“The White Knight Is A Dirty Old Man”

July 23, 2004

Update 25. July

The Army Report is available now at Global Security Org (PDF, long). The armys website www.army.mil is still not reachable.

End Update

The Ajax White Knight has done serious overtime:

WaPo has the 9/11 Commission Report as executive summary and in full.

At the same time, the Army finds 49 abuse cases in a report delivered at a hastily called Senate committee meeting.

NYT writes about the report:

It provided a contrast to the conclusions of General Taguba, who found that the military police at Abu Ghraib conducted “systemic and illegal abuse of detainees.”

A report by the International Committee of the Red Cross in February found that “methods of ill treatment” were “used in a systematic way” by the United States military in Iraq.
…
The Army did not post a copy of General Mikolashek’s report in a prominent position on its Web site until early on Thursday afternoon, and even Army public affairs personnel said they had difficulty gaining access to it.

Currently I can neither reach the Army website nor find a link to the report.

The 9/11 Commission Reports Chapter 8: “THE SYSTEM WAS
BLINKING RED” (PDF) tells who has been sleeping on his/her watch.

As the CIA supervisor “John” told us, no one looked at the bigger picture;

Now whos task would that have been?

Posted by b on July 23, 2004 at 11:42 UTC | Permalink

Comments

The report said that of the 125 cases reviewed, 31 were deemed to have no merit. The report did not provide a breakdown of the types of abuse, but Lieutenant Colonel Pamela Hart, an Army spokeswoman, said in an interview that of the 125 cases reviewed by Army inspectors, at least 39 involved deaths of detainees. She said at least 17 were deemed “natural” or undetermined deaths, five were ruled “justifiable homicides,” three were ruled “homicides,” and 14 cases were pending.
Investigators also reviewed at least 41 allegations of assault, four allegations of sexual assault, and 19 alleged thefts, Hart said, citing data up to June, the most recent figures available.

I am fairly certain that their report is flawed based on the excerpt above from the piece you linked to in Boston.com. Or maybe it depends on the Army’s definition of “sexual assault”. There have been many pictures posted of different Iraqi men being sexually humilitated, there have been reports of Iraqi women being raped, and there are the videos that some have seen of the Iraqi boys being raped. So, either 1 guy is very unlucky, or it’s a crap report.

Posted by: sukabi | Jul 23 2004 14:48 utc | 1

The editors of the NYT recognizes the power of the White Knight: Abu Ghraib, Whitewashed

Posted by: Bernhard | Jul 24 2004 5:59 utc | 2

As do the editors of WaPo: An Army Whitewash

Posted by: Bernhard | Jul 24 2004 6:18 utc | 3

Trial or no trial – the US has apparently already mapped out the future of its Guantanamo prisoners – but who decided that ‘legal’ should be struck from the military dictionary and why do US military ‘legal’ personnel prostitute themselves and their profession in the way that they do?
””Oh, we’re not releasing anybody.…Most of these prisoners will never leave Guantanamo Bay. They’ll spend the rest of their lives in detention.” And I said, “How do they get visits from home?” She said, “These are terrorists, ma’am. They’re not entitled to visitors from home.”
I was stunned. I thought, we’ll never get out of Iraq at this rate….
….We got great credit around the world for putting in $138 billion-with-a-B dollars into a supplemental (spending bill) so the Iraqis could grow their own country, their own democracy. Well, I know for a fact that in the prisons department in the CPA — which was a relatively small department, as significant as the mission is, to provide a secure Iraq — 83 people, funded for one year, in excess of $10 million. They were bringing people in, under those contracts, each one of those 83 people were making between $15,000 and $22,000 a month. And I said to the lead person in that department, many times, “Do you know how many Iraqis you cold employ with that $15,000 that you’re paying ONE American contractor?” “They don’t have the skills.” I said, “Carey (ph), they do have the skills. Some of them worked in the prisons for 25 years.” “But they were corrupt.” Yes, they were corrupt because they were being paid $300 a month. You add insult to injury by bringing in one American who doesn’t speak the language and now requires a translator who’s going to be making $10,000 or $12,000 or $15,000 a month, to go with them to tell an Iraqi how to do what they already know how to do. Pay 15 Iraqis $1,000 each a month and you’ll have a fired up prison system. And you’re hiring 83 people at $15,000 to $22,000 a month.
Shame on us. Because that’s not what that money was intended for. And that was being done all over the CPA.
US Army Brigadier General Janis Karpinski’s whistle keeps getting louder – and she knows stuff about Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo

Posted by: Nemo | Jul 24 2004 6:45 utc | 4

Two weeks ago the affair of Mr. Idema was discussed here Tin Foil Hat Required.
Mr. Idema was running a “private” prison in Afghanistan. As the Christian Science Monitor reports in US bounty hunter claims Pentagon ties, Mr. Idema says to have been in contact with the Department of Defense several times each day.

He named Heather Anderson, the acting director of security for Stephen Cambone, the Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence, as his main point of contact.

