Jolie Rouge

Probe: Leaders Didn't Order Prison Abuse

WASHINGTON (AP) - Top commanders in Iraq put intense pressure on interrogators to extract useful intelligence information from prisoners, yet that does not explain the sexual humiliation and other abuse of prisoners under U.S. control, an investigation has concluded.

The report by Navy Vice Adm. Albert T. Church said the pressure was not excessive. The investigation could find no ``single, overarching reason'' why prisoners under U.S. control were abused at the Abu Ghraib prison complex in fall 2003 and elsewhere in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Command pressure for more intelligence was to be expected in a battlefield setting, Church wrote. ``We found no evidence, however, that interrogators in Iraq believed that any pressure for intelligence subverted their obligation to treat detainees humanely,'' he wrote in a summary of his findings.

Church, a former Navy inspector general and now director of the Navy staff, was presenting his report to Congress on Thursday. A copy of a 21-page executive summary was obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press.

Church concluded that no civilian or uniformed leaders directed or encouraged abuse, and his report holds Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and other top defense leaders largely blameless on the narrow question of pressuring interrogators as well as the larger matter of interrogation policies. ``We found no evidence to support the notion that the office of the secretary of defense (or other military or White House staff) applied explicit pressure for intelligence or gave 'back channel' permission to forces in the field in Iraq or in Afghanistan'' to exceed the bounds of authorized interrogation practices, the report said.

Church conducted more than 800 interviews and reviewed the conclusions of several other investigations. His main purpose was to trace the development and implementation of interrogation policies and techniques and to search for connections to the reported abuses. ``We found no link between approved interrogation techniques and detainee abuse,'' he concluded.

The review did cite, however, a number of ``missed opportunities'' in the development of interrogation policies.

Among the missed opportunities was a failure to provide commanders in Iraq and Afghanistan with specific and early guidance on interrogation techniques. ``We cannot say that there would necessarily have been less detainee abuse had these opportunities been acted upon,'' Church wrote. Had that guidance been provided earlier, ``interrogation policy could have benefited from additional expertise and oversight,'' he wrote.

The Church report also disclosed that the top U.S. commander in Iraq, Army Gen. George Casey, who arrived there last summer, approved on Jan. 27 a new, more restrictive interrogation policy for Iraq.

Casey's new policy ``provides additional safeguards and prohibitions, rectifies ambiguities'' and requires that commanders report to Casey their compliance with the policy, the report said.

The probe also found, in the cases of detainee operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, that the dissemination of approved interrogation policy to commanders in the field was generally poor. And in Iraq in particular it found that compliance with approved policy guidance was generally poor.

By contrast, compliance with the authorized interrogation methods was in nearly all cases exemplary at the U.S. naval facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where terrorism suspects have been held since January 2002, the report said. It attributed this to strict command oversight and effective leadership, as well as adequate resources.

The review was done last summer. It is among several triggered by disclosures last spring of prisoner abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison complex in Iraq. Church was directed to look at how interrogation policies were developed and implemented from the start of the terror war in fall 2001. ``An early focus of our investigation was to determine whether DOD (Department of Defense) had promulgated interrogation policies or guidance that directed, sanctioned or encouraged the abuse of detainees. We found that this was not the case,'' the Church probe concluded.

``Even in the absence of a precise definition of 'humane' treatment, it is clear that none of the pictured abuses at Abu Ghraib bear any resemblance to approved policies at any level,'' it added.

Church did not directly investigate the Abu Ghraib matter or address questions about accountability for senior defense officials involved in interrogation policy. Both of those matters have been investigated by others.


While the problems cited by Church in the dissemination of interrogation policy guidance to commanders in Iraq and Afghanistan were found to be ``certainly cause for concern,'' Church concluded that ``they did not lead to the employment of illegal or abusive interrogation techniques.''


Church examined the 187 Pentagon investigations of alleged prisoner abuse that had been completed when he finished his work last September. He counted 70 of those investigations as having substantiated acts of abuse. In six of the 70 cases, the prisoner died. Of the 70, only 20 were related to interrogations; the other 50 were not associated in any way with questioning, he said.


Associated Press Writer Liz Sidoti contributed to this report.



03/10/05 02:48

http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/news/sto...s_ghraib_abuse

__________________
Laissez les bon temps rouler! Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.** a 4 day work week & sex slaves ~ I say Tyt for PRESIDENT! Not to be taken internally, literally or seriously ....Suki ebaynni IS THAT BETTER ?

mesue

Have you ever noticed when an agency within an agency or in this case the gov. investigates itself they always come out smelling like a rose?

