War Without End

Nobody · Posted: Mon Jul 05, 2004 4:22 am Post subject: Israeli Interrogators 'In Iraq'

Israeli Interrogators 'In Iraq'
BBC News
7-4-4

The US officer at the heart of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal says she has evidence that Israelis helped to interrogate Iraqis at another facility.

Brig Gen Janis Karpinski told the BBC she met an Israeli working as an interrogator at a secret intelligence centre in Baghdad.

A BBC reporter says it is the first time a senior US officer has suggested Israelis worked with the coalition.

The Israeli foreign ministry said the reports were completely untrue.

Intelligence access

Gen Karpinski was in charge of the military police unit that ran Abu Ghraib and other prisons when the abuses were committed. She has been suspended but not charged.

She told BBC Radio 4's Today programme she met a man claiming to be Israeli during a visit to an intelligence centre with a senior coalition general.

"I saw an individual there that I hadn't had the opportunity to meet before, and I asked him what did he do there, was he an interpreter - he was clearly from the Middle East," she said in the interview.

"He said, 'Well, I do some of the interrogation here. I speak Arabic but I'm not an Arab; I'm from Israel.'"

Until a 1999 ruling by the Israeli Supreme Court, Israeli secret service interrogators were allowed to use "moderate force".

The US journalist who broke the Abu Ghraib scandal told the programme his sources confirm the presence of Israeli intelligence agents in Iraq.

Seymour Hersh said that one of the Israeli aims was to gain access to detained members of the Iraqi secret intelligence unit, who reportedly specialise in Israeli affairs.

'Convenient scapegoat'

The BBC reporter, Matthew Grant, says that whatever the truth, these allegations could cause anger in the Arab world.

Photographs of naked Iraqi detainees being humiliated and maltreated first started to surface in April, sparking shock and anger across the world.

One soldier has been sentenced and six others are awaiting courts martial for abuses committed at Abu Ghraib jail.

Gen Karpinski has said she was being made a "convenient scapegoat" for abuse ordered by others.

© BBC MMIV

http://NEWS.BBC.CO.UK/2/hi/middle_east/3863235.stm

Cowboy

Nobody · Posted: Mon Jul 05, 2004 5:18 am Post subject:

Cowboy · Posted: Mon Jul 05, 2004 5:21 am Post subject:

And this is the General Karpinski who claims that she knew nothing about the abuses that were being conducted in the facility that she was in command of.

Nobody · Posted: Mon Jul 05, 2004 5:45 am Post subject:

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apwashington_story.asp?category=1152&slug=Iraq%20Prisoner%20Abuse

hateliars · Posted: Mon Jul 05, 2004 6:03 am Post subject:

http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=2933

July 5, 2004

Israel Unleashed

The real reason for the biggest foreign policy blunder in American history ….
by Justin Raimondo

The Israelis just had to get in on the fun. But then the stories of torture – of hooded, humiliated inmates at Abu Ghraib and other facilities – did have a familiar air, as if the Israelis were tutoring their American sock-puppets in the finer points of squeezing those ragheads until they squealed. Torture – of the "mild" variety – has the official imprimatur of Israel's high court, and it makes perfect sense that the Israelis would be called in as "experts" in the art (science?) of corralling and controlling crowds of irksome Arabs, but this testimony from General Janis Karpinski, former commander at Abu Ghraib, explicitly fingers the Israelis:

Are Israelis among the interrogators in Iraq's prison camps? This photo, which we didn't publish until General Janis Karpsinski spilled the beans, strongly suggests that the answer is yes.

