Monday. Only The Associated Press has shared its prize on the Internet.
In his testimony, Pappas told Taguba that the peculiar interrogation protocols at Abu Ghraib, including the use of military working dogs as an intimidation tactic, "were enacted as a specific result of a visit" in early September from Maj. Gen. Geoffrey D. Miller, then-commander of the military detention center at Guantanamo Bay. Miller, who now heads all U.S. prisons in Iraq, denied through a spokesman that he gave Pappas any such notions.
Pappas further testified that Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, commander of U.S. and coalition forces in Iraq, approved the protocols once they were drawn up. Sanchez said last month that he never even saw them.
Meanwhile, Stefanowicz described routines where interrogators would supply MP guards with written and verbal instructions that contravened Army policy, and he outlined sleep and meal deprivation regimens that likely violated Geneva conventions.
* * *
Taguba incorporated some of the men's testimony into his final report but felt they understated their own culpability. Now all four — Pappas, Jordan, Stefanowicz and Israel — are presumed targets of a second Army inquiry that is designed to delve deeper and higher.
Army officials worry that the leaking of the sworn statements, collected by Taguba's people in January, could impinge on the new inquiry.
"Any time you have the investigation being tried in the press, it does have some bearing on the outcome," the Army spokeswoman said. "It can't help but have an influence on the investigators or on the people who may eventually sit on a jury."
Hart said there are "any number of places (the leaks) could come from," but she wouldn't speculate on how many government hands have legitimately passed over the documents.
Unlike the seven MP guards who have been charged with crimes, the four members of the intelligence brigade haven't been charged — so they don't have defense attorneys who could rightfully obtain or distribute their classified testimony.
Nor are the four men themselves the likely source, because they wouldn't have received copies, Hart said.
All the leaks make it "harder and harder to maintain the purity of the case," she said.
HISTORY IN PICTURES] Army Adds Stars to Intelligence Inquiry
• Four-star general to decide who will lead investigation of intelligence personnel at Abu Ghraib prison. By Leon Worden
Signal City Editor Friday, June 18, 2004
Gen. Paul J. Kern will review Maj. Gen. George R. Fay's inquiry into questionable intelligence practices at Abu Ghraib prison and possibly replace him with a higher-ranking officer. US Army photo
O
ut with a three-star general whose veracity has been questioned, in with a four-star general who has stayed away from the fray.
Heeding calls to turn up the heat, the Army has made a mid-course adjustment to its investigation of intelligence practices at Abu Ghraib prison.
Acting Army Secretary Les Brownlee announced Wednesday that he has appointed Gen. Paul J. Kern, head of the Army's procurement system, to oversee the ongoing inquiry of the 205th Military Intelligence Brigade. Kern, in turn, is expected to name a new chief investigator.
Two senior officers and two civilian contractors assigned to the 205th, including John B. Israel, an Iraqi-American translator from Canyon Country, are suspected of sharing responsibility for the prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib last fall.
The investigation of the 205th is the Army's second full-blown inquiry into the abuse scandal.
The first, conducted by Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba, focused on the lowest echelon at the prison — the military police brigade that was supposed to secure and protect the prisoners. The inquiry led to criminal charges against seven MP guards, and Taguba recommended a second inquiry to determine the degree to which Israel and other intelligence personnel were culpable.
Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the three-star general who appointed Taguba, put another two-star general, George R. Fay, in charge of the intelligence investigation.
Fay's appointment drew fire both inside and outside the government when fingers started pointing at Sanchez. Fay, an Army reservist who sits on the board of an insurance company in civilian life, was perceived to lack sufficient authority to follow the trail of responsibility up the chain of command.
Last week, Gen. John Abizaid, commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East, asked Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld to approve Sanchez's request to be recused from his duties as the "appointing officer" — the person who appoints the chief investigator.
Kern is Sanchez's replacement. Head of the Army Materiel Command at Ft. Belvoir, Va., Kern will likely remove Fay from the hot seat, although it isn't a certainty.
"Gen. Kern may retain Maj. Gen. George R. Fay as the investigating officer or may appoint another officer after reviewing the current status of the initial investigation," the statement said.
As for Sanchez, the Army is in full retreat from him. On Tuesday the Pentagon announced that Sanchez will be replaced as the commander of coalition forces in Iraq following the June 30 transfer of power to the new Iraqi government. As recently as one month ago, Sanchez was expected to keep his command when Coalition Joint Task Force-7 becomes Multinational Force-Iraq (MNFI) in July.
