disseminator <disseminator@bogus.com> wrote in message news:<40e93244$0$17902$45beb828@newscene.com>...

can_o_worms <can_o_worms> wrote in
news:cgege0ld57o47gltp5c2tgtv96baj4ntpn@4ax.com:

(scroll down for Counterpunch's article)

On 3 Jul 2004 14:55:47 GMT, disseminator <disseminator@bogus.com>
wrote:

Too bad that it is the British media that has to dig this up.
I hear that the BBC is doing something on it.
That "liberal" American media won't touch it for anything!!!

They are too busy keeping us informed about their
hollyweird tabloid crap. The US media will keep their mouths
shut rather than put out any revealing dirt on any Israeli
operations that we allow in Iraq.

MSNBC's Hardball show (substitute host this week) has
ex CIA boss Woolsey on all the time and never asks him
about CACI or their involvement at Abu Ghraib!
Instead they just sit there and let him fill the country
full of Ahmad Chalabi's propaganda and his Israeli pals
line of ***** without telling you who he lobbies for!

Even Seymore Hersh won't focus, much, on the Israeli-Abu Ghraib
connection. Probably cause it isn't edifying for his trendy
"New Yorker"readership like Israel's spook ops amongst the Kurds.
see:
http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?040628fa_fact

Hersh, You'll have to admit, is the one who dug up
the story in the 1st place. I haven't heard what he
says about it. I'm sure that he would know as much as
anyone.

Robert Fisk was talking about Israelis at Abu Ghraib on
5/26 in the UK Independent. I read of it in the "American
Conservative" even before then. I guess these US media
pundits still think it's '67 and they can feed us hicks
whatever info they feel we will be complacent with.

http://www.counterpunch.org/madsen05102004.html

The Israeli Torture Template
Rape, Feces and Urine-Dipped Cloth Sacks
By WAYNE MADSEN

With mounting evidence that a shadowy group of former Israeli
Defense Force and General Security Service (Shin Bet)
Arabic-speaking interrogators were hired by the Pentagon under
a classified "carve out" sub-contract to brutally interrogate
Iraqi prisoners at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison, one only needs
to examine the record of abuse of Palestinian and Lebanese
prisoners in Israel to understand what Secretary of Defense
Donald Rumsfeld meant, when referring to new, yet to be released
photos and videos, he said, "if these images are released to the
public, obviously its going to make matters worse."

According to a political appointee within the Bush administration
and U.S. intelligence sources, the interrogators at Abu Ghraib
included a number of Arabic-speaking Israelis who also helped U.S.
interrogators develop the "R2I" (Resistance to Interrogation)
techniques. Many of the torture methods were developed by the
Israelis over many years of interrogating Arab prisoners on the
occupied West Bank and in Israel itself.

Clues about worse photos and videos of abuse may be found in
Israeli files about similar abuse of Palestinian and other Arab
prisoners. In March 2000, a lawyer for a Lebanese prisoner
kidnapped in 1994 by the Israelis in Lebanon claimed that his
client had been subjected to torture, including rape. The type
of compensation offered by Rumsfeld in his testimony has its
roots in cases of Israeli torture of Arabs. In the case of the
Lebanese man, said to have been raped by his Israeli captors,
his lawyer demanded compensation of $1.47 million. The Public
Committee Against Torture in Israel documented the types of
torture meted out on Arab prisoners. Many of the tactics coincide
with those contained in the Taguba report: beatings and prolonged
periods handcuffed to furniture. In an article in the December 1998
issue of The Progressive, Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb reported on the
treatment given to a 23-year old Palestinian held on
"administrative detention." The prisoner was "cuffed behind a
chair 17 hours a day for 120 days . . . [he] had his head covered
with a sack, which was often dipped in urine or feces. Guards
played loud music right next to his ears and frequently taunted
him with threats of physical and sexual violence." If additional
photos and videos document such practices, the Bush administration
and the American people have, indeed, "seen nothing yet."