"I was visiting an interrogation facility one time – not under my control, but I was escorting a four-star. And he wanted to go back and observe an interrogation that was taking place. They asked me if I wanted to go and I said no. So I was standing there and, you know, the usual conversation, just kind of chit-chat, there (were) three individuals there and two of them had DCU pants on, one had a pair of blue jeans on, but they all had T-shirts on. They did not appear to be military people. And I said to one of the – one of them asked me, 'So what's new?' Or, 'What's challenging about being a female general officer over here?' And I said, 'Oh! Too long a story, but it's all fun.' And I said to this guy who was sitting up on the counter, I said to him, 'Are you local?' Because he looked like he was Kuwaiti. I said, 'Are you an interpreter?' He said, 'No, I'm an interrogator.' And I said, 'Oh, are you from here?' And he said, 'No, actually, I'm from Israel.' And I was kind of shocked. And I think I laughed. And I said, 'No, really?' And he said, 'No, really, I am.' And – but it was – I didn't pursue it, I just said, 'Oh, I visited your country a couple of years ago and I was amazed that there's so little difference between the appearance of Israelis and Americans,' and – I really was just kind of making chit-chat at that point.

"But it didn't strike me as unusual, I guess, until after the fact. And I remember making a comment to him, I said, 'Wow, that's kind of unusual.' And he said, 'No, not really.' Like that. So – I do know for a fact that at least in that one case – now, I didn't ask him for identity papers or anything. It was none of my business. But that's what he said."

Busy, busy, busy – that certainly describes the Israelis in the bloody aftermath of our Pyrrhic victory in Iraq. Oh, they deny it, of course, but that's boilerplate. After all, Karpinski saw and spoke to one of their interrogators, who was sitting there right in front of her. The truth is they're swarming all over Kurdistan, fomenting trouble, siccing the Bush administration on Iran and – most importantly – Syria. Good lord they're even in New Zealand, of all places, stealing passports from bedridden paraplegics. Talk about bad public relations! But do they even care?

Not too much. Now that they've maneuvered the clueless Bush into Iraq, and forever changed the face of the Middle East, Ariel Sharon and his amen corner in this country are getting bolder, openly flying their own flag over what were previously touted as exclusively American initiatives. So their Kurdish allies are bellicose about the Israeli connection in speaking to Ha'aretz:

"'The Kurdish public is not ready to take any more humiliation. As long as we thought we could persuade the Americans to support our positions, our leaders were supported by the public,' he said. 'The Kurdish public is disappointed and angry, it wants results. You in Israel talk of the greater Eretz Yisrael and here we talk of greater Kurdistan. Today our political war begins.'"

Our war – against whom?

In the guise of Israeli entrepreneurs, Mossad agents, according to Seymour Hersh, have infiltrated the Kurdish territories for the purpose of creating a buffer – Kurdistan – between Israel and the emerging Shi'ite-dominated Iraqi state, which is heavily influenced by the Iranians. The entire "handover" process, while not signaling American withdrawal, nevertheless indicates nervousness in Washington over being too closely identified with the unfolding disaster, and the Israelis see this as a bad sign. Is Uncle Sam going wobbly? That question has worried the neoconservative faction of the Right – which effectively functions as Israel's fifth column in the U.S. – and rightly so, from their perspective. That's what motivates all this activity in Kurdistan, and elsewhere. The idea is to spread the chaos, escalate the war, and make it impossible for George W. Bush to somehow pull us out the Iraqi quagmire.

In an effort at damage control, the Israel lobby is making a concerted effort to smear whomever states the obvious: a great deal of the "intelligence" used to lie us into war came directly from Tel Aviv and was "stovepiped" into the White House by neocon White House advisors, and that, in retrospect, this war has been to the strategic advantage of one and only one nation on earth: Israel. Writing in the Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles, one James D. Besser attacks "conspiracy theories" of "the fruitcake left and loony right" that "converge around theories blaming Jewish neoconservatives for an Iraq War they despise." He goes after that well-known left-wing extremist, Senator Ernest Hollings (D-S.C.), who "erupted" recently by daring to name Israel as the chief factor motivating key war proponents, and then turns to … us:

"On the other side of the partisan divide, check out antiwar.com, a web site for – among others – disgruntled Republicans and libertarians like former GOP presidential contender Pat Buchanan. Here, too, a common theme is the neocon cabal that tricked the nation into a catastrophic conflict."