Sanchez, who put the 205th in charge of operations at Abu Ghraib in November, has come under increasing scrutiny. In Senate testimony May 19 he denied ever seeing, much less authorizing, special interrogation rules for Abu Ghraib. The rules, posted on the prison walls, called for Sanchez's personal approval whenever interrogators wanted to use military dogs, keep prisoners in isolation longer than 30 days, or deprive them of food or sleep.
Sanchez's removal from the investigation clears the way for him to be questioned without a direct conflict of interest.
Pentagon officials anticipate the naming of a new chief investigator who out-ranks Sanchez — possibly another three-star general with higher seniority.
Kern will still lead Army procurement. Reviewing the intelligence investigation is an additional duty, a Pentagon spokesman said.
Kern is a 1967 West Point graduate with a master's degree in engineering from the University of Michigan. He served two combat tours in Vietnam, led a brigade in the 1991 Gulf War, commanded the 4th Infantry Division and was the senior military assistant to former Defense Secretary William Perry
Excellent Documentary on PNAC (Project for the New American Century):
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/05/27/154222&mode=thread&tid=25
James Bamford's 'A Pretext for War' book on the Neoconservative warmongers:
http://www.warwithoutend.co.uk/middle-east-and-asia/2004/06/14/iraq-war-for-israel-according-to-james-bamford-s-new-book.php
Abu Ghraib Prison Torture Scandal Goes to the Highest Level:
http://www.warwithoutend.co.uk/articles/2004/06/13/interrogation-abuses-were-approved-at-highest-levels.php | |  | | Alpha | | Posted: Sat Jun 19, 2004 7:50 am Post subject: Interrogator in Iraq Recalls Conditions |
| A special team was set up at the prison called "the break team," he said,
"to take the difficult people and break them. That shows you the mentality."
+++++
Interrogator in Iraq Recalls Conditions
Fri Jun 18, 8:44 PM ET
By ROBERT TANNER, AP National Writer
A professional interrogator, Nelson brought his skills to Iraq (news - web
sites) to ask questions and convince prisoners to open up. Now he's the one
doing the talking - helping investigators who are conducting a broad review
of military intelligence operations.
The 35-year-old Nelson went to Iraq and the Abu Ghraib prison as a civilian
contractor, though one with extensive military experience: He spent eight
years in the Army and four with the Utah National Guard, specializing in
interrogations.
He landed in Iraq around Thanksgiving of last year, a few weeks after the
infamous photos of prisoners being menaced and abused were taken. "It was
fairly chaotic from the first day I got there," Nelson said in an interview
with The Associated Press in which he recounted some of his experiences and
observations.
Both the Utah National Guard and CACI International Inc., Nelson's employer
in Iraq, confirmed his time with them. The report on Abu Ghraib by Maj. Gen.
Antonio Taguba cites him as a witness.
Nelson, who lives in Utah and spoke to the AP during a recent trip to
Washington, D.C., ticked off a list of problems at the prison. There was too
much involvement between military police and intelligence gatherers, and the
facilities were badly overcrowded, with poor supervision, he said.
Nelson would not say what he has told military investigators about specific
incidents, though he did know and work with some of the seven low-level
military police who have been charged with abuses.
Housing prisoners in Abu Ghraib was a mistake in the first place, Nelson
said. With busy roads north and south, a farm on one side and an apartment
complex on the other, it was always exposed to attacks.
"We had thousands of guys inside who hated us, and thousands of guys on the
outside who hated us," he said. One detainee, who was smuggled a gun by an
Iraqi prison guard working for Americans, shot a guard. Only the soldier's
body armor saved him, Nelson said.
That incident also was discussed in a hearing for one of the seven soldiers
charged for incidents at Abu Grahib, Sgt. Javal Davis.
The scene at the prison was dramatically different from Guantanamo Bay,
where Nelson served with the Utah National Guard, even though both places
have drawn complaints, he said. At Guantanamo, a small number of detainees
were being held and interrogated in a secure location with adequate troops;
at Abu Ghraib, thousands of detainees were being held by too few troops, who
were steadily under attack.
"My anxiety about the whole affair really started to peak after Dec. 14,
with the capture of Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)," Nelson said, who
sensed new pressure as the insurgency escalated.
A special team was set up at the prison called "the break team," he said,
"to take the difficult people and break them. That shows you the mentality."
It also cut against Nelson's belief that coercion and physical pressure are
the exact wrong tactics to get someone to talk.