Jolie Rouge

The UN's investigation of the "Oil for Food" found few "mistakes" and no "intentional wrong-doing" as well...

__________________
Laissez les bon temps rouler! Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.** a 4 day work week & sex slaves ~ I say Tyt for PRESIDENT! Not to be taken internally, literally or seriously ....Suki ebaynni IS THAT BETTER ?

mesue

You keep forgetting that the US government officials knew about the abuse of the oil for food program and did nothing about it either, so we are not completely innocent, unfortunately. Perhaps there should be an independent group (totally independent of any ties to any organization) formed to look into these things, people from all countries with only one job and that is to launch an investigation into these things and if warranted to take the indicted it to an international court. As it stands now we have the same people involved or connected with those groups investigating themselves.

Jolie Rouge

Prison abuse documents made public by U.S. army
3/5/2005

A compilation of video's depicting American army units in Iraq was called "Ramadi Madness" by a member of the Florida National Guardsman.

Some of the images from the video were investigated as possible detainee abuse, including one recording of a soldier kicking a wounded, moaning Iraqi.

The description of the video was among 1,200 pages of documents released in response to a lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which is seeking information on prisoner abuse in Iraq. But investigators found no cause to charge anyone in connection with the videos, according to documents released by the Army on Friday.

Army officials said the documents summarized 13 investigations, none of which resulted in abuse charges.

Some were closed because of insufficient evidence.

Jameel Jaffer, an attorney with the ACLU, called the latest Army documents "further evidence that abuse of detainees was widespread in Iraq and Afghanistan."

The ACLU, along with the group Human Rights First, sued Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld this week in connection with some alleged abuses of prisoners.

The "Ramadi Madness" video was a compilation of recordings taken of the actions of B Company, 1st Battalion, 124th Infantry Regiment, a unit of the Florida National Guard that was in Iraq in 2003 and early 2004, according to the investigation documents. The company is based in West Palm Beach.

"The video is definitely inappropriate," the company's commander, Major Joseph Lyon said. "... However, we were still in a very tight situation, a stressful situation ... Until you've lived that, it's very difficult for anyone to play armchair quarterback."

Lyon said the video led to disciplinary action against a soldier or soldiers. He would not specify whom, what or how many.

The investigation began after a civilian public affairs officer in Florida saw some of the video while other soldiers were watching it.

The video itself was not released. Investigation documents describe efforts to prevent it from being leaked to the news media.

The investigation found that "Ramadi Madness" contained footage of "inappropriate rather than criminal behavior," according to a summary of the investigation, dated December 28 2004.

According to investigators, one part of the video showed an Iraqi lying on the ground, handcuffed and moaning, when a soldier kicked him. The prisoner had been shot through the abdomen because he raised a gun toward American soldiers during a raid, investigators said.

Investigators found one soldier, whose name was blacked out in the documents, who acknowledged he looked like the one in the video, although his face was obscured. The soldier said he didn't remember kicking the Iraqi.

The fate of the detainee is unclear; several officers said they didn't believe the kick constituted an assault.

Another section of the video appeared to show a soldier hitting a cuffed Iraqi in the head with a rifle butt during an interrogation, according to the civilian who first reported it.

One soldier who spoke to interrogators claims that this was a staged image, and the Iraqi was not actually hit with the rifle. The soldier said the Iraqi, a juvenile, had been detained for throwing rocks at a U.S. military convoy and was later released.

A third section showed one soldier manipulating a dead Iraqi, shot while trying to run a checkpoint in a truck, to make it appear the man waved to the camera.

The soldier said he only positioned the body so other U.S. personnel could remove it.

In another case, a civilian with the organization searching for weapons of mass destruction alleged a U.S. military prison guard at Baghdad International Airport forced a detainee to drink his own urine.

The investigation could not prove this happened.

http://www.aljazeera.com/cgi-bin/new...ervice_id=7285

__________________
Laissez les bon temps rouler! Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.** a 4 day work week & sex slaves ~ I say Tyt for PRESIDENT! Not to be taken internally, literally or seriously ....Suki ebaynni IS THAT BETTER ?

mesue

http://www.democracynow.org/article....58222Military: 26 Prisoners Murdered In U.S. Custody Overseas
The Army and Navy has revealed that 26 prisoners have been killed while in the custody of U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. In all of the cases military investigators have concluded or suspect the deaths were acts of criminal homicide. This according to the New York Times. The number of prisoners killed is far higher than any figure previously released by the military. Another 11 prisoners were killed in what the U.S. has classified as justifiable homicides. More prisoners have died of natural causes while in detention. James Ross of Human Rights Watch said "This number to me is quite astounding. This just reflects an overall failure to take seriously the abuses that have occurred." Last week the Pentagon sent Congress a report on prisoner abuse. It mentioned just six prisoner deaths. That same report concluded the widespread reports of abuse were not the result of official Pentagon policy. The deaths occurred in a number of U.S.-run prisons. Only one took place in the notorious Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