The idea that Antiwar.com is on one or another side of the "partisan divide" is ridiculous, and as the author of "Go F*ck Yourself, Mr. President," I deeply resent the implication that I'm just a "disgruntled Republican." The rest of Mr. Besser's essay is equally accurate.

He rails against the "far left," which supposedly hates Israel because it is "colonialist," and the "far right" – where anti-Semitism, he smugly assures his readers, "has never gone out of style." He doesn't cite any specific statements from the "far right" to back up his statement – and, naturally, there is no link to material that might explain, if not justify his stance, even though Besser's piece was published online. Liars take refuge in vagueness, while they hurl libels at anyone who speaks truth to power: "Fruticakes! Loonies!" That's about the best Besser & Co. can do, but he also makes a completely disingenuous series of arguments, including the howler that that Bush came into office with a war agenda in plain sight:

"Everything we know about President Bush suggests that he came into office determined to complete the work his father left unfinished in 1991, when President George H.W. Bush ended the Gulf War without removing Saddam Hussein from power. Ditto Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld."

Both presidential candidates in 2000 pledged to get rid of Saddam, but projected this as a long-term project rather than the first item on their respective agendas. Furthermore, Bush campaigned on the platform of a "more humble" foreign policy. The neocons, at first, were a small if well-connected factor in the administration's foreign policy deliberations: they were horrified, and, it seemed, relatively powerless, when, for example, the President came out for a Palestinian state. It was only after 9/11 that the neocons became the dominant tendency.

"Their motives were varied," avers Besser, "ranging from family duty to protecting vital oil interests to a frantic concern about weapons of mass destruction in the aftermath of Sept. 11, but Israel was never near the top of the list." Besser may be a mind-reader, but this writer certainly lacks that talent. However, you don't have to be telepathic to understand that the various other motives Besser ascribes to the War Party have all turned out to be empty of any content.

The "vital oil interests" we are supposed to be protecting have been further endangered, rather than secured. As energy prices of skyrocket due to the regional destabilization caused by the war, Iraqi oil isn't getting to Western consumers. This, of course, was an entirely predictable result of the invasion, and I find it difficult if not impossible to believe that U.S. government analysts failed to foresee it.

The fabled "weapons of mass destruction" didn't turn up, either, and there is no reason to believe that anyone in the administration ever expected them to – after all, they were so busy fabricating and cherry-picking raw (and, often, ersatz) "intelligence," that they surely didn't have time or inclination to examine any real evidence.

If "Israel was never near the top of the list" when it comes to motives for this war, then how is it that Tel Aviv turns out to be the chief beneficiary in so many ways? As the Mossad infiltrates Kurdistan, demands recognition from the Iraqi "government," and even sends its skilled torturers to help the American occupiers subjugate and degrade their Arab charges more effectively, the demonstrable evidence that Israel's most loyal supporters led the way to war is not so easily brushed aside.

The smear tactic isn't going to work, not this time. Not when prominent former government officials and military leaders, such as General Anthony Zinni, are saying what we at Antiwar.com have been saying since long before the invasion of Iraq:

"I think it's the worst kept secret in Washington. That everybody - everybody I talk to in Washington has known and fully knows what their agenda was and what they were trying to do.

"And one article, because I mentioned the neo-conservatives who describe themselves as neo-conservatives, I was called anti-Semitic. I mean, you know, unbelievable that that's the kind of personal attacks that are run when you criticize a strategy and those who propose it. I certainly didn't criticize who they were. I certainly don't know what their ethnic religious backgrounds are. And I'm not interested.

"I know what strategy they promoted. And openly. And for a number of years. And what they have convinced the president and the secretary to do. And I don't believe there is any serious political leader, military leader, diplomat in Washington that doesn't know where it came from."

