News The SM masters having fun in Iraqs prison

[pelastration]

1. If USA changed it's interrogation approach in Iraq but not in Afghanistan and in secret/hidden prisons like Guantanamo, Diego Garcia, then that means that the reason is not concerns about human rights but political motives.

Info on Camp Justice (Diego Garcia) http://www.globalsecurity.org/milit...a-imagery-2.htm

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2. http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2004/05/d3a8345a-b19f-4b6f-94b0-6f427fd83e8a.html
The human rights group Human Rights Watch (HRW) has accused U.S. military personnel of "systemic" mistreatment of prisoners in Afghanistan, describing the practices as similar to those used in Iraq.

In a statement released in London, HRW said it has warned U.S. officials repeatedly about such problems since last year.

It said the U.S. should publicize the results of its internal investigations of abuse, prosecute those responsible, and provide access to independent monitors.

HRW says it has information that prisoners have been subjected to extreme sleep deprivation, exposure to freezing temperatures, and severe beatings at various locations in the country.

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3. http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsPackageArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=510011&section=news

Rights groups says Afghan prisoner abuse systemic
Thu 13 May, 2004 13:26

KABUL (Reuters) - Mistreatment of prisoners by American forces in Afghanistan is systemic and not limited to a few cases, Human Rights Watch has said, a day after the U.S. military in Kabul launched an investigation into abuse.

The rights body demanded the immediate release of information about two Afghans killed in U.S. custody 18 months ago. The U.S. military says the investigations are continuing.

The military said on Wednesday it had opened an inquiry into complaints by a former police officer that he was beaten, kicked, taunted, sexually abused and photographed naked during roughly 40 days in American custody in Afghanistan last summer.

The U.S.-led force of 20,000 troops hunting militants from al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan is keen to contain the damage from the latest allegations, after facing a backlash across the Arab world for abusing prisoners in Iraq.

----
4. Human Rights Watch report: “Enduring Freedom:”
Abuses by U.S. Forces in Afghanistan
http://hrw.org/reports/2004/afghanistan0304.
Can be downloaded in pdf. at: http://hrw.org/reports/2004/afghanistan0304/afghanistan0304.pdf

 

[pelastration]

THE GRAY ZONE by SEYMOUR M. HERSH
How a secret Pentagon program came to Abu Ghraib.

http://newyorker.com/fact/content/?040524fa_fact

(snip)

According to interviews with several past and present American intelligence officials, the Pentagon’s operation, known inside the intelligence community by several code words, including Copper Green, encouraged physical coercion and sexual humiliation of Iraqi prisoners in an effort to generate more intelligence about the growing insurgency in Iraq. A senior C.I.A. official, in confirming the details of this account last week, said that the operation stemmed from Rumsfeld’s long-standing desire to wrest control of America’s clandestine and paramilitary operations from the C.I.A.

Rumsfeld, during appearances last week before Congress to testify about Abu Ghraib, was precluded by law from explicitly mentioning highly secret matters in an unclassified session. But he conveyed the message that he was telling the public all that he knew about the story. He said, “Any suggestion that there is not a full, deep awareness of what has happened, and the damage it has done, I think, would be a misunderstanding.” The senior C.I.A. official, asked about Rumsfeld’s testimony and that of Stephen Cambone, his Under-Secretary for Intelligence, said, “Some people think you can bull**** anyone.”

...

Rumsfeld reacted in his usual direct fashion: he authorized the establishment of a highly secret program that was given blanket advance approval to kill or capture and, if possible, interrogate “high value” targets in the Bush Administration’s war on terror. A special-access program, or sap—subject to the Defense Department’s most stringent level of security—was set up, with an office in a secure area of the Pentagon. The program would recruit operatives and acquire the necessary equipment, including aircraft, and would keep its activities under wraps. America’s most successful intelligence operations during the Cold War had been saps, including the Navy’s submarine penetration of underwater cables used by the Soviet high command and construction of the Air Force’s stealth bomber. All the so-called “black” programs had one element in common: the Secretary of Defense, or his deputy, had to conclude that the normal military classification restraints did not provide enough security.