Although it is still largely undocumented if any of the contractor
named in the report of General Antonio Taguba were associated with
the Israeli military or intelligence services, it is noteworthy
that one, John Israel, who was identified in the report as being
employed by both CACI International of Arlington, Virginia, and
Titan, Inc., of San Diego, may not have even been a U.S. citizen.
The Taguba report states that Israel did not have a security
clearance, a requirement for employment as an interrogator for
CACI. According to CACI's web site, "a Top Secret Clearance (TS)
that is current and US citizenship" are required for CACI
interrogators working in Iraq. In addition, CACI requires that
its interrogators "have at least two years experience as a
military policeman or similar type of law enforcement/intelligence
agency whereby the individual utilized interviewing techniques."

Speculation that "John Israel" may be an intelligence cover name
has fueled speculation whether this individual could have been one
of a number of Israeli interrogators hired under a classified
contract. Because U.S. citizenship and documentation thereof are
requirements for a U.S. security clearance, Israeli citizens would
not be permitted to hold a Top Secret clearance. However, dual
U.S.-Israeli citizens could have satisfied Pentagon requirements
that interrogators hold U.S. citizenship and a Top Secret
clearance. Although the Taguba report refers twice to Israel as
an employee of Titan, the company claims he is one of their
sub-contractors. CACI stated that one of the men listed in the
report "is not and never has been a CACI employee" without
providing more detail. A U.S. intelligence source revealed that
in the world of intelligence "carve out" subcontracts such
confusion is often the case with "plausible deniability" being
a foremost concern.

In fact, the Taguba report does reference the presence of non-U.S.
and non-Iraqi interrogators at Abu Ghraib. The report states,
"In general, US civilian contract personnel (Titan Corporation,
CACI, etc), third country nationals, and local contractors do not
appear to be properly supervised within the detention facility at
Abu Ghraib."

The Pentagon is clearly concerned about the outing of the Taguba
report and its references to CACI, Titan, and third country
nationals, which could permanently damage U.S. relations with
Arab and Islamic nations. The Pentagon's angst may explain why
the Taguba report is classified Secret No Foreign Dissemination.

The leak of the Taguba report was so radioactive, Daniel R. Dunn,
the Information Assurance Officer for Douglas Feith's Office of the
Under Secretary of Defense, Policy (Policy Automation Services
Security Team), sent a May 6, 2004, For Official Use Only Urgent
E-mail to Pentagon staffers stating, "THE INFORMATION CONTAINED
IN THIS REPORT IS CLASSIFIED; DO NOT GO TO FOX NEWS TO READ OR
OBTAIN A COPY." Considering Feith's close ties to the Israelis,
such a reaction by his top computer security officer, a Certified
Information System Security Professional (CISSP), is understandable,
although considering the fact that CISSPs are to act on behalf of
the public good, it is also regrettable..

The reference to "third country nationals" in a report that
restricts its dissemination to U.S. coalition partners
(Great Britain, Poland, Italy, etc.) is another indication
of the possible involvement of Israelis in the interrogation
of Iraqi prisoners. Knowledge that the U.S. may have been
using Israeli interrogators could have severely fractured the
Bush administration's tenuous "coalition of the willing' in
Iraq. General Taguba's findings were transmitted to the
Coalition Forces Land Component Command on March 9, 2004,
just six days before the Spanish general election, one that
the opposition anti-Iraq war Socialists won. The Spanish
ultimately withdrew their forces from Iraq.

During his testimony before the Senate Armed Service Committee,
Rumsfeld was pressed upon by Senator John McCain about the role
of the private contractors in the interrogations and abuse.
McCain asked Rumsfeld four pertinent questions, ". . . who was
in charge? What agency or private contractor was in charge of
the interrogations? Did they have authority over the guards?
And what were the instructions that they gave to the guards?"

When Rumsfeld had problems answering McCain's question, Lt. Gen.
Lance Smith, the Deputy Commander of the U.S. Central Command,
said there were 37 contract interrogators used in Abu Ghraib. The
two named contractors, CACI and Titan, have close ties to the
Israeli military and technology communities. Last January 14,
after Provost Marshal General of the Army, Major General Donald
Ryder, had already uncovered abuse at Abu Ghraib, CACI's President
and CEO, Dr. J.P. (Jack) London was receiving the Jerusalem Fund
of Aish HaTorah's Albert Einstein Technology award at the Jerusalem
City Hall, with right-wing Likud politician Israeli Defense
Minister Shaul Mofaz and ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party
Jerusalem Mayor Uri Lupolianski in attendance. Oddly, CACI waited
until February 2 to publicly announce the award in a press release.
CACI has also received grants from U.S.-Israeli bi-national
foundations.