A new book by intelligence expert James Bamford draws the same conclusions about the origins of the Iraq war, and this analysis of how we came to be embroiled in the Iraqi disaster – trenchantly summarized in an excellent piece by Jeffrey Blankfort in Left Curve – is fast becoming the conventional wisdom. Is Bamford a "fruitcake" of the "far left"? General Zinni may be a registered Republican, but is he really nothing short of a neo-Nazi, as neocon smear artist Joel Mowbray would have it?

At this point, I would direct Besser's attention to a recent editorial in The Forward, a Jewish newspaper based in New York, which has a lot of years on the Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles, and also, it seems, a greater store of wisdom:

"As recently as a week ago, reasonable people still could dismiss as antisemitic conspiracy mongering the claim that Israel's security was the real motive behind the invasion of Iraq. No longer. The allegation has now moved from the fringes into the mainstream. Its advocates can no longer simply be shushed or dismissed as bigots. Those who disagree must now argue the case on the merits."

As I said at the time:

"Arguing for or against anything strictly on the merits is going to be a whole new experience for the neocons. Smearing their enemies and lying is, for them, a matter of course – it isn't just a matter of tactics, it's part of who and what they are."

I wouldn't identify Besser as a neocon, or the Jewish Journal as a neoconservative publication: a neocon would never point the finger at Bush, as Besser does. He writes that marshalling pro-Israel arguments on behalf of the war was just an "excuse" – just "politics" – a ruse to lure Democrats into supporting the invasion. But Besser should ask himself why, after all, this argument had such resonance with the Democrats – and why John Kerry is hurrying to prove himself more abjectly loyal to the American Likudniks than even this neocon-dominated administration.

Oh, but Besser doesn't want to go there, I imagine. He might turn into a "far left fruitcake," or, worse yet, a "far right loony." Far better to let certain realities go unacknowledged, and unanalyzed, than to have to give up name-calling and smearing as a substitute for arguing a case on its merits.

Ralph Nader has it exactly right:

"What has been happening over the years is a predictable routine of foreign visitation from the head of the Israeli government. The Israeli puppeteer travels to Washington. The Israeli puppeteer meets with the puppet in the White House, and then moves down Pennsylvania Avenue, and meets with the puppets in Congress. And then takes back billions of taxpayer dollars. It is time for the Washington puppet show to be replaced by the Washington peace show."

All the usual suspects are clamoring for Nader's head these days, including some of his fellow "Greens," but Ralphie has the enemy in his sights and more power to him. The time is past when a powerful lobbying group can claim special exemptions and considerations because any criticism of their activities is automatically ascribed to "bias" and "bigotry." American soldiers are dying every day in Iraq, while Israel annexes Kurdistan and their torturers get their jollies in American-run prisons.

What in the name of all that's holy is going on here? That's a question the American people are beginning to ask, and Antiwar.com is going to continue to provide them with some answers. If Besser, and others, don't like it, that's just tough: facts, as the late President Reagan once put it, are stubborn things, and can't be erased or banished from polite discussion on account of political correctness – or, at least, not for very long. The truth is coming out: better late than never.

– Justin Raimondo

Alpha

http://www.telegraph.co.uk

Rumsfeld gave go-ahead for Abu Ghraib tactics, says general in charge
By Julian Coman in Washington
(Filed: 04/07/2004)

The former head of the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad has for the first time accused the American Secretary of Defence, Donald Rumsfeld, of directly authorising Guantanamo Bay-style interrogation tactics.

Brig-Gen Janis Karpinski, who commanded the 800th Military Police Brigade, which is at the centre of the Abu Ghraib prisoner-abuse scandal, said that documents yet to be released by the Pentagon would show that Mr Rumsfeld personally approved the introduction of harsher conditions of detention in Iraq. In an interview with The Signal newspaper of Santa Clarita, California, which was also broadcast on a local television channel yesterday, Gen Karpinski was asked if she knew of documents showing that Mr Rumsfeld approved "particular interrogation techniques" for Abu Ghraib.