“Rumsfeld’s goal was to get a capability in place to take on a high-value target—a standup group to hit quickly,” a former high-level intelligence official told me. “He got all the agencies together—the C.I.A. and the N.S.A.—to get pre-approval in place. Just say the code word and go.” The operation had across-the-board approval from Rumsfeld and from Condoleezza Rice, the national-security adviser. President Bush was informed of the existence of the program, the former intelligence official said.

...
and more.

 

[kat]

http://www.frontpagemagazine.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=13394

And so once again Sy Hersh is making news with his investigations “Torture at Abu Ghraib: American Soldiers Brutalized Iraqis. How Far Up Does the Responsibility Go?” in the May 10 New Yorker magazine and “Chain of Command: How the Department of Defense Mishandled the Disaster at Abu Ghraib” in its May 17 issue.



These articles, like much of his writing over three and a half decades, feature Hersh’s favorite villains – wrong-doing American soldiers, wicked American leaders and evil agents of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, the CIA.



Before you swallow these stories whole, as if they were accurate and true, you ought to know more about this aging enfant terrible of American journalism.

In going after the CIA regarding Chile, Hersh did more than ignore evidence that the Castro-supported Marxist Allende (who had been elected under odd circumstances with only about a third of votes cast for President) was moving to prevent honest future elections that would depose him. Hersh also accused the then-American Ambassador to Chile of being part of a plot to overthrow Allende, an error for which Hersh and the New York Times issued a rare apology on that newspaper’s front page.



“I don’t read him anymore because I don’t trust him,” Max Holland, a Contributing Editor of the ultra-Leftist The Nation magazine, told the Columbia Journalism Review’s Sherman.



“I read what he writes with some skepticism or doubt or uncertainty,” said Newsweek Assistant Managing Editor Evan Thomas (who, incidentally, comes by his own Leftist politics as grandson of longtime Socialist presidential candidate Norman Thomas).

And Hersh has reported false information in other stories. His 1991 book The Sampson Option (about Israel’s nuclear weapons program) relied largely on a source widely recognized as a notorious liar. Another of Hersh’s sources for this book later admitted to telling the author what he wanted to hear, although false, in exchange for money.



When Hersh published his 1983 book The Price of Power: Kissinger in the Nixon White House, the editor-in-chief of the liberal The New Republic magazine Martin Peretz wrote: “There is hardly anything [in this book] that shouldn’t be suspect.”

 

[pelastration]

http://www.frontpagemagazine.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=13394

Yes, Kat, and ... ?

(quote)"Hersh, of course, would tell you that the world needs to know the information his methods obtain. He may be right. But that is also what U.S. Military Intelligence believed about getting information by hook or crook out of the criminals and terrorists confined at Abu Ghraib that could save American lives."(end quote)

This article focusses on Hersh as a person, and not on his actual findings about 'copper green' etc. It's not that some inaccurate information in the past of Hersh 35 years of news gathering means that this actual information is not correct. The nature of this new information is that's it's about 'hidden' operations and instructions. What is true and what's not will become clear within some time.
It seems to me that at this moment the knives are sharpened and put in position between all type of different civilian, military and intelligence parties involved. Now the name-calling starts to happen. Then you get people start to talk about more.

Added: And Hersh information on the photo's was correct, isn't it?

 

[ptex]

The U.S. should send all terrorist to Sadi Arabia or some other Islamic based country for interrogation they know how to get answers.

 

[Andy]

How do we know that the US pictures haven't been faked aswell? I have thought since this all kicked off that the pictures had been faked by anti war demonstrators or some other group that has something to gain from from undermining the US's power. Why would the troops take pictures of themselves torturing and abusing the prisoners? that's stupid, too stupid.

 

[pelastration]

The U.S. should send all terrorist to Sadi Arabia or some other Islamic based country for interrogation they know how to get answers.

It is already one of the actual pratices.