Posted by: Bernhard | Jul 24 2004 7:22 utc | 5

Once you make a military state you get military camp of your country. I don’t see how anyone can expect democracy to flourish in those circumstances…Look at the history pages. Why I am not surprised with official language that suppress brutally what ever people thought they achieved in human rights field etc. Not at all. They treat you like solders…all of you.
Watching American movies ( in the absence of anything else) I just see that military mentality overwhelmed (or at least tend to overwhelm) people’s daily life…Reactions , dialogs, scene…horrific. Exhibition of pure physical force…all the time. Psychological training for mass.
And when I hear popular “bring them/it on” in actually every movie made lately I could vomit…

Posted by: vbo | Jul 24 2004 14:21 utc | 6

Yes, vbo,
The cultural loudspeakers broadcast militarism and aggression 24 hours a day. It’s odd to me that more people don’t understand that hyper-militarism and freedom are incompatible. I know you are looking from afar. Imagine what it’s like to be sentient AND living here. And people wonder why we sit at the bar for hours and need to get a ride home at the end of the day.
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
(W.B. Yeats – “The Second Coming”)

Posted by: Kate_Storm | Jul 24 2004 18:33 utc | 7

Bernhard,
The Idema case may get interesting after all. At first, his claim of Pentagon contact seemed intriguing but unlikely. Now I’m not sure. Check out the headline from yesterday’s New York Times: “U.S. Army Accepted Afghan Prisoner From Vigilante Suspect”

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, July 22 – American military officials in Afghanistan said Thursday that they had accepted but later released an Afghan prisoner handed over to them in May by an American now accused of running his own freelance antiterrorism campaign.

Kind of tough to claim you aren’t cooperating with a guy a little dubious if you’re taking prisoners off his hands two months ago without shutting down his operation.

Posted by: dirtgirl | Jul 24 2004 21:07 utc | 8

Sympathy for the devil – wouldn’t want anyone getting the wrong idea – these are the nice ones
…Shortly after their arrival home, the public learned their commander had been disciplined for secretly photographing his female soldiers as they showered at Abu Ghraib. …
…..Pvt. David Ruth, who killed one inmate during the riot with a shot to the head from a light machine gun, received a medal on Saturday “for glorious achievement responding to a hostile crowd of people.”…”
…Sgt. Terry Stowe, who killed two prisoners in the riot, said the memories remained intense and still filled his dreams.
“I’m still looking for a job, still looking for a house,” he said. “Still trying to get my life together.”
U.S. MPs fear being tarred with Abu Ghraib brush
American wimps – Iraqi prisoners probably feared being raped with the Abu Ghraib brush

Posted by: Anonymous | Jul 25 2004 0:24 utc | 9

me @ 8.24

Posted by: Nemo | Jul 25 2004 0:25 utc | 10

Read him his rights? Hell, he ain’t got no rights! – “Extraordinary renditions”
Need someone tortured in a ‘friendly’ country? Need to circumvent human rights laws, judicial process and other legal safeguards? Just pick up that ‘phone and call the CIA – for fast, reliable international deliveries.
American Express – that’ll do nicely!
A secret deportation of terror suspects

Posted by: Nemo | Jul 26 2004 3:25 utc | 11

The Western Hemispheric Institute for Security Cooperation – Congress quietly keeps School of the Americas alive
…The Abu Ghraib torture techniques have been field-tested by SOA graduates — seven of the U.S. Army interrogation manuals that were translated into Spanish, used at the SOA’s trainings and distributed to our allies, offered instruction on torture, beatings and assassination. As Dr. Miles Schuman, a physician with the Canadian Centre for Victims of Torture who has documented torture cases and counseled their victims, graphically wrote in the May 14 Toronto Globe and Mail under the headline “Abu Ghraib: The Rule, Not the Exception”….
Some graduates of America’s torture academy and their achievements:
In June 2001, Colonel Byron Lima Estrada, an SOA grad who was head of Guatemala’s bloody D-2 intelligence unit, was convicted of Guatemalan Bishop Gerardi’s murder by bludgeoning — two days after the bishop released a report concluding that the army was responsible for a majority of the 200,000 killed in his country’s civil war.
In April 2002, two SOA graduates (Army Commander in Chief Efrain Vasquez and General Ramirez Poveda) helped lead a failed coup in Venezuela. The notorious Otto Reich, a failed Bush-administration appointee who sat on the renamed school’s Board of Visitors, met with the generals in the months preceding the coup.
In June 2002, Colombian police arrested SOA graduate John Fredy Jimenez for the murder of Archbishop Isaias Duarte in March of that year.
In 2002, Bolivian Captain Filiman Rodriguez took a 49-week officer-training course at WHINSEC. But in 1999, he’d been found responsible for the kidnapping and torture of Waldo Albarracin, then director of the Popular Assembly for Human Rights, by a commission of the Bolivian Chamber of Deputies.
In 2003, Salvadoran Colonel Francisco del Cid Diaz was a student at WHINSEC. But the colonel commanded a unit that shot 16 residents from the Los Hojas cooperative of the Asociacion Nacional de Indígenas and threw their bodies into the river in 1983. In 1992, the OAS Inter-American Commission on Human Rights recommended prosecution of Col. Cid Diaz for the murders.
Teaching torture
America – proudly helping Third World and underdeveloped nations to electrocute, flog, rape, semi-drown and tear the fingernails out of their citizens for many years now. Killers and Human Rights abusers especially welcome.

