| Author | Message | | Alpha | | Posted: Sun May 09, 2004 3:27 pm Post subject: Who is Behind the Abuse at Abu Ghraib? |
| Who is Behind the Abuse at Abu Ghraib?
By Christopher Bollyn – Rumor Mill News May 6, 2004
Despite extensive coverage, the mainstream media has failed to ask the key questions about the abuse of the Iraqi detainees: Who is really behind the torture and humiliation of the Iraqi prisoners and why was it done?
“I share a deep disgust that those prisoners were treated the way they were treated,” President George W. Bush said about the published photographs of tortured and humiliated Iraqi prisoners from the U.S.-run prison near Baghdad. “Their treatment does not reflect the nature of the American people. That's not the way we do things in America.”
Most Americans would agree that the abuse caught on film at Abu Ghraib prison seems utterly foreign. The media, however, is not exploring the question implied by the president’s statement: If not American, then who is behind the humiliation of the Iraqi prisoners?
While the mainstream media wallows in the details of the abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad it avoids asking the questions that could reveal who is behind the sordid saga.
The lowly Army reservists seen smiling in scenes of abuse appear to be mere actors – useful idiots – in a drama directed by a hidden hand. But who is truly responsible for this drama? And why was it photographed?
A May 5 New York Times article about Hayder Sabbar Abd, a 34-year-old Shiite Iraqi being victimized in the infamous photos, raises the most obvious question: Why was the perverse abuse he and six other simple detainees suffered photographed?
Ordered by the Translator
“The curiosity, through much of the ordeal, was the camera,” Ian Fisher wrote. “It was a detail he mentioned repeatedly as he recalled being forced against a wall and ordered by the Arabic translator to masturbate.” It’s odd that, according to Abd, the translator was giving the orders.
“All the while, he [Abd] said, the flash of the camera kept illuminating the dim room that once held prisoners of Mr. [Saddam] Hussein, recording images that have infuriated the Arab world and badly sullied America’s image.”
It seems unlikely that a group of U.S. Army Military Police [MP] would allow themselves to be filmed indulging in “sadistic, blatant, and wanton criminal abuses.” The prisoners being abused in the photos were not being abused prior to interrogation, according to Abd. The mistreatment in the photos “appeared to be punishment for bad behavior,” the Times reported.
“The truth is we were not terrorists,” Abd said. “We were not insurgents. We were just ordinary people. And American intelligence knew that.”
Abd claims that he was never interrogated, and never charged with a crime. Most of the American soldiers had treated him well and with respect. “Americans did not mistreat me in general,” he said. “But these people must be tried.”
Taguba's Investigation
Major General Antonio M. Taguba, who conducted the Army’s investigation into the alleged abuses at Abu Ghraib earlier this year, said Army investigators have “extremely graphic photographic evidence” of abuse in “pictures and videos.”
Taguba’s report says “egregious acts and grave breaches of international law” were committed when an “ambiguous command relationship” existed at the prison. This breakdown in the chain-of-command was due to Fragmentary Order 1108, dated 19 November 2003.
“This effectively made an MI [Military Intelligence] Officer, rather than an MP Officer, responsible for the MP units conducting detainee operations at that facility,” Taguba wrote.
Fragmentary Order 1108 made Col. Thomas M. Pappas, Commander of the 205th MI Brigade, responsible for the MP units at Abu Ghraib prison.
Taguba’s report, which was presented to his superiors in early March, recommended that an investigation be conducted “to determine the extent of culpability of MI personnel.”
Apart from the failings of the senior officers who should have done more to prevent the abuse, Taguba names four individuals as key suspects. “Specifically,” Taguba wrote, “I suspect that Col. Thomas M. Pappas, LTC Steve L. Jordan, Mr. Steven Stephanowicz, and Mr. John Israel were either directly or indirectly responsible for the abuses at Abu Ghraib and strongly recommend immediate disciplinary action.”