 

[pelastration]

How do we know that the US pictures haven't been faked aswell? I have thought since this all kicked off that the pictures had been faked by anti war demonstrators or some other group that has something to gain from from undermining the US's power. Why would the troops take pictures of themselves torturing and abusing the prisoners? that's stupid, too stupid.

Sure ... the other side of conspiracy theories.

Andy, 7 soldiers face military charges related to the abuse and humiliation of prisoners captured by the photo's at the prison.
Do they deny the photo's on which they are?
No.
Instead of telling the photo's are fake (which would be one of the possible defense strageties) they tell that military intelligence officials told military police to "prepare" the prisoners to make interrogations easier.

 

[Andy]

Alrite then, but why the hell did they take pictures of it all? Isnt that just incredibly stupid.

And that 'conspiracie theory' has occurred in the UK.

 

[jimmy p]

Yeah, the photos were analysed and basically called complete phoneys. For example, the rifles in the photos were SA80 Mk1's and the British army uses the Mk 2's now. The Bedford truck Mk1 where the photo's were taken is also not in service in Iraq, the Mk 2's are used. In fact the QM in the Army base recognised the truck just from the pictures. Another photo of a soldier urinating on a captive was proved false as the "urine" stream was too strong flowing and didnt turn enough times.

 

[Njorl]

Who cares what Lowell Ponte thinks? In his article, the fool refers to The Nation as "ultra-leftist", and conservative Evan Thomas as a "leftist". His comments on Hersh's credibility are actually quite sparse. Some are referenced to believable sources, others are referenced to more fringe sources. Most of his piece is just character assassination. He should take his own advice:

"Obsession and hate are dangerous traits in any journalist. It destroys a reporter’s perspective and ability to see all sides of a story. And it tempts a journalist, consciously and unconsciously, to ignore or bend facts in order to paint a black hat on those he has decided in advance are villains. This, say his critics, is Hersh’s great failing."

Njorl

 

[pelastration]

US troops 'abused Iraq reporters'

Fresh allegations have emerged in Iraq regarding the alleged mistreatment of Iraqi detainees by US troops.

The Reuters news agency says three of its local staff were subjected to sexually degrading treatment after being detained in January.

...

'Rape' threats

Reuters said it was unveiling the ordeal of its employees because the US military had concluded there was no evidence they had been abused - and in the wake of the scandal involving the mistreatment of detainees at Abu Ghraib prison.

The Reuters employees were allegedly abused at two US military bases, after being detained for covering the shooting down of a US helicopter near the flashpoint city of Falluja.

Baghdad-based cameraman Salem Ureibi, Falluja-based freelance TV journalist Ahmad Mohammad Hussein al-Badrani and driver Sattar Jabar al-Badrani were held for three days before being released without charge.

They said they were forced to make demeaning gestures as soldiers laughed, taunted them and took photographs.

Among other things, they were allegedly deprived of sleep, had bags placed over their heads, were kicked and hit and forced to remain in stress positions for long periods.

"When I saw the Abu Ghraib photographs, I wept," Mr Ureibi said on Tuesday. "I saw they had suffered like we had."

He said soldiers told him they wanted to have sex with him, and he was afraid he would be raped.
...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3726675.stm

 

[pelastration]

1.Officers Say U.S. Colonel at Abu Ghraib Prison Felt Intense Pressure to Get Inmates to Talk
By DOUGLAS JEHL Published: May 19, 2004

WASHINGTON, May 18 — As he took charge of interrogations at Abu Ghraib prison last September, Col. Thomas M. Pappas was under enormous pressure from his superiors to extract more information from prisoners there, according to senior Army officers.

"He likened it to a root canal without novocaine," a senior officer who knows Colonel Pappas said of his meetings with his superiors in Baghdad. Often, the officer said, Colonel Pappas would emerge from discussions with two of them, Maj. Gen. Barbara Fast and Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, without a word, but "clutching his face as if in pain."