"Interrogation isn't about breaking someone's will, it's about breaking down
the barriers between you," he said. Most people want to talk, if not
confess; small bits of crucial, relevant information can be gleaned without
any dramatic scenes, he said.
Nelson said he didn't know of any specific orders for military police to
"loosen up" detainees, as the soldiers' lawyers have contended. But
low-level military police were given too much responsibility, Nelson
believes.
"They were open to suggestions by the military intelligence operatives," he
said. "They all felt they were part of the team, working together."
Nelson left Abu Ghraib in early February. After others at the prison learned
he was cooperating with the Taguba investigation, he was ostracized and felt
he could no longer do his job well or safely, he said.
CACI has disputed any allegations of illegal behavior of its employees. The
company, in a release, said its interrogation services is part of its
"tactical intelligence and field services line of business." Its employees
are under direct supervision of the Army, it said.
Nelson wants to keep speaking out about his experience, and feels his
background and status as a witness, but not a suspect, puts him in a good
position to do so. However, he is concerned that some campaign work he did
for former Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean (news - web sites)
might be used against him by people who see him as anti-Bush administration.
"For the American people, this needs to be brought as open as possible, as
transparent as possible," he said. "Let's not focus on politics. Let's focus
on a breakdown in the system."
The military and the country need to recognize how critical information is
to any fight against terrorists, he said. That means giving soldiers in
military intelligence better training and more responsibility, while at the
same time making clear the line between good interrogation techniques and
unacceptable threats and abuses.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Army Widens Abuse Probe
Mon May 24, 7:55 AM ET
By Greg Miller and Richard A. Serrano Times Staff Writers
WASHINGTON — As the investigation of prisoner abuses in Iraq (news - web
sites) shifts to the role of military intelligence, two intelligence
soldiers identified in the notorious pictures from the Abu Ghraib detention
facility have been ordered to remain in Baghdad as part of the expanding
probe, according to witness statements and commanders of the soldiers'
reserve units.
U.S. Army Spcs. Armin J. Cruz and Israel Rivera, both members of a reserve
unit in Texas, are so far the only military intelligence soldiers known to
be at the scene of the mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners in a high-security
cellblock at Abu Ghraib.
Neither Cruz nor Rivera has been charged. But their role in the burgeoning
scandal may be an important link for investigators seeking to determine
whether the abuses were the work of a rogue unit of military police, or were
directed by intelligence officers pushing guards to "soften up" detainees
for interrogation.
More broadly, the photographs from Abu Ghraib have focused attention on U.S.
interrogation practices and raised questions about systemic problems in
military prisons from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to Bagram air base in
Afghanistan (news - web sites).
Senior military officials and defense lawyers said additional charges may be
pending, raising the prospect that the criminal probe is poised to expand
beyond the guilty plea of one MP and the planned courts-martial of six
others accused of taking part in the abuse.
Neither Cruz nor Rivera could be reached for comment. Military officials at
the Pentagon (news - web sites) declined to describe their legal status, or
say whether they are represented by attorneys. Both have been ordered to
remain in Baghdad, months after the rest of their unit returned home.
According to witness statements, Cruz was disciplined by commanders at the
prison for violent outbursts toward detainees and his alleged involvement in
an incident in which a prisoner was forced to strip.
This is the first time Rivera's name has been connected publicly with the
scandal. Cruz was first identified in The Times on May 13.
On Sunday, The Times reported that 25 members of the prison's intelligence
units were questioned but none admitted seeing any of the sadistic abuse and
humiliation that was rampant at Abu Ghraib. However, apparently neither Cruz
nor Rivera answered the questionnaires by Army investigators seeking leads
into the prisoner abuse.
"They were involuntarily extended" to remain in Iraq, said Maj. Tom Barbeau,
commander of the 325th Military Intelligence Battalion, a reserve unit based
in Waterbury, Conn. It was unclear whether they were potential targets of an
investigation or potential witnesses.
Barbeau said Rivera and Cruz were transferred from their home unit in Texas
to help fill out the Connecticut battalion before it deployed to Iraq last
year.
Barbeau said that he had not had contact with either man, beyond intervening
to resolve an Army pay glitch, and that he had been given no details on the
case. "The only thing I know was that they didn't get to come home with the
rest of my guys, and that it was somehow related to this investigation,"
Barbeau said.
He added that he was under the impression that "they were assisting with the
investigation but not implicated." The commander of the soldiers' home unit
in Texas provided a similar account.