Jordan is former director of the Joint Interrogation and Debriefing Center and Liaison Officer to the 205th MI Brigade.
Stephanowicz is a “civilian interrogator” employed by CACI International of Chantilly, Va., and “John Israel” is said to be a “civilian interpreter.” Both were working with the 205th MI Brigade at the time of the abuse. According to the report these private contractors were at times supervising the interrogations.
“In general,” Taguba wrote, “U.S. civilian contract personnel (Titan Corp., CACI, etc.) third country nationals, and local contractors do not appear to be properly supervised within the detention facility at Abu Ghraib.” The third country nationals are not identified in the report.
Although Stephanowicz and Israel are both named as being “directly or indirectly responsible for the abuses at Abu Ghraib,” very little has been said about either of them in the mainstream media. Why are they being overlooked?
Who is John Israel?
The Taguba report isn’t clear about John Israel. In the body of the report he is mistakenly identified as a CACI employee. Only in the annex on the last page is he noted as being with Titan Corp., a high tech military company based in San Diego.
Questions abound about “John Israel.” Ralph Williams, spokesman for Titan Corp., told the Times that Israel “worked for a Titan subcontractor that he would not name.”
“John Israel” is most likely the nom de guerre of an Arabic-speaking intelligence agent who was placed in Iraq through Titan. Both Titan and CACI have directors with strong ties to the Israeli military establishment.
The director of Titan with the largest stake in the company is Edward H. Bersoff, who received the Distinguished Leadership Award by the Washington Chapter of the American Jewish Committee in 1999. Bersoff has been an honored speaker at the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington, along with the likes of Sharon’s right-wing ally Binjamin Netanyahu.
On January 14, Dr. J.P. (Jack) London, chairman, president, and CEO of CACI International, flew to Israel to receive the Albert Einstein Technology Award from the Jerusalem Fund. The award was presented by Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz and Uri Lupolianski, Jerusalem’s ultra-Orthodox Jewish Mayor at a ceremony in the occupied city on January 14, 2004.
CACI was awarded a $10,118,040 firm-fixed-price contract from the U.S. Army on Feb. 26, 2004 for 24 contract specialists, like Stephanowicz, to work in Iraq. Each CACI specialist is costing the U.S. taxpayer $421,585 per year.
On May 3, Titan reported a 21 percent growth in its first quarter revenues of $459 million. “Titan's linguist contract with the U.S. Army” was noted as a “primary driver” behind the companies increased revenues. The only language tool Titan offers on its website is for “Levantine Arabic,” i.e. the Arabic spoken in Palestine, Lebanon, and Syria.
Last July, however, Titan Systems Corporation of Fairfax, Va., placed an ad for “native Arabic, Aramaic, Kurdish, Persian, Pashto, Turkish and Dari speakers.” Titan’s ad for interpreters required the native speakers be U.S. citizens and fluent in English. It is extremely unlikely that any native speaker of Arabic would be named “John Israel.”
Still on the Job
Taguba’s report called for Stephanowicz to be terminated and reprimanded, but on April 25 he was still on the job at Abu Ghraib hitting golfballs from the roof onto the highway in his free time, according to the “Iraq Diary” of one of his co-workers. Until recently, Joe Ryan, one of the interrogators, had his revealing journal about his work at Abu Ghraib posted on the website of KSTP, a St. Paul, Minnesota radio station. According to KSTP’s Ron Rosenbaum, the journal was removed at Ryan’s request when the photos of abuse surfaced.
As of May 5, however, two months after Taguba had called for Stephanowicz to be fired, CACI, Stephanowicz’s employer, said they had “received no information from the Dept. of Defense” on the matter.
Phenomenal Damage
"Everybody understands the phenomenal damage this accusation has caused in that part of the world," Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware, the senior Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, said. "This is the single most significant undermining act that's occurred in a decade in that region of the world, in terms of our standing."