Colonel Pappas, commander of the 205th Intelligence Brigade, relocated his headquarters from Camp Victory, near the Baghdad airport, to Abu Ghraib just days after a visit to Iraq last fall by another high-ranking Army officer, Maj. Gen. Geoffrey D. Miller. General Miller encouraged the Army colonel to have his unit work more closely with military police to set the conditions for interrogations.

By the end of September, Colonel Pappas had asserted control of Tier 1 of the prison's "hard site," used for interrogation of Iraqi prisoners, which he maintained until February, when he and his brigade were transferred to Germany at the end of their yearlong tour. After Nov. 19, by order of General Sanchez, Colonel Pappas and his brigade took command of all of Abu Ghraib prison, taking over authority from the 800th Military Police Brigade.

Now Colonel Pappas, who in sworn testimony to a senior Army investigator acknowledged that his subordinates directed military police officers to strip Iraqi prisoners naked and to shackle them, is the highest-ranking officer on active duty known to be under investigation for the abuses committed at Abu Ghraib prison.
...
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/19/p...00&en=a141199a5f9cb73c&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE

---
2. I wanted to know more about this Col. Thomas M. Pappas.

This simple google search http://www.google.com/search?q=Col.+Thomas+M.+Pappas&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8 brings you to some interesting information, some classified that may bring your computer in 'warned' monitoring mode by MI. If you click "OK" on the warning window you are entered automatically. There is not button to cancel!
Can opening such page make you a potential "illegal combatant"? Sure. It's part of the War against terrorism, and the Cyber War is part of that "war". By looking to such a page you can be jailed without lawyer and civil right for an unlimited period.

Don't forget: The Patriot Act is to protect your freedom!

 

[kat]

---
2. I wanted to know more about this Col. Thomas M. Pappas.

This simple google search http://www.google.com/search?q=Col.+Thomas+M.+Pappas&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8 brings you to some interesting information, some classified that may bring your computer in 'warned' monitoring mode by MI. If you click "OK" on the warning window you are entered automatically. There is not button to cancel!
Can opening such page make you a potential "illegal combatant"? Sure. It's part of the War against terrorism, and the Cyber War is part of that "war". By looking to such a page you can be jailed without lawyer and civil right for an unlimited period.

Don't forget: The Patriot Act is to protect your freedom!

Huh? Do you have a link to this "classified" informaiton you googled?...lol, I feel like humming the doo doo do doo's of the old "twighlight zone" shows.

BTW-I thought the Patriot Act was to protect MY freedoms as an American..not YOURS as a hostile Euro! :surprise:

 

[Njorl]

Huh? Do you have a link to this "classified" informaiton you googled?...lol, I feel like humming the doo doo do doo's of the old "twighlight zone" shows.

BTW-I thought the Patriot Act was to protect MY freedoms as an American..not YOURS as a hostile Euro! :surprise:

There was a rather tragically comical incident regarding a report of the prisoner abuse. The report was classified, but it was posted on the web, at FOX, I believe. The DoD asked FOX to remove it. They refused of course. They did, however, put up a warning that the report was classified, and that government employess would be violating the law to read it. High ranking people at the DoD did not see the humiliating nature of this warning, and it stayed up for a while. They thought it was a good thing. Since then the warning itself has become a popular joke, and has appeared on other web sites.

Njorl

 

[pelastration]

Huh? Do you have a link to this "classified" informaiton you googled?...lol, I feel like humming the doo doo do doo's of the old "twighlight zone" shows.

BTW-I thought the Patriot Act was to protect MY freedoms as an American..not YOURS as a hostile Euro! :surprise:

1. The link (at your own risk!): http://images.google.com/images?q=Col. Thomas M. Pappas&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi. Click on the image.

2. . That's was I said: "... your freedom".

 

[revelator]

Why would the troops take pictures of themselves torturing and abusing the prisoners? that's stupid, too stupid.

PsyOps. Psychological Operations. Interrogations go a lot easier if you break a person's will. One of the involved soldiers has been reported as saying, that they were to take the pictures, and tell the Iraqi prisoners that these pictures were being shown to their famliles.