Officer Jailed 45 Days For Tossing Iraqis In River
Meanwhile a U.S. army platoon leader was sentenced Tuesday to 45 days in military prison. Lieutenant Jack Saville pleaded guilty that he ordered his troops to throw two Iraqi prisoners into the Tigris River. One of the prisoners has never been found and is believed to have drowned. Saville is one of the first officers to be tried for abusing prisoners in Iraq. His sentence was kept to just 45 days because he had agreed to testify in another military trial. In that trial, Saville revealed that his captain had once given him a hit list of five Iraqis who were to be executed on the spot if they were captured in a raid.

Jolie Rouge

May 15, 2005
latimes.com : EDITORIAL

Beyond Abu Ghraib

The release a year ago of photographs of American soldiers performing twisted acts like holding Iraqi prisoners at the end of a leash stamped the name Abu Ghraib with a notoriety that will last for decades. Some soldiers are being held accountable, either with jail time or loss of rank, but the scandal also has shone light on the issue of mistreatment of detainees beyond Iraq, a matter that requires a far-reaching investigation independent of U.S. intelligence agencies or the military.

Last week, Army officials announced that the officer in charge of military intelligence at Abu Ghraib at the time of the abuse and sexual humiliation of inmates, Col. Thomas M. Pappas, had been reprimanded and fined for not ensuring that interrogators were adequately trained and supervised. That will end his Army career. Janis Karpinski, the commander of military police at the prison, earlier was demoted from brigadier general to colonel for not properly supervising the guards. Her career also is over. But the punishment of two high-ranking officers does not erase concerns that the Army is seeking scapegoats among lower-ranking soldiers and sparing the brass.

ADVERTISEMENT

The Abu Ghraib photos offer a continuing source of fuel for Muslim hatred of the United States, but there are others. Demonstrations in Afghanistan last week were sparked by a Newsweek report that Americans had desecrated the Koran during interrogations at Guantanamo Bay. The State Department this month reported that 11 soldiers at the U.S. naval base in Cuba were punished for abusing detainees, but only one was court-martialed. He was acquitted.

The State Department's report was given to the U.N. Committee Against Torture and states that the U.S. prohibits the practice. But the report did not address "ghost detainees," who are abducted covertly and transferred to other countries without being given access to the Red Cross. The U.S. says it does not hand over prisoners to countries that torture, but foreign detainees are periodically released and testify to the contrary.

The U.S. military has a generally good record in holding its people accountable for their misdeeds. But the CIA also is involved in prisoner interrogation, and the secrecy surrounding the agency raises questions about mistreatment. The chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), said in March that the CIA was not torturing detainees; he said there was no reason for the committee to investigate allegations that the agency abused prisoners or transferred them to countries engaging in torture. He's wrong.

A clearer view came from the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, John W. Warner (R-Va.), who said last month that once the Pentagon ended all its assessments of mistreatment of detainees, he would hold a hearing to review the findings. He also says he wants to hear senior civilian and military officials discuss the abuses. But even that may not be enough. The civil liberties group Human Rights First reports that 108 people have died in U.S. custody in Iraq and Afghanistan, more than 30 of them suspected or confirmed to be murder victims.

The 9/11 attacks demanded a better response to terrorism and a reexamination of procedures to hold guerrillas not entitled to prisoner-of-war status. But that discussion needs to be public and led by Congress. It's not enough for Pentagon civilian leaders to cook up excuses for holding suspects incommunicado and to spell out rules on detainee treatment more clearly only when violations are reported in the media. Congressional committees should investigate whether the military is living up to its tradition of accountability and whether intelligence agencies are heeding the law. The matter goes far beyond how the U.S. is viewed abroad; it goes to the heart of how Americans view themselves and the core values under which this nation was founded.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/...ent-editorials

__________________
Laissez les bon temps rouler! Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.** a 4 day work week & sex slaves ~ I say Tyt for PRESIDENT! Not to be taken internally, literally or seriously ....Suki ebaynni IS THAT BETTER ?

excuseme

You are aware that the United States government can't account for billions and billions of dollars spent for the Iraq invasion don't you? Shall we call that "Oil for Cash II?"