Gen Karpinski was interviewed for four hours by Maj- Gen Antonio Taguba, who was ordered to investigate abuse at Abu Ghraib and produced a damning report, which heavily criticised Gen Karpinski for a lack of leadership at the prison.

During inquiries into the scandal, she has repeatedly maintained that the treatment of Iraqi detainees was taken out of her hands by higher-ranking officials, acting on orders from Washington.

"Since all this came out," she replied, "I've not only seen, but I've been asked about some of those documents, that he [Mr Rumsfeld] signed and agreed to."

Asked whether the documents have been made public, Gen Karpinski replied "No" and went on to describe the methods approved in them as involving "dogs, food deprivation and sleep deprivation".

The Pentagon has consistently denied that Mr Rumsfeld authorised the transfer of harsher techniques of interrogation and detention from Guantanamo Bay to Abu Ghraib, where all prisoners are supposed to be protected by the Geneva Conventions.

Replying to Gen Karpinski's allegations, a spokesman for the Pentagon told The Telegraph: "Mr Rumsfeld did not approve any interrogation procedures in Iraq. The Secretary of Defence was not in the approval chain for interrogation procedures, which would have remained within the purview of Central Command, headed by Gen John Abizaid."

The Bush administration has been dogged by suspicions that harsh interrogation methods employed at Guantanamo were transferred to Abu Ghraib, as Iraqi insurgents began to score significant hits against coalition forces last year. In May, before the Senate armed services committee, Stephen Cambone, the under-secretary of defence for intelligence, publicly denied charges that Mr Rumsfeld had approved Guantanamo-style interrogations in Iraq.

Last month, the White House took the unusual step of releasing hundreds of internal documents and debates concerning interrogation procedures at Guantanamo. Extreme interrogation techniques at the camp, it was revealed, now require the explicit approval of Mr Rumsfeld. The Bush administration insists, however, that the notorious abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib was an aberration on the part of a handful of rogue soldiers. A Pentagon spokesman said that all relevant documents on interrogation techniques in Iraq would be made public but could not say when.

Gen Karpinski has been suspended from duty pending ongoing investigations into abuse of prisoners at the Baghdad prison. In a recent interview with the BBC, she complained of being turned into a scapegoat for the scandal, arguing that the running of the prison was taken out of her hands.

In a separate embarrassment for the Department of Defence last week, six recent studies, leaked to the Los Angeles Times, heavily criticised the military for failing to screen adequately potential recruits with violent and even criminal backgrounds.

The reports were written by a senior Pentagon consultant. One was delivered in September 2003, weeks before the worst abuses of Iraqi prisoners took place. The title of the report was Reducing the Threat of Destructive Behaviour by Military Personnel.

In it the author, Eli Flyer, a former senior analyst at the Department of Defence, stated: "There are military personnel with pre-service and in-service records that clearly establish a pattern of sub-standard behaviour. These individuals constitute a high-risk group for destructive behaviour and need to be identified."

According to a 1998 report by Mr Flyer, one third of military recruits had arrest records. A 1995 report found that a quarter of serving army personnel had committed one or more criminal offences while on active duty. In his 2003 study, Mr Flyer said that military personnel officers had been reluctant to toughen up screening procedures, fearing that the result would be a failure to meet recruitment goals.

Curtis Gilroy, who oversees military recruiting policy for the Pentagon, told the Los Angeles Times: "It's hard to pick out all the bad apples, but we are striving to improve the system and are doing so."

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

US general says met Israeli interrogator in Iraq

LONDON, July 3 (Reuters) - The U.S. general who was in charge of
Baghdad's notorious Abu Ghraib prison said on Saturday she had met an
Israeli interrogator in Iraq, a controversial allegation likely to
irritate many in the Arab world.

A U.S. military spokesman in Washington said he had no information
and an Israeli official denied Israel was involved.