 

[pelastration]

new pictures of abuse:
(1) Charles Graner posing over the body of a dead Iraqi detainee
(2) Sabrina Harman strikes a similar pose. A patch of blood can be seen on the dead man's right temple

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/3689167.stm

 

[Simon666]

new pictures of abuse:
(1) Charles Graner posing over the body of a dead Iraqi detainee
(2) Sabrina Harman strikes a similar pose. A patch of blood can be seen on the dead man's right temple

I'm waiting what the excuse of the apologists for this will be this time, a rehersal for a new Disney on Ice show based on "Weekend at Bernie's"?

A naked prisoner simulating sex is humiliating, but humiliation does not constitute torture.

Oh yes it does, and even if it doesn't, how about a broomstick up your arse? Want one?

 

[Adam]

Humiliation: see Geneva Convention.

 

[pelastration]

Ooops

Report Links U.S. General to Iraq Prison Abuse Case

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A lawyer for a soldier charged in the Abu Ghraib abuse case said a captain at the Iraqi prison has charged that Army Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez was present during some unspecified "interrogations and/or allegations of the prisoner abuse," The Washington Post reported on Sunday.

Citing a recording of a military hearing obtained by the newspaper, The Post said the military lawyer, Capt. Robert Shuck, was told that Sanchez, the highest-ranking U.S. military officer in Iraq, and other senior officials were aware of what was taking place at Abu Ghraib.

Shuck is assigned to defend Staff Sgt. Ivan Frederick, one of the seven U.S. soldiers, four men and three women, accused of abuses at the prison. One pleaded guilty on Wednesday and was imprisoned.

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=OHREX2OKZAEXMCRBAEOCFFA?type=topNews&storyID=5226827

 

[pelastration]

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2004-05-23-abuse-usat_x.htm

General questions how abuse case handled
By Blake Morrison and John Diamond, USA TODAY

The general who was in charge of U.S. detention facilities in Iraq said Sunday that repeated visits to the Abu Ghraib prison by Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez — and his initial response to the misconduct there — raise questions about whether Sanchez, the senior U.S. military officer in Iraq, knew more about the abuse of Iraqi prisoners than he has acknowledged.

(snip)

Sanchez told members of the Senate panel that he had his own procedures for interrogating prisoners, from the standard Army field manual. That document outlines far milder techniques, such as offering prisoners small incentives — cigarettes or a shower — or larger ones, such as political asylum or protection for relatives.

But the controversial interrogation rules that Sanchez said he did not know about were posted on the wall of the interrogation room at Abu Ghraib, an Army colonel testified at the Senate hearing. Sanchez toured the prison several times; Karpinski says he visited Abu Ghraib more often after the 205th Military Intelligence brigade took over the prison in November.

"It was surprising that he visited as often as he did when it went under the MI brigade," she says. "I remember that thought passing through my head."

...
---
In the article was not mentioned if Lt. General Sanchez had blue rubber gloves to keep his hands clean of all the dust.

 

[pelastration]

General Sanchez is a straight shooter

http://www.iht.com/articles/521367.html

... (third page)

Senator Pat Roberts, Republican of Kansas and chairman of the Select Intelligence Committee, said Sunday that he was waiting to learn more but would be ‘‘stunned’’ if it were proved that Sanchez had had advance knowledge ‘‘because, you know, General Sanchez is a straight shooter.
.
But a Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island, said that if Sanchez had learned belatedly of the abuses, that was a problem as well.
.
The senators were also asked about a Time magazine report that as many as 2,000 pages of supporting material might have been omitted from a copy provided to senators of the Abu Ghraib investigative report by Major General Antonio Taguba.
.
‘‘We’ll sure as hell find out’’ about the possible omission, Roberts said.
.
Time quoted the Pentagon spokesman, Lawrence DiRita, as saying, ‘‘If there is some shortfall in what was provided, it was an oversight.[/URL]’’

---
An oversight. Sure.

