| Author | Message | | Alpha | | Posted: Tue Jul 26, 2005 5:37 pm Post subject: Pentagon Blocks Release of Abu Ghraib Images: Here's Why |
| Just saw the following at www.whatreallyhappened.com
Pentagon Blocks Release of Abu Ghraib Images: Here's Why
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000990590
Pentagon Defies Order to Release Photos; Veterans Demand Commission
http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/?Page=Article&ID=4198
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http://www.wlextv.com/Global/story.asp?s=3717340
Myers: Release of Abu Ghraib prison photos could cause riots
NEW YORK The chairman of the joint chiefs of staff warns that releasing photos and videotapes of detainee abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison could have serious consequences.
General Richard Myers contends in recently unsealed court documents that the release of such information would aid al-Qaida recruitment, weaken governments in Iraq and Afghanistan and incite riots against U-S troops.
The American Civil Liberties Union wants 87 photographs and four videotapes taken at the prison released as part of a lawsuit it filed in 2003.
The group is seeking information on the treatment of detainees in U-S custody and about the transfer of prisoners to countries known to use torture.
Copyright 2005 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Last edited by Alpha on Sat Aug 13, 2005 7:34 pm; edited 1 time in total | |  | | Alpha | | | | Alpha | | Posted: Tue Jul 26, 2005 7:27 pm Post subject: Witness: Dogs Bit Abu Ghraib Detainees |
| Witness: Dogs Bit Abu Ghraib Detainees
By David Dishneau
The Associated Press
Tuesday 26 July 2005
Two Iraqis at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison were bitten by dogs as they were being handled by sergeants who were competing to see who could scare more detainees, a witness testified Tuesday.
Pvt. Ivan L. "Chip" Frederick II - himself convicted of abusing inmates at the military prison - testified by phone in the Article 32 hearing, the military equivalent of a grand jury proceeding, for Sgts. Santos A. Cardona and Michael J. Smith.
The Army had announced the hearing on Monday.
A dog handled by Cardona bit a detainee on both thighs, severely enough to require stitches, Frederick said. A dog handled by Smith bit an inmate on one of his wrists, but not hard enough to the break the skin, he said.
Frederick also said he heard both defendants say they were competing, using their dogs, to see how many detainees they could frighten into urinating on themselves.
He is serving an eight-year sentence at a military prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., after pleading guilty to conspiracy, dereliction of duty, maltreatment of detainees, assault and committing an indecent act.
Frederick was the first witness at the hearing at Fort Meade, which is about 15 miles south of Baltimore.
Cardona, of the 42nd Military Police Detachment at Fort Bragg, N.C., and Smith, the 523rd Military Police Detachment of Fort Riley, Kan., face various counts of cruelty and maltreatment, conspiracy to maltreat detainees, aggravated assault, dereliction and duty and making a false official statement. Smith also faces one count of wrongfully committing an indecent act.
If convicted, Cardona faces up to 16 1/2 years in prison, Smith up to 29 1/2 years. They both also could face reduction in rank to private, dishonorable discharge and forfeiture of pay.
The abuses allegedly happened from November 2003 to January 2004, when both soldiers were attached to the 320th Military Police Battalion, one of the units guarding Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad.
Smith told investigators in February 2004 that he and Cardona used their unmuzzled dogs to help a military intelligence unit, "psychologically breaking (detainees) down" before interrogations.
Investigators said Cardona acknowledged that his dog bit a detainee in December 2003.
Col. Thomas M. Pappas, commander of the 205th Military Intelligence Brigade, which conducted interrogations at Abu Ghraib, was reprimanded and fined in May.
Eight Army reservists have been convicted of abusing detainees at Abu Ghraib. Another, Pfc. Lynndie England, is awaiting trial.
Cardona's civilian attorney, Harvey J. Volzer, didn't return messages seeking comment Monday afternoon. It wasn't immediately known who represented Smith. | | | | Alpha | | | | Alpha | | | | Alpha | | Posted: Wed Jul 27, 2005 7:01 pm Post subject: Abu Ghraib Warden Testifies About Dog Use |
| Abu Ghraib Warden Testifies About Dog Use
By DAVID DISHNEAU, Associated Press Writer 52 minutes ago
FORT MEADE, Md. - The former warden of the
Abu Ghraib prison in
Iraq testified Wednesday that he attended a meeting in which the then-commander of the Guantanamo Bay prison recommended using military dogs for interrogation.