Brigadier-General Janis Karpinski, who was responsible for military
police guarding all Iraqi jails at the time prisoners were abused by
U.S. troops there, told the BBC she met the Israeli at a Baghdad
interrogation centre.

"He was clearly from the Middle East and he said: 'Well, I do some of
the interrogation here and of course I speak Arabic, but I'm not an
Arab. I'm from Israel'," she said.

"My initial reaction was to laugh because I thought maybe he was
joking, and I realised he was serious," said Karpinski who has been
suspended from her command for failings at Abu Ghraib but has not
been charged with any wrongdoing.

An Israeli security source told Reuters: "Israel was not and is not
involved in the interrogation of anyone in Iraq."

Israeli involvement in Iraq could anger Arabs who accuse Washington
of favouring the Jewish state in its conflict with the Palestinians
and in wider disputes with its Arab neighbours.

Israel has denied similar reports in the past of involvement in U.S.
operations in the Middle East. Last month, it denied a report in the
New Yorker magazine that it was training Kurdish fighters in Iraq to
counter Shi'ite militias there.

Photographs of military police abusing prisoners in Abu Ghraib and
other reports of abuse have led to hearings in Congress and fuelled
Arab and international outrage.

(Additional reporting by Corinne Heller in Jerusalem)

----------------------------------

07/03/04 11:37 ET

http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=3158747

Sat 3 Jul 2004

1:54pm (UK)
Israeli Interrogator at Abu Ghraib Prison Claim on BBC

"PA"

The American general formerly in charge of Abu Ghraib prison has told
the BBC that she has evidence that the Israelis were involved in
interrogating Iraqi detainees at another facility.

Brig Gen Janis Karpinski, who was suspended in May over allegations
of prisoner abuse, said she met a man claiming to be Israeli during a
visit to a Baghdad intelligence centre with a senior coalition
general.

"I saw an individual there that I hadn't had the opportunity to meet
before, and I asked him what did he do there, was he an interpreter –
he was clearly from the Middle East," Karpinski told BBC radio in an
interview broadcast today.

"He said, 'Well I do some of the interrogation here. I speak Arabic
but I'm not an Arab I'm from Israel.' "I was really kind of surprised
by that ... He didn't elaborate any more than to say he was working
with them and there were people from lots of different places that
were involved in the operation," Karpinski added.

Israel's Foreign Ministry told the BBC that reports of Israeli troops
or interrogators in Iraq were "completely untrue." Israeli officials
could not immediately be reached.

The presence of Israeli forces in Iraq would inflame opinion in the
Muslim world, where many compare the abuse of prisoners by US forces
to Israel's treatment of Palestinian detainees.

Until a 1999 ruling by the Israeli Supreme Court, Israeli secret
service interrogators were allowed to use "moderate physical
pressure" – a euphemism, critics said, for torture.

Among the practices allowed prior to 1999 were sleep deprivation,
keeping prisoners in uncomfortable positions for long periods and
covering their heads with filthy sacks.

Former prisoners say those techniques also were used by US forces in
Iraq.

Karpinski was suspended from command of the 800th Military Police
Brigade after the publication in April of photos showing soldiers
abusing and humiliating naked Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib.

She has said she did not know about the abuse and is being made a
scapegoat in the scandal.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------

Former Abu Ghraib commander says she met Israeli interrogator in Iraq

LONDON (AP) -- The American general formerly in charge of Abu Ghraib
prison says she has evidence Israelis were involved in interrogating
Iraqi detainees at another facility.

Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, who was suspended in May over allegations
of prisoner abuse, said she met a man claiming to be Israeli during a
visit to a Baghdad intelligence center with a senior coalition
general.

"I saw an individual there that I hadn't had the opportunity to meet
before, and I asked him what did he do there, was he an interpreter --
he was clearly from the Middle East," Karpinski told British
Broadcasting Corp. radio in an interview broadcast Saturday. "He
said, 'Well I do some of the interrogation here. I speak Arabic but
I'm not an Arab; I'm from Israel.'