---
BTW I tried to find the official press release. "WASHINGTON: US military command has denied a report that one of its top generals in Iraq was present during some interrogations at the Abu Ghraib prison and witnessed abuse of Iraqi inmates.
"There was a news report published on May 23, 2004, which suggests that Lt Gen Ricardo Sanchez, commander of Multinational Forces-Iraq was aware of, and in some instances, present at Abu Ghraib while detainee abuse was occurring," the US military said in a statement.
"This report is false."

 

[pelastration]

Asphyxiations practices.

U.S. Army Survey Cites Wider Prisoner Abuse - NYT
Wednesday, May 26, 2004; 3:02 AM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A56301-2004May26.html

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. Army synopsis of deaths and mistreatment involving prisoners in American custody in Iraq and Afghanistan shows a pattern of abuse involving more military units than previously known, The New York Times reported on Wednesday.

The summary, dated May 5, was prepared by the Criminal Investigation Command at the request of Army officials, according to the newspaper.

It outlines the status of investigations into 36 cases, including the continuing probe into the abuses at Abu Ghraib prison on the outskirts of Baghdad, the paper said.

The Iraq cases date back to April 2003, the Times reported. In an incident reported to have taken place last month, a prisoner detained by Navy commandos died in a suspected case of homicide blamed on "blunt force trauma to the torso and positional asphyxia," the paper said.
...

One of the oldest cases listed in the May 5 document involves the death of a prisoner in Afghanistan in December 2002, the paper said.

The document said enlisted personnel from a military intelligence unit at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and an Army Reserve military-police unit from Ohio are thought to have been "involved at various times in assaulting and mistreating the detainee," according to the Times.

Members of the 223rd Military Intelligence Battalion, which is part of the California National Guard, were accused of abusing Iraqi detainees last spring in Samarra, north of Baghdad, the Times reported.

The Army summary said the unidentified enlisted personnel "forced into asphyxiations numerous detainees in an attempt to obtain information" over a 10-week period, according to the paper.

 

[pelastration]

Abu Ghraib interrogations = computer services?

Inquiry into interrogation firm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/3754683.stm

A private firm hired by the Pentagon to interrogate prisoners in Iraq's prisons has had its contract frozen as federal officials investigate its involvement.

The probe could cost defence contractor Caci Corporation its right to bid for government work.

Investigators are looking into an army report's accusations that a Caci staffer took part in the abuse of prisoners at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib jail.

The news sent Caci's shares down as much as 13% on Wall Street.


'Satisfactory' service

The firm says it is presently subject to five separate government investigations.

The firm insists customers had said say its work has been "very satisfactory" and "continue to request [its] services".

But among the five inquiries is one by the General Services Administration, which Caci acknowledged would investigate whether it should remain eligible for government contracts.

And another is looking into the fact that the interrogation services appear to have been provided not under a Defense Department contract, but under an otherwise innocuous deal to supply computer services to the Interior Department.
...
---
Seems these computer services were not related to software but to hardware.

 

[phoenixy]

BTW-I thought the Patriot Act was to protect MY freedoms

haha, good one

 

[russ_watters]

Every criminal in jail will tell you they are there against their will, but every one of them made a choice and is now paying the consequences.

Unless I missed it, not even the US military claims that all those held in the prison were criminals; they were taken there for the primary purpose of gathering intel ... apparently by means that included what most folk would call 'torture', and which Dubya has declared unacceptable. No doubt many of those subject to ill-treatment were 'guilty' of nothing but being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Unless it is claimed that the US forces are infallible, or that all Iraqis are 'fair game' ... I doubt that Russ, hughes, phat, etc would make either such claim.

I have been away from this thread for a while and missed this one. It needs a clarification.

I was making a comparison to Americans in American prisons - I was not implying that we know anything about the guilt or innocence of anyone in those prison camps in Iraq. Indeed, mistakes happen both in the US criminal justice system and in the military one during wartime.

 

[pelastration]

Guantanamo Interrogators Were Sent to Iraq - NY Times
Sat May 29, 2004 02:50 AM ET
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=5292501

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Interrogation experts from the Guantanamo Bay naval base were sent to Iraq last fall and played a major role in training U.S. intelligence teams at the Abu Ghraib prison, The New York Times reported on Saturday.