"They got extended in theater, and it had something to do with providing
testimony," said Lt. Col. Greg Williams, commander of the 321st Military
Intelligence reserve battalion in Austin, Texas. Both commanders described
Rivera and Cruz as eager young recruits who were trained as military
intelligence analysts. Both men were awarded Purple Hearts after sustaining
injuries in a mortar attack on Abu Ghraib last September that also claimed
the lives of two intelligence soldiers, Barbeau said.
"They're two such good kids that I can't imagine them even being in the same
room" with MPs engaged in abuse of prisoners, Barbeau said. "They were both
very good soldiers."
But in sworn testimony in a military hearing in Baghdad this spring, Tyler
Pieron, one of the military investigators involved in the case, said
"Specialist Cruz and Specialist Rivera were identified in one of the
photographs" depicting prisoner abuse. The shot appears to show both men
standing near a pile of detainees shackled together.
Pieron said Cruz "never came forward to report any misconduct" to military
authorities. He did not indicate whether Rivera had done so. Testimony from
other witnesses suggested that Cruz was disciplined for taking part in
abusive interrogations.
Cruz "was known to bang on the table, yell, scream, and maybe assaulted
detainees during interrogations in the booth," Sgt. Samuel J. Provance III,
another intelligence soldier who managed the prison's classified computer
network, said in a sworn statement.
Edward J. Rivas, a chief warrant officer at the prison, testified that Cruz
"was removed [from interrogation duty] because of a situation when a
detainee was stripped naked." Rivas was referring to an incident in which
Cruz and another Army specialist, Luciana Spencer, forced a prisoner to walk
naked past other inmates to humiliate him and punish him for not
cooperating.
Another interrogator, Sgt. Theresa A. Adams, told Army investigators that
the prisoner was completely stripped and then walked to the interrogation
booth "as part of the approach" for getting him to talk.
In an interview last week, Provance said that although Cruz and Rivera were
both analysts, there was such a shortage of interrogators at Abu Ghraib that
it was common for soldiers with no training to be sent into the booth to
question prisoners. " 'Interrogator' is kind of a loose term out at Abu
Ghraib," Provance said.
Military officials who worked at the prison said analysts often accompanied
interrogators into the booth but were not supposed to take part in
questioning prisoners.
The military police officers implicated in the abuse, and their lawyers,
contend that the MPs were told by military intelligence officials to "soften
up" the prisoners prior to interrogation, in the expectation that the
prisoners would then be more forthcoming with information.
In an interview, Houston defense attorney Guy L. Womack, who represents Army
Cpl. Charles A. Graner Jr., said that he expected a wave of charges in
coming weeks against military intelligence officers, who he believed were
directing the abuse of prisoners on Tier 1A at Abu Ghraib.
"There is no way these low-ranking military police officers did this on
their own," he said. "It's like pulling up a tree. There are roots going
everywhere away from these guys. The MPs were not rogues. They were not
criminals acting out some sort of fantasy. They were acting on orders, and
they thought those orders were appropriate."
A defense lawyer representing another guard being court-martialed said Cruz
and Rivera were present on the tier during the torture because they wanted
to make sure the abuse was carried out.
"These guys were actually directing them to do these things," said Harvey
Volzer, who represents Spc. Megan Ambuhl. "They wanted to make sure their
orders were being followed."
Interrogators and military intelligence officers who worked at the prison
disputed that allegation, saying two Army specialists would have had little
authority to direct the activities of higher-ranking MPs.
The interrogators and officers, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said
they believed Rivera and Cruz may have wandered into the cellblock and
failed to report what they saw. One interrogator described the two men as
"very young and very green."
Although Rivera and Cruz are the only U.S. Army intelligence troops
identified in the photos so far, others involved in military intelligence
have been caught up in the scandal. Military sources noted that at least one
picture appears to show a contract interrogator, Steven Stephanowicz,
present in the cellblock while detainees were being abused.
Torin Nelson, a civilian interrogator, gave investigators a written
description of how another interrogator dragged a detainee by his handcuffs
as punishment for falling off a truck en route to the prison.
"The detainee told me about this and showed me bruises (yellow and brown) on
his left arm, and the bump on his left forehead, which he said he got when
an interrogator [threw] him into a wall head first," Nelson wrote. "The
detainee is in his early 60s and is considered by medical personnel to be in
less than good health."
Naseef Bakeer, a civilian translator, told investigators that he saw two
instances in which an interrogator forced a detainee to walk naked along the
cellblock and say, "Look at me."
"This was done in an effort to humiliate the detainee prior to
interrogation," Bakeer said. | | | | | ©2002-2009 WarWithoutEnd.co.uk |