Posted by: Nemo | Jul 26 2004 11:43 utc | 12

CACI says staff met Army standards
Now what this tell us about Army standards (ex Tabuga)?
Recommendations of the Tabuga Report:

11. (U) That Mr. Steven Stephanowicz, Contract US Civilian Interrogator, CACI, 205th Military Intelligence Brigade, be given an Official Reprimand to be placed in his employment file, termination of employment, and generation of a derogatory report to revoke his security clearance for the following acts which have been previously referred to in the aforementioned findings:
* Made a false statement to the investigation team regarding the locations of his interrogations, the activities during his interrogations, and his knowledge of abuses.
* Allowed and/or instructed MPs, who were not trained in interrogation techniques, to facilitate interrogations by “setting conditions” which were neither authorized and in accordance with applicable regulations/policy. He clearly knew his instructions equated to physical abuse.
12. (U) That Mr. John Israel,Contract US Civilian Interpreter, CACI, 205th Military Intelligence Brigade, be given an Official Reprimand to be placed in his employment file and have his security clearance reviewed by competent authority for the following acts or concerns which have been previously referred to in the aforementioned findings:
* Denied ever having seen interrogation processes in violation of the IROE, which is contrary to several witness statements.
* Did not have a security clearance.
13. (U) I find that there is sufficient credible information to warrant an Inquiry UP Procedure 15, AR 381-10, US Army Intelligence Activities, be conducted to determine the extent of culpability of MI personnel, assigned to the 205th MI Brigade and the Joint Interrogation and Debriefing Center (JIDC) at Abu Ghraib (BCCF). Specifically, I suspect that COL Thomas M. Pappas, LTC Steve L. Jordan, Mr. Steven Stephanowicz, and Mr. John Israel were either directly or indirectly responsible for the abuses at Abu Ghraib (BCCF) and strongly recommend immediate disciplinary action as described in the preceding paragraphs as well as the initiation of a Procedure 15 Inquiry to determine the full extent of their culpability. (Annex 36)

What does this tell us about the Army standards?

Posted by: Bernhard | Jul 26 2004 18:16 utc | 13

Bernard: hat does this tell us about the Army standards?
Is this a rhetorical question, Bernard? 😉
I just posted a related thread at the annex about the US congress renewing the appropriation for the School of the Americas at Fort Benning, Georgia. The focal point for my rant was from the LA Weekly piece: Teaching Torture: Congress quietly keeps School of the Americas alive.

Posted by: Kate_Storm | Jul 26 2004 18:41 utc | 14

Standards – ethics versus ‘priorities’? ‘Priorities’ wins every time and the absence of principled debate on the issue is a US national shame
WASHINGTON – For a government that routinely lectures foreign countries on their human rights failings, this has been a very difficult year for the United States.
The abuses of prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison and the disclosure of government memos that seemed to justify torture as an interrogation technique have led to charges the United States has no moral authority to stand in judgment of others. ..
….Democratic candidate John Kerry has indicated he may be less assertive on certain aspects of human rights policy than Bush. For example, he told the Washington Post in May that pursuing nonproliferation goals in Russia and Pakistan is more important than protecting human rights, and that China’s integration into the world economy transcends rights concerns. ..
Abu Ghraib stain makes it tough for U.S.
A pick ‘n’ mix approach to Human Rights issues is actually a rejection of standards, of international law, of moral authority and of any genuine commitment to protecting the lives of all the men, women and children on this planet. Cherry picking rights to promote and protect in some countries while ignoring abuses in others can only be described as cynical hypocrisy.

Posted by: Nemo | Jul 26 2004 19:22 utc | 15

US Army admits imprisoning Iraqi teenagers
BERLIN, July 26 (Xinhuanet) — The US army admits for the first time to having detained adolescents in its prisons in Iraq, according to a German press report.
The TV magazine “Report Mainz,” to be broadcast Monday evening on the ARD network, quoted Lieutenant Colonel Barry Johnson, a spokesman for the US troops in Iraq, as saying that they still imprisoned 58 Iraqis in the age of from 14 and 17.
The Iraqi adolescents are held in the prisons of Abu Ghraib and “Camp Bucca” and the length of their average imprisonment is half a year, Johnson said….
US admits imprisoning teenagers in Iraq

Posted by: Nemo | Jul 27 2004 5:01 utc | 16

Dirty women?
Iraqi says US general witnessed abuse
An account that places Brigadier-General Karpinski as a laughing witness to torture

Posted by: Nemo | Jul 28 2004 1:50 utc | 17

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