The abuse at Abu Ghraib resembles Israeli methods applied in the occupied territories. “Israel is the only country in which the kind of abuse documented at Abu Ghraib occurs as a matter of policy,” Hussein Ibish, spokesman for the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), the largest Arab-American organization, told American Free Press.
Palestinian news sources are replete with similar accounts of Israeli soldiers forcing Palestinians to strip and perform degrading sexual acts. Reports of Palestinian prisoners having been sodomized during torture sessions with Israeli military interrogators are common.
Washington Report on Middle East Affairs has articles on such abuse going back to 1996. Israeli soldiers paraded naked Palestinians through the streets of Jerusalem after the massacre of Deir Yassin in April 1948. Dr. Hazem Nusseibeh of Palestine Broadcasting witnessed the massacre and its aftermath. Nusseibeh said women were bayoneted and about 11 children were made to parade naked through the streets of Jerusalem.
Palestine Chronicle, an online news source, carried an article in November 2002 titled “Stripping Palestinians has Become Common Practice.”
The article described an incident in which Israeli soldiers ordered a young resident of the town of Nablus to strip completely naked in the street and act like a dog.
Deliberate Intelligence Tactic
“It was a deliberate intelligence tactic,” Ibish said when asked if he thought the photos could be part of an Israeli intelligence plot to damage U.S. relations in the Arab world. “[Ariel] Sharon plays a zero-sum game,” he said. “He thinks the worst possible relations between United States and the people of the Arab and Muslim world is good for Israel.”
American Free Press asked the coalition press desk in Baghdad if Israeli advisors worked with the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq or at the Abu Ghraib prison. “No to both,” was the response from Major Carolyn Dysart.
Rafael Barak, spokesman at the Israeli embassy in Washington, said he was “not aware” of any Israeli presence in Iraq.
The accused military personnel may face courts martial, but the civilian contractors can be charged with war crimes through the War Crimes Act of 1996 and the Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act of 2000, according to Francis A. Boyle, author and professor of international law at the University of Illinois.
War crimes cases against U.S. civilians working with the military in Iraq would be prosecuted by the Dept. of Justice, Boyle said.
“The question is how high this goes,” he added. “[Lieut. General Ricardo S.] Sanchez is letting the superiors off the hook.” Boyle’s latest book on Iraq is entitled Destroying World Order: U.S. Imperialism in the Middle East Before and After September 11th.
"Tell him to walk and bark like a dog." That's right, good. O.K., I've got the picture."
Question: Where have we seen this before?
Answer: ISRAELI OCCUPIED PALESTINE
http://www.rumormillnews.com/cgi-bin/forum.cgi?read=48426
Also see:
Who is John Israel? Why was he Running the Show?
http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/article.asp?id=1788
_________________
Palestine Children's Relief Fund
http://pcrf.net
No War For Israel
http://www.nowarforisrael.com/ | |  | | Alpha | | Posted: Sun May 09, 2004 5:12 pm Post subject: Digital Damage to Moral Image |
| http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/172436_fisk09.html
Sunday, May 9, 2004
Digital damage to moral image
ROBERT FISK
BRITISH COLUMNIST
First, our enemies created the suicide bomber. Now we have our own digital suicide bomber, the camera. Just look at the way Lynndie holds the leash of the naked, bearded Iraqi. Take a close look at the leather strap, the pain on the prisoner's face. No sadistic movie could outdo the damage of this image. In 2001, the planes smashed into the buildings; today, Lynndie smashes to pieces our entire morality with just one tug on the leash.
The Muslim suicide bomber cries Allahu Akbar , God is greater. And what does Lynndie England's partner in crime do? Why, his home garden is plastered with a legend from the Book of Hosea, about sowing and righteousness and plowing. Could ever Islam have come so intimately into contact with the sexuality of the Old Testament? Could neo-conservative Christianity -- Lynndie is also a church goer -- have collided so violently, so revoltingly, so obscenely with Islam? And who were the innocent in these vile photographs? The American torturers and humiliators? Or the Iraqi victims?