Citing senior military intelligence officials, the Times reported the teams from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, operated there with broad latitude in questioning "enemy combatants" from the U.S. war on terror and then played a central role at Abu Ghraib through December, when the worst abuses of prisoners were occurring there.

...

The Times said the teams were sent to Iraq for 90-day tours at the urging of Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller, then head of detention operations at Guantanamo. According to a defense official, Miller, the newly appointed head of Abu Ghraib, was sent to Iraq last summer to recommend improvements in intelligence gathering and detention operations there.

The Times said the involvement of the Guantanamo teams had not previously been disclosed and, according to U.S. military officials, would be included in a major report on suspected abuses by military intelligence specialists that is being completed by Maj. Gen. George Fay.

The newspaper reported that military officials said Fay would determine whether tactics used by interrogators at Guantanamo and in Afghanistan were wrongly applied in Iraq, including at Abu Ghraib, which was covered by the Geneva Convention.

Fay and his 29-member team conducted scores of interviews in Iraq, Europe and the United States over the past month, the Times said, and he was expected to brief Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, on his findings in the next week, a senior Army official told the paper.

The Times quoted a senior military official in Iraq as saying five interrogation teams, or about 15 interrogators, analysts and other specialists, were sent in October from Guantanamo to the U.S. command in Iraq "for use in the interrogation effort" at Abu Ghraib. A Washington defense official said only three teams were sent, the paper added

 

[pelastration]

Prison abuse 'widespread in Iraq'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3759923.stm
29 May, 2004

An American news agency says it has seen official papers suggesting that prisoner abuse in Iraq took place at four sites other than Abu Ghraib.

Evidence of abuse has emerged from a marine camp at Nasiriya and army camps at Baghdad International Airport, Qaim and Samarra, the Associated Press says.

Detainees were allegedly beaten or forced to stand for long periods of time in scorching desert heat.

AP examined court transcripts and investigator interviews.

The abuses allegedly committed at Abu Ghraib, the feared Saddam-era prison now run by coalition forces, outraged the world after a stream of photos apparently taken by guards emerged.

According to the military documents seen by AP, at least two detainees held at other sites died of their injuries.

The allegations concerning military intelligence troops include the following:


At Camp Whitehorse near Nasiriya, guards were allegedly told to prepare prisoners for interrogation by keeping them in hoods in temperatures of up to 49C degrees (120F) for 50 minutes at a time over periods of 10 hours. One Iraqi detainee choked to death.

At a camp near Qaim, interrogators allegedly stuffed an Iraqi general into a sleeping bag, sat on his chest and covered his mouth. Maj Gen Abed Hamed Mowhoush, who had also been questioned by CIA operatives, eventually died.

At a camp near Samarra, prisoners were reportedly choked and beaten and had their hair pulled.

At Camp Cropper, at Baghdad International Airport, prisoners were allegedly beaten and forced to adopt painful positions for hours at a time.

 

[pelastration]

AP: Army noted Geneva Conventions violations in Iraq prisons last fall

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2004-06-01-prison-abuse_x.htm

WASHINGTON (AP) — An Army general who visited Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq last fall complained that the military was violating international war standards by incarcerating common criminals along with insurgents captured in attacks against U.S.-led forces.

It was one among dozens of observations in a still-classified report, obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press, portraying an overcrowded, dysfunctional prison system lacking basic sanitation and medical supplies.

"Due to operational limitations, facility limitations and force protection issues, there are criminal detainees collocated with other types of detainees, including security detainees," wrote Maj. Gen. Donald Ryder, the Army's provost martial general. "However, the Geneva Convention does not allow this."

Ryder warned that mixing such prisoners "invites confusion about handling, processing and treatment."

Article 84 of the Fourth Geneva Convention prohibits housing prisoners of war and "persons deprived of liberty for any other reason" with general criminal populations. The rules also require that enemy prisoners be kept in facilities "affording every guarantee of hygiene and healthfulness."

... and more