| Topic: |
Politics > Politics-USA |
| User: |
"Sogobia" |
| Date: |
08 May 2004 11:19:40 PM |
| Object: |
Was Abu Ghraib an isolated loss of discipline? |
Early alarm bells sounded, ignored
Abuse reports began almost at war's start
Peter Slevin, Robin Wright
Washington Post
Saturday, May 8, 2004
Washington -- Months before Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld publicly
acknowledged the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by American soldiers, top U.S.
officials and several international human rights organizations repeatedly
warned the Defense Department to halt the mistreatment of detainees.
From U.S. administrator in Iraq Paul Bremer and Secretary of State Colin
Powell to investigators for the International Committee of the Red Cross, a
broad array of officials pressed the Pentagon to improve conditions or face
a likely Iraqi backlash, officials from the government and the organizations
said Friday.
Amnesty International sounded an alarm at a Baghdad news conference in May
2003, only one month after the Iraqi capital fell to U.S.-led troops. Three
months later, Bremer pressed the military to improve conditions and later
made the issue a regular talking point in discussions with Rumsfeld, Vice
President ***** Cheney and national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, said
U.S. officials familiar with the discussions.
The Red Cross delivered repeated warnings during the same period, its
president said Friday. It dispatched investigators to 14 detention centers
in Iraq and delivered graphic reports about U.S. mistreatment, including
evidence of humiliation, physical abuse and excessive use of force.
Even before the Iraq war began in March 2003, human rights organizations had
begun to focus on harsh U.S. treatment of prisoners detained for secret
interrogation in holding camps in such places as Bagram, Afghanistan, and
Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. When U.S. troops began arresting thousands of Iraqis,
international monitors were watching.
Amnesty International said Friday that its officials had warned U.S. and
British occupation authorities about mistreatment of detainees as early as
May 2003. The next month, Amnesty wrote Bremer after interviewing former
detainees to criticize methods that spokesman Alistair Hodgett said "appear
to facilitate cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment."
In August, Bremer became alarmed about the treatment of detainees and prison
conditions. After interceding in one detainee's case, he urged both the U.S.
military in Iraq and top Bush administration officials to improve conditions
and avoid potential fallout, according to U.S. officials.
The most comprehensive evaluation of Iraqi jails was conducted by the Red
Cross, which began dispatching staff members by March 31, less than two
weeks after the war started. In the next six months, the Geneva-based
organization paid 29 visits to 14 detention centers, delivering oral and
written reports to U.S. authorities in Iraq after each visit.
Red Cross officials made "repeated requests" to the U.S.-led occupation
authority to correct abuses, the organization's president, Jakob
Kellenberger, said Friday. He said officials had presented "serious
concerns" to occupation authorities, reminding them of obligations under the
Geneva Conventions and international treaties.
"There was a pattern and a system," said Pierre Kraehenbuehl, the Red
Cross's director of operations. Some of the actions were "tantamount to
torture," he said.
U.S. military police, along with legal and medical specialists, studied the
detention system in Iraq between Oct. 13 and Nov. 6. They found shortages of
manpower and training and called for immediate action to address rights
deficits.
In Washington, meanwhile, the State Department was increasingly troubled
last autumn by lengthy detentions and allegations of mistreatment. Powell
raised the issue frequently in meetings of the Bush national security team,
aides reported. They said he often felt like a lone voice.
On Jan. 13, Army Spec. Joseph M. Darby, who was assigned to Abu Ghraib,
informed his superiors about abuses there. Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez launched
a criminal investigation the next day. Rumsfeld was notified, and the
Pentagon disclosed the inquiry Jan. 16.
That month, the Abu Ghraib photographs that have caused the furor were
described to Rumsfeld and the top military brass, Gen. Richard Myers, the
chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, testified Friday. He said they had
discussed the content, including forced nudity and mock sexual acts.
From the beginning, Myers acknowledged, the Pentagon tried to prevent public
disclosure.
On Jan. 31, the Defense Department assigned Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba to
investigate. Two days later, he visited Abu Ghraib.
In late January or early February, Rumsfeld testified, President Bush was
informed of the investigation as an "information item."
The Red Cross delivered a devastating final report to the U.S.-led coalition
in Iraq in late February.
It described prisoners kept naked in total darkness and male prisoners
forced to wear women's underwear, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday.
In another episode, nine men were arrested and beaten severely, and one of
them died, the newspaper said.
State Department officials who had heard some details and had pressed the
Red Cross to release the report more widely arranged to receive a copy
through a back channel and circulated it widely in Washington.
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher acknowledged that the Red Cross
had delivered recommendations to U.S. officials in Baghdad before releasing
the report more widely in February. By then, he said, a U.S. investigation
of the Abu Ghraib abuses was well under way.
On March 3, Taguba's preliminary findings were presented to Lt. Gen. David
McKiernan, commander of U.S. forces in Iraq. Later that month, the army's
Criminal Investigation Division charged six soldiers with crimes including
indecent acts and conspiracy.
Bremer delivered a speech April 23 that addressed a growing Iraqi backlash
over detentions. He pledged that all new cases would be reviewed by an
attorney within three days and that a review of all cases would be
expedited.
Five days later, over Myers' objections, the photographs of abuse at Abu
Ghraib were broadcast by CBS television.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/chronicle/a/2004/05/08/MNG0G6IFIP12.DTL
--
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who met with Bush in Texas earlier this
month (April 2004), told the French newspaper Le Monde that "there exists
today a hatred [of America] never equaled in the region." And Jordan's King
Abdullah, already in the US, abruptly cancelled a scheduled visit to the
White House last week.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0426/p02s02-usfp.html
.
|
|
| User: "" |
|
| Title: Re: Was Abu Ghraib an isolated loss of discipline? |
10 May 2004 04:39:54 PM |
|
|
Who controlled military conduct at Abu Ghraib Prison ?
_____________________________________________________________________________
It is believed that the orders came from the U.S. 205th Military Intelligence Brigade.
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/agency/army/205mi-bde.htm
_____________________________________________________________________________
.
|
|
|
|
|
Related Articles |
|
|