Titan also has had close connections to Israeli interests. After
his stint as CIA Director, James Woolsey served as a Titan director.
Woolsey is an architect of America's Iraq policy and the chief
proponent of and lobbyist for Ahmad Chalabi of the Iraqi National
Congress. An adviser to the neo-conservative Foundation for the
Defense of Democracies, Jewish Institute of National Security
Affairs, Project for the New American Century, Center for
Security Policy, Freedom House, and Committee for the Liberation
of Iraq, Woolsey is close to Stephen Cambone, the Undersecretary
of Defense for Intelligence, a key person in the chain of command
who would have not only known about the torture tactics used by
U.S. and Israeli interrogators in Iraq but who would have also
approved them. Cambone was associated with the Project for the
New American Century and is viewed as a member of Rumsfeld's
neo-conservative "cabal" within the Pentagon.

Another person considered by Pentagon insiders to have been
knowledgeable about the treatment of Iraqi prisoners is U.S.
Army Col. Steven Bucci, a Green Beret and Rumsfeld's military
assistant and chief traffic cop for the information flow to the
Defense Secretary. According to Pentagon insiders, Bucci was
involved in the direction of a special covert operations unit
composed of former U.S. special operations personnel who answered
to the Pentagon rather than the CIA's Special Activities Division,
the agency's own paramilitary group. The Pentagon group included
Arabic linguists and former members of the Green Berets and Delta
Force who operated covertly in Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan,
and Uzbekistan. Titan also uses linguists trained in the languages
(Arabic, Dari, Farsi, Pashto, Urdu, and Tajik) of those same
countries. It is not known if a link exists between Rumsfeld's
covert operations unit and Titan's covert operations linguists.

Another Titan employee named in the Taguba report is Adel L.
Nakhla. Nakhla is a name common among Egypt's Coptic Christian
community, however, it is not known if Adel Nakhla is either an
Egyptian-American or a national of Egypt. A CACI employee
identified in the report, Steven Stephanowicz, is referred to
as "Stefanowicz" in a number of articles on the prison abuse.
Stefanowicz is the spelling used by Joe Ryan, another CACI
employee assigned with Stefanowicz to Abu Ghraib. Ryan is a
radio personality on KSTP, a conservative radio station in
Minneapolis, who maintained a daily log of his activities in
Iraq on the radio's web site before it was taken down. Ryan
indicated that Stefanowicz (or Stephanowicz) continued to hold
his interrogation job in Iraq even though General Taguba
recommended he lose his security clearance and be terminated
for the abuses at Abu Ghraib.

In an even more bizarre twist, the Philadelphia Daily News
identified a former expatriate public relations specialist
for the government of South Australia in Adelaide named Steve
Stefanowicz as possibly being the same person identified in
the Taguba report. In 2000, Stefanowicz, who grew up in the
Philadelphia and Allentown areas, left for Australia. On
September 16, 2001, he was quoted by the Sunday Mail of
Adelaide on the 911 attacks. He said of the attacks, "It
was one of the most incredible and most devastating things
I have ever seen. I have been in constant contact with my
family and friends in the US and the mood was very solemn
and quiet. But this is progressing into anger."
Stefanowicz returned to the United States and volunteered
for the Navy in a reserve status. His mother told the
Allentown Morning Call in April 2002 that Stefanowicz was
stationed somewhere in the Middle East but did not know
where because of what Stefanowicz said was "security
concerns." His mother told the Philadelphia Daily News that
her son was in Iraq but she knew nothing about his current
status.

Wayne Madsen is a Washington, DC-based investigative journalist
and columnist. He served in the National Security Agency (NSA)
during the Reagan administration and wrote the introduction to
Forbidden Truth. He is the co-author, with John Stanton, of
"America's Nightmare: The Presidency of George Bush II." His
forthcoming book is titled: "Jaded Tasks: Big Oil, Black Ops,
and Brass Plates."


http://www.counterpunch.org/madsen05102004.html