Maj. David Dinenna testified at the end of a preliminary hearing for two Army dog handlers accused of abusing Iraqi detainees. Dinenna said at a September 2003 meeting, Maj. Gen. Geoffrey D. Miller, the Guantanamo Bay commander, talked about the effectiveness of using the dogs.
"We understood that he was sent over by the secretary of defense," Dinenna testified.
He said teams of trainers were sent to Abu Ghraib "to take these interrogation techniques, other techniques they learned at Guantanamo Bay and try to incorporate them in Iraq."
The statements bolstered defense claims that the use of dogs to terrify inmates were sanctioned high up the chain of command and were not the actions of a few rogue soldiers, as the government claims.
Prosecutors have said Sgt. Santos A. Cardona and Sgt. Michael J. Smith used the dogs in a competition to frighten prisoners into urinating on themselves. The government asked for a court martial on criminal charges.
But their defense attorneys contend their clients were following orders and that the charges should be dropped.
The investigating officer, Maj. Glenn Simpkins, will take up to two weeks to consider the evidence and make a recommendation as to whether any charges should be dropped, and how any remaining charges should be dealt with.
On Tuesday, witnesses testified that military dogs bit at least two detainees at the prison in Iraq, one severely enough to require stitches.
Witnesses said the unmuzzled dogs were used to terrify inmates at the direction of Col. Thomas M. Pappas, the highest-ranking military intelligence officer at the prison, and Steven Stefanowicz, a civilian contractor who directed interrogations.
A defense lawyer told reporters the approval came from top officials as the Army tried to bring to Iraq some of the techniques that human-rights advocates have criticized at Guantanamo Bay.
"They were trying to Gitmo-ize Abu Ghraib," said Harvey J. Volzer, civilian attorney for Cardona, 31, of Fullerton, Calif.
The government's star witness Tuesday was Pvt. Ivan L. "Chip" Frederick II, who testified by telephone from a military prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, where he is serving an eight-year sentence for his role in the Abu Ghraib scandal.
He said Cardona's barking dogs frightened one inmate so much that he ran to Spc. Charles A. Graner Jr., a guard and central figure in the Abu Ghraib scandal who was sentenced in January to 10 years behind bars.
As the inmate flailed at Graner, Cardona released his dog, which bit the detainee on the left thigh, Frederick said. The inmate then ran toward a locked exit gate and Cardona again released the dog, which bit the man on the right thigh, Frederick said.
Another witness, Pvt. Sabrina Harman, said she stitched the wound on the right leg — 12 stitches, according to the inmate's statement to investigators.
"It seemed like a lot of blood," Harman testified.
Harman said she then posed for a thumbs-up photograph, shot by Graner, that is among the prosecution exhibits. She is serving a six-month sentence for her role in the Abu Ghraib scandal.
Cardona and Smith, 24, of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., are charged with cruelty and maltreatment, conspiracy to maltreat detainees, aggravated assault, dereliction of duty and making false official statements.
Cardona faces a maximum penalty of 16 1/2 years in prison if convicted on all nine counts against him. Smith, who also is charged with committing an indecent act, could be imprisoned for 29 1/2 years if convicted of all 14 counts he faces. | | | | Alpha | | | | Alpha | | Posted: Thu Jul 28, 2005 7:24 pm Post subject: Abu Ghraib Dog Tactics Came from Guantanamo |
| Abu Ghraib Dog Tactics Came from Guantanamo
By Josh White
The Washington Post
Wednesday 27 July 2005
Testimony further links procedures at 2 facilities.
Military interrogators at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq learned about the use of military working dogs to intimidate detainees from a team of interrogators dispatched from the US detention facility in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, according to court testimony yesterday.
One interrogation analyst also testified that sleep deprivation and forced nudity - which were used in Cuba on high-value detainees - later were approved tactics at Abu Ghraib. Another soldier said that interrogators would regularly pass instructions to have dog handlers and military police "scare up" detainees as part of interrogation plans, part of an approved approach that relied on exploiting the fear of dogs.
The preliminary hearing at Fort Meade, Md., for two Army dog handlers accused of mistreating detainees provided more evidence that severe tactics approved for suspected terrorists at Guantánamo migrated to Iraq and spiraled into the notorious abuse at Abu Ghraib in the late summer and early fall of 2003. The testimony came days after an internal military investigation showed the similarity between techniques used on the suspected "20th hijacker" in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and tactics seen in photographs at the prison that shocked the world.
Several Republican senators are pushing legislation - opposed by the White House - that would regulate the treatment of detainees at Guantánamo and other military prisons. One of them, Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), released recently declassified internal memos written in 2003 by the military's top lawyers in which they warned the Pentagon about developing severe tactics, arguing that they would heighten danger for US troops caught by the enemy, among other problems.