President Bush is fearful of Arab reaction to these pictures. Why? For a year now, Iraqis have been trying to tell journalists of the brutal treatment they are receiving at the hands of their occupiers. They don't need these incriminating photographs to prove to them what they already know to be true. But in the history of the Middle East, these pictures already have the status of those most damaging snapshots of the Vietnam War: the police chief in Saigon executing his Vietcong prisoner, the naked girl burned by Nepalm, the pile of bodies My Lai. For Arabs read Deir Yassin and the corpses piled in the Palestinian refugee camp of Sabra and Chatila in 1982.
Not long after the occupation of Baghdad by U.S. troops in April of last year, we got our hands on videotape of the brutal whipping of Iraqi prisoners by Saddam's security police. I'm not sure which circle of hell the victims were enduring in the 45 minutes of sadism, which I still have on one tape. They are whipped, sticks are broken in their throats, they are kicked into sewers and they cower like dogs. And why were these war crimes filmed? I thought at first that it was intended for the enjoyment of Saddam or his disgusting son Oudai. But now I realize that the videos were taken so that the prisoners could be humiliated. Their suffering, their pathetic pleas for mercy, their animal-like behavior was to be recorded -- to add the final layer of degradation to their fate.
And now I realize, too, that the pictures of the Iraqis so cruelly treated -- so tortured -- by the Americans, were taken for precisely the same reason. Someone decided that the photos would be the final straw, the breaking point, the moment of capitulation for these young men. Make them simulate oral sex. Make them look at the penis of their best friend. Get a girl to admire their attempted erection. This was truly Saddamite in its perversity.
So let's, as the Americans say, get real. Who taught Lynndie and her boyfriend and the other American sadists of Abu Ghraib prison to do this? I used to ask who taught the Syrian and Iraqi secret police to do this. The answer to the latter question was simple: the East German secret police.
But the answer to the first question? Well, we have been told that there were "contracted" interrogators at Abu Ghraib. I have reason to believe that Gen. Janis Karpinski, the luckless prison commander who is going to be dumped out of the Army for interrogations over which she had no control, knew that "outsiders" were questioning her inmates. She was never allowed into the interrogation room. And I can see why. So, no doubt, can she.
So who were these mysterious "interrogators"? If they were not CIA or FBI staff, who were they? Several names are already going the rounds -- so far, journalists claim they have no final proof of them -- and a number, so I understand, hold more than one passport. Why were they brought into Abu Ghraib? Who brought them in? How much are they paid? And who trained them ? Who taught them that it was a good idea to get a girl to point at an Arab who was being forced to masturbate, to humiliate an Iraqi into submission by hooding him with a girl's lingerie?
We are not just talking sick here. We're talking professionals. Lynndie and her boyfriend were not part of a "rogue" unit. They were told to do these despicable things. They were encouraged to do it. This was an order from someone else. Who? When can we see their pictures, their identity, their passports, their orders?
Yes, it's part of a culture, a long tradition that goes back to the Crusades; that the Muslim is dirty, lascivious, un-Christian, unworthy of humanity -- which is pretty much what Osama bin Laden (now forgotten by Bush, I notice) believes about us Westerners. And our illegal, immoral, meretricious war has now brought forth the images that betray our racism.
The hooded man with the wires attached to his hands has now become an iconic portrait every bit as memorable as the picture of the second aircraft flying into the World Trade Center. No, of course, we haven't killed 3,000 Iraqis. We've killed many more. And the same goes for Afghanistan.
Robert Fisk writes for The Independent in Great Britain. | | | | Alpha | | | | Alpha | | Posted: Mon May 10, 2004 11:25 pm Post subject: Fine essay by Mr. Madsen: The Israeli Torture Template |
| In reading the following, keep in mind that Miller (as in Major General Miller) is a common Jewish name as well:
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 <******@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 | | | | Alpha | | Posted: Tue May 11, 2004 12:57 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 | | | | Alpha | | | | Ed Toner | | Posted: Wed May 12, 2004 3:30 pm Post subject: |
| OK - who noticed this?