"I was really kind of surprised by that ... He didn't elaborate any
more than to say he was working with them and there were people from
lots of different places that were involved in the operation,"
Karpinski added.

Israel's Foreign Ministry told the BBC that reports of Israeli troops
or interrogators in Iraq were "completely untrue." Israeli officials
could not immediately be reached by The Associated Press.

The presence of Israeli forces in Iraq would inflame opinion in the
Muslim world, where many compare the abuse of prisoners by U.S.
forces to Israel's treatment of Palestinian detainees.

Until a 1999 ruling by the Israeli Supreme Court, Israeli secret
service interrogators were allowed to use "moderate physical
pressure" -- a euphemism, critics said, for torture.

Among the practices allowed prior to 1999 were sleep deprivation,
keeping prisoners in uncomfortable positions for long periods and
covering their heads with filthy sacks. Former prisoners say those
techniques also were used by U.S. forces in Iraq.

Karpinski was suspended from command of the 800th Military Police
Brigade after the publication in April of photos showing soldiers
abusing and humiliating naked Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib. She has
said she did not know about the abuse and is being made a scapegoat
in the scandal.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

General Janis Karpinski and Wayne Madsen conveyed the Israeli
connection to the interrogations in Iraq (
http://www.counterpunch.org/madsen05102004.html ) in the BBC 4 radio
segment this morning which one can listen to on their computer via
the following URL:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/today/listenagain/

General Janis Karpinski's segment will be archived under July 3rd,
2004 at the following URL (after today) if you don't pick up this
email until Monday:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/today/listenagain/listenagain_archive.shtm
l

A full transcript of General Karpinski's interview (which mentioned
an Israeli connection to the interrogations in Iraq and how Rumsfeld
conveyed instructions for the torture/abuse at Abu Ghraib) for 'The
Signal' is now linked at the following URL:

http://www.scvhistory.com/scvhistory/signal/iraq/

You can hear Jonathan Davis' interview with the BBC via the link
which you can scroll down to at the following URL:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/today/listenagain/zmonday_20040628.shtml

More on Jonathan Davis and his son (Javal) via the following URL:

http://www.indybay.org/news/2004/05/1680731.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

James Bamford's New Book ('A Pretext for War') on the Neocon
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

Alpha

Excellent post, hateliars... Thought I might add this other post of yours to it:

Israeli Inspiration For Abu Ghraib

From Brasscheck
ken@brasscheck.com
7-2-4

Israeli inspiration for Abu Ghraib

Missing from all US press accounts of Abu Ghraib prison is the fact that the procedures used there nearly completely mimic the treatment of Palestinian prisoners developed over the last several decades by the Israeli government.

A secret classified detention center closed off from Red Cross access was recently uncovered in Israel:

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/5251751/

Related stories from Brasscheck

=================
"Seymour's snow job" - May 16, 2004

Excerpt:

"It's all in Joe Sacco's graphic novel "Palestine" published in 2002 and inspired by a trip he took to the West Bank and Gaza ten years ago.

The Israeli treatment of Palestinian detainees - many of them entirely innocent people arrested and held on the flimsiest of evidence - is so close to standard operating procedure at Abu Ghraib it might as well be a training manual."

=================

Speaking of snow jobs...

I haven't seen Michael Moore's film yet, but apparently, like Seymour Hersh, he's managed to 'spill the beans' while entirely avoiding the subject of Israeli influence on Bush and US policy in the Middle East.

However, Israeli enemy Saudi Arabia gets a good, albeit well deserved, shellacking in Moore's film.

Chalk up another triumph for Israeli control over the US media.

You can be a progressive, alternative journalist in this country - as long as you don't look to closely at the current Israeli power structure...

Alpha · Posted: Mon Jul 05, 2004 6:31 am Post subject: The Israeli Torture Template

http://www.counterpunch.org

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

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Israeli Interrogators 'In Iraq'