"We have taken the legal and moral 'high-road' in the conduct of our military operations regardless of how others may operate," Air Force Maj. Gen. Jack L. Rives wrote in a Feb. 5, 2003, memo. "We need to consider the overall impact of approving extreme interrogation techniques as giving official approval and legal sanction to the application of interrogation techniques that US forces have consistently been trained are unlawful."
At Fort Meade yesterday, soldiers testified that the top military intelligence officer at the prison, Col. Thomas M. Pappas, approved the use of dogs for interrogations. Maj. Matthew Miller, a prosecutor, also revealed that Pappas, faced with a request from interrogators to use dogs on three stubborn detainees captured at the same time as then-Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, "admitted he failed to ask" Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, then the top general in Iraq, for approval as he was supposed to have done.
Pvt. Ivan L. "Chip" Frederick, one of the ringleaders of abuse by military police who is serving an eight-year prison term, testified by phone from Fort Leavenworth, Kan., that interrogators were authorized to use dogs and that a civilian contract interrogator left him lists of the cells he wanted dog handlers to visit. "They were allowed to use them to . . . intimidate inmates," Frederick said.
Sgt. Santos A. Cardona, 31, of California, and Sgt. Michael J. Smith, 24, of Florida, are charged with maltreatment of detainees, largely for allegedly encouraging and permitting unmuzzled working dogs to threaten and attack them. Prosecutors have focused on an incident caught in published photographs, when the two men allegedly cornered a naked detainee and allowed the dogs to bite him on each thigh as he cowered in fear.
The dog handlers also allegedly participated in a "contest" to see who could make more detainees urinate or defecate on themselves, but defense attorneys contended that there is no actual witness to such a game and that the claims were merely rumors that spread throughout the prison.
This week's hearing is the military's equivalent of a civilian preliminary court hearing or grand jury investigation. Maj. Glenn Simpkins, as investigating officer, will recommend whether authorities should send charges to a court-martial, whether the soldiers should face administrative punishment or whether no charges should be pursued.
Cardona faces nine separate counts and a possible maximum sentence of 16 1/2 years in prison; Smith faces 14 separate counts and a possible maximum sentence of 29 1/2 years in prison.
Smith's lawyer, Capt. Jason Duncan, questioned a military interrogator, Spec. John Harold Ketzer, who acknowledged that a staff sergeant from Guantánamo had trained him on how to use dogs during questioning of detainees.
That staff sergeant, James Vincent Lucas, told Army investigators that he traveled from Cuba to Iraq from October to December 2003 as part of a six-person team to bring his "lessons learned" and to "provide guidelines" to interrogators at Abu Ghraib who were setting up their operation, according to investigative documents obtained by The Washington Post.
Lucas said in a statement that he saw no abuse but was aware that "short chaining" was used on some detainees "and clothing removal could be employed." "It would be part of the interrogation plan and approved by 'higher,' " Lucas told investigators, adding that there was a lot of nakedness at Abu Ghraib and a fair amount of brainstorming about innovative and aggressive techniques.
"Removal of clothing for interrogation purposes was a 'questionable technique' that needed approval and was allowed in Guantánamo, but rarely occurred."
Harvey Volzer, Cardona's civilian attorney, said he plans to call at least one witness today to talk about a September 2003 visit to Abu Ghraib by Maj. Gen. Geoffrey D. Miller, then in charge of the Guantánamo prison. "There's a direct link between Guantánamo and Abu Ghraib," Volzer said.
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Guardsman: CIA Beat Iraqis with Hammer Handles
By Arthur Kane
The Denver Post
Wednesday 27 July 2005
CIA officials used a sledgehammer handle to beat various prisoners in Iraq, and one official, whose name is classified, would often brag about his abuse of prisoners, according to testimony in a closed session of a military hearing.
The transcript, obtained this week by The Denver Post under a court order, was of a March hearing to determine whether three Fort Carson Army soldiers should stand trial for the death of Iraqi Maj. Gen. Abed Hamed Mowhoush during an interrogation in 2003.
Chief Warrant Officer Jefferson Williams and Spec. Jerry Loper face murder charges in the case.
A third soldier, Sgt. 1st Class William Sommer, has not had final charges approved, though he also was involved in the March preliminary Article 32 hearing.
Chief Warrant Officer Lewis Welshofer waived his hearing but is charged with murder.
