US military in torture scandal (Guardian)

[Ivo Skoric]

US is outsourcing torture to local contractors.
ivo
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Note: This article doesn't mention the supervisory role of FBI and 
CIA
agents in the prison, which is mentioned in the 60 Minutes program
(see link at bottom of article), or the likelihood that many of the
mercs are ex-CIA  & military personnel working hand in glove with
their former employers & colleagues.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1206725,00.html

US military in torture scandal

Use of private contractors in Iraqi jail interrogations highlighted 
by
inquiry into abuse of prisoners

Julian Borger in Washington
Friday April 30, 2004
The Guardian

Graphic photographs showing the torture and sexual abuse of Iraqi
prisoners in a US-run prison outside Baghdad emerged yesterday from a
military inquiry which has left six soldiers facing a possible court
martial and a general under investigation.

The scandal has also brought to light the growing and largely
unregulated role of private contractors in the interrogation of
detainees.

According to lawyers for some of the soldiers, they claimed to be
acting in part under the instruction of mercenary interrogators hired
by the Pentagon.

US military investigators discovered the photographs, which include
images of a hooded prisoner with wires fixed to his body, and nude
inmates piled in a human pyramid.

The pictures, which were obtained by an American TV network, also 
show
a dog attacking a prisoner and other inmates being forced to simulate
sex with each other. It is thought the abuses took place in November
and December last year.

The pictures from Abu Ghraib prison have shocked the US army.

Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, deputy director of operations for the
US military in Iraq, expressed his embarrassment and regret for what
had happened.

He told the CBS current affairs programme 60 Minutes II: "If we can't
hold ourselves up as an example of how to treat people with dignity
and respect, we can't ask that other nations do that to our 
soldiers."

Gen Kimmitt said the investigation began in January when an American
soldier reported the abuse and turned over evidence that included
photographs.

"That soldier said: 'There are some things going on here that I can't
live with'."

The inquiry had centred on the 800th Brigade which is based in
Uniondale, New York.

The US army confirmed that the general in charge of Abu Ghraib jail 
is
facing disciplinary measures and that six low-ranking soldiers have
been charged with abusing and sexually humiliating detainees.

Lawyers for the soldiers argue they are being made scapegoats for a
rogue military prison system in which mercenaries give orders without
legal accountability.

A military report into the Abu Ghraib case - parts of which were made
available to the Guardian - makes it clear that private contractors
were supervising interrogations in the prison, which was notorious 
for
torture and executions under Saddam Hussein.

One civilian contractor was accused of raping a young, male prisoner
but has not been charged because military law has no jurisdiction 
over
him.

Hired guns from a wide array of private security firms are playing a
central role in the US-led occupation of Iraq.

The killing of four private contractors in Falluja on March 31 led to
the current siege of the city.

But this is the first time the privatisation of interrogation and
intelligence-gathering has come to light.

The military investigation names two US contractors, CACI
International Inc and the Titan Corporation, for their involvement in
Abu Ghraib.

Titan, based in San Diego, describes itself as a "a leading provider
of comprehensive information and communications products, solutions
and services for national security".

CACI, which has headquarters in Virginia, claims on its website to
"help America's intelligence community collect, analyse and share
global in formation in the war on terrorism".

Neither responded to calls for comment yesterday.

According to the military report on Abu Ghraib, both played an
important role at the prison.

At one point, the investigators say: "A CACI instructor was 
terminated
because he allowed and/or instructed MPs who were not trained in
interrogation techniques to facilitate interrogations by setting
conditions which were neither authorised [nor] in accordance with
applicable regulations/policy."

Colonel Jill Morgenthaler, speaking for central command, told the
Guardian: "One contractor was originally included with six soldiers,
accused for his treatment of the prisoners, but we had no 
jurisdiction
over him. It was left up to the contractor on how to deal with him."

She did not specify the accusation facing the contractor, but
according to several sources with detailed knowledge of the case, he
raped an Iraqi inmate in his mid-teens.

Col Morgenthaler said the charges against the six soldiers included
"indecent acts, for ordering detainees to publicly masturbate;
maltreatment, for non-physical abuse, piling inmates into nude
pyramids and taking pictures of them nude; battery, for shoving and
stepping on detainees; dereliction of duty; and conspiracy to 
maltreat
detainees".

One of the soldiers, Staff Sgt Chip Frederick is accused of posing in
a photograph sitting on top of a detainee, committing an indecent act
and with assault for striking detainees - and ordering detainees to
strike each other.

He told CBS: "We had no support, no training whatsoever. And I kept
asking my chain of command for certain things ... like rules and
regulations."

His lawyer, Gary Myers, told the Guardian that Sgt Frederick had not
had the opportunity to read the Geneva Conventions before being put 
on
guard duty, a task he was not trained to perform.

Mr Myers said the role of the private contractors in Abu Ghraib are
central to the case.

"We know that CACI and Titan corporations have provided interrogators
and that they have in fact conducted interrogations on behalf of the
US and have interacted the military police guards at the prison," he
said.

"I think it creates a laissez faire environment that is completely
inappropriate. If these individuals engaged in crimes against an Iraq
national - who has jurisdiction over such a crime?"

"It's insanity," said Robert Baer, a former CIA agent, who has
examined the case, and is concerned about the private contractors'
free-ranging role. "These are rank amateurs and there is no legally
binding law on these guys as far as I could tell. Why did they let
them in the prison?"

The Pentagon had no comment yesterday on the role of contractors at
Abu Ghraib, saying that an inquiry was still in progress.

Read the CBS story here:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/04/27/60II/main614063.shtml


PS from Shebar
A very good piece on U.S. mercs (or "privatized military forces") in
Iraq is Huck Gutman's "Soldiers on Hire," published by the Statesman
in Calcutta & reprinted by CommonDreams.org: Part 1
http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0427-03.htm Part 2
http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0428-01.htm
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