News Intelligence Analysis
Directory: Abu Ghraib
Reports and Articles on Prisoner Abuse
Plus U.S. Policy on Torture
"Held Without Trial Indefinitely"
by K. Yurica
See also articles
and documents in the
following Directories:
Law and Legal Issues
Battle for the Judiciary
Directory of the CIA Leak
Civil Rights
Under
Attack
Congressional Scandals
Government Abuse
Directory
The Road to Iraq (Through Energy) Directory