In the March hearing, Sgt. 1st Class Gerold Pratt of the Utah National Guard said he saw classified personnel use a 15-inch wooden sledgehammer handle to hit prisoners.
"They'd ask you a question, and if they didn't like it, they'd hit you," he said.
"With Chief Welshofer, he'd at least give the detainee a chance to tell the truth," testified Pratt, who was running logistics at the detention facility near Qaim dubbed the Blacksmith Hotel.
A CIA spokeswoman, who declined to give her name, would not comment.
While identifying information in the transcript is redacted in most cases, an exchange between Pratt and a defense attorney show that the CIA was involved.
"To your knowledge, SFC Sommer did not accompany any of these CIA folks?" Capt. Michael Melito, who was then representing Sommer, asked Pratt.
While allegations about CIA officials and special forces beating Mowhoush with fists and a rubber hose have been previously reported, the court transcript is the first evidence that those officials repeatedly beat other detainees in northwestern Iraq.
In open session during the hearing, Pratt also testified that Williams threw a heavy box of food at Mowhoush. That testimony resulted in an additional charge of assault against Williams.
Williams' attorney, William Cassara, disputed the incident with the box and previously questioned Pratt's credibility. But Cassara said he was sure other officials were involved in prisoner abuse.
"I have no doubts that other government agencies used methods of interrogation that were much worse than what Chief Welshofer used," Cassara said.
Later, Pratt testified that the official was mocking the prisoners he was beating.
"Well, particularly after the general was killed. I don't remember the exact words, but he was mocking the fact that the general died," Pratt testified.
Williams and Welshofer, through their attorneys, had previously denied any wrongdoing.
Welshofer's attorney could not be reached for comment.
------- | | | | Alpha | | Posted: Mon Aug 01, 2005 5:14 pm Post subject: Exclusive: Secret Memo - Send to Be Tortured |
| Exclusive: Secret Memo - Send to Be Tortured
By Michael Isikoff
Newsweek
08 August 2005 Issue
An FBI agent warned superiors in a memo three years ago that US officials who discussed plans to ship terror suspects to foreign nations that practice torture could be prosecuted for conspiring to violate US law, according to a copy of the memo obtained by NEWSWEEK.
The strongly worded memo, written by an FBI supervisor then assigned to Guantánamo, is the latest in a series of documents that have recently surfaced reflecting unease among some government lawyers and FBI agents over tactics being used in the war on terror. This memo appears to be the first that directly questions the legal premises of the Bush administration policy of "extraordinary rendition" - a secret program under which terror suspects are transferred to foreign countries that have been widely criticized for practicing torture.
In a memo forwarded to a senior FBI lawyer on Nov. 27, 2002, a supervisory special agent from the bureau's behavioral analysis unit offered a legal analysis of interrogation techniques that had been approved by Pentagon officials for use against a high-value Qaeda detainee. After objecting to techniques such as exploiting "phobias" like "the fear of dogs" or dripping water "to induce the misperception of drowning," the agent discussed a plan to send the detainee to Jordan, Egypt or an unspecified third country for interrogation. "In as much as the intent of this category is to utilize, outside the US, interrogation techniques which would violate [US law] if committed in the US, it is a per se violation of the US Torture Statute," the agent wrote. "Discussing any plan which includes this category could be seen as a conspiracy to violate [the Torture Statute]" and "would inculpate" everyone involved.
A senior FBI official, who asked not to be identified because the issue is sensitive, said the memo was not an official bureau legal conclusion. Its author was at Gitmo to advise on interrogation techniques, not to render legal opinions, the official said. (The memo's author, a former New York City prosecutor, declined to comment to NEWSWEEK.) But another senior US law-enforcement official familiar with the memo, who also asked not to be identified, said the memo reflects concerns among many agents and lawyers about "rendition." Intel officials estimate that more than 100 terror suspects have been rendered to foreign countries by the CIA under a classified directive signed by President George W. Bush after 9/11. A senior US intelligence official, who asked not to be identified because the program is classified, said rendering suspects to their country of origin can aid intel because local interrogators speak the language better and understand the cultural sensitivities of the suspects. "No one is sent anywhere for the purpose of being tortured," the official said. A Pentagon spokesman said the Defense Department does not engage in renditions, but officials have confirmed that 65 detainees have been transferred from Guantánamo for further detention or prosecution by foreign governments, including 29 to Pakistan, seven to Russia, five to Morocco and four to Saudi Arabia - countries the State Department criticizes for practicing torture. | | | | Alpha | | | | | ©2002-2009 WarWithoutEnd.co.uk |