The orange jumpsuit? Have you ever seem American prisoners of Iraqi captors
in orange jumpsuits? I never have. But - one of the pictures of the Iraqi
prisoners shows an orange jumpsuit on the floor next to the naked bodies.
Orange jumpsuit - that's American
Then - the yellow walls. The same yellow walls in Abu Ghraib prison.
The terrorists, what we can see of them, are white and they are fat. My
gut says that this is not what it appears to be. It looks like it is staged
to look like a terrorist execution. It just does not make sense that real
Iraqis would do something that would help Bush get off the hook for the
torture scandal.
None of the photo's I have seen show blood. If Berg had been killed there
and then, blood would have been everywhere. If he had died earlier, then
the corpse decapitated, there may not have been blood..
How wonderfully lucky for Bush and the NeoCons that such a great piece of
pro-war distract-from-the-torture-scandal event happens at this particular
moment! I find it most revealing that the victim, Nick Berg, was in US
custody right up until the day before he was captured by "Al Qaeda" (nudge
nudge wink wink)". It is not that Bush got lucky this happened.. but THE
MEDIA is saying that Berg was under american custody..Anybody can set up a
web site, wear a black ski mask, and say, "I'm Al Kaydee, honest!"
Does anyone think real Iraqi insurgents would do the one thing that would
help Bush get out of the mess for the torture scandal? The very smartest
thing the Iraqis could do was nothing and let the world stomp all over Bush
for them. I don't buy it. This is another "false flag" op. That's the only
thing that makes sense.
They needed something to counter the Torture stories and the pending photos
and what better way than to outrage the American citizen than to show the
full horror of the man being beheaded, which in this day and age is
barbaric. This has far more wieght for the USA population than seeing Arabs
being tortured. Hollywood has very clever and realsitic ways of depicting
such killings as they have done in many of their movies, which makes it look
frighteningly real.
http://tinyurl.com/3y9hf
Sat, May. 08, 2004 West Chester contractor missing in Iraq
Associated Press
He stayed until Feb. 1, making contact with a company that indicated there
would likely be work for him later. But he returned on March 14 and there
was no ...........
http://tinyurl.com/39gkt
Note that Berg was "travelling", not working. | | | | Cowboy | | Posted: Wed May 12, 2004 10:38 pm Post subject: |
| So now we are supposed to pretend that beheading of Americans by Arabs is something new? That Arabs don't normally murder Americans and desecrate their bodies?
Toner is an idiot | | | | Cowboy | | Posted: Wed May 12, 2004 10:40 pm Post subject: |
| U.S.: Berg Had Been Advised to Leave Iraq
May 12, 2004 03:27 AM EDT
BAGHDAD, Iraq - An American civilian who was beheaded in a grisly video posted on an al-Qaida-linked Web site had been warned to leave Iraq but refused, U.S. officials said Wednesday. The masked men who butchered him claimed they were angered by coalition abuses of Iraqi prisoners.
The American captive identified himself as Nick Berg, 26, of West Chester, Pa., a suburb of Philadelphia. His body was found near a highway overpass in Baghdad on Saturday, the same day he was beheaded, a U.S. official said.
After pushing Berg to the floor, the men severed his head and held it up for the camera on the video posted Tuesday. It bore the title "Abu Musab al-Zarqawi shown slaughtering an American," referring to an associate of Osama bin Laden believed behind a wave of suicide bombings in Iraq.
It was unclear whether al-Zarqawi was shown in the video or simply ordered the execution. Al-Zarqawi also is sought in the assassination of a U.S. diplomat in Jordan in 2002. The United States has offered a $10 million reward for information leading to his capture or killing.
A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Berg was in Iraq "of his own accord" and had been advised to leave Iraq but refused. The official refused to elaborate but promised more information later Wednesday. | | | | | ©2002-2009 WarWithoutEnd.co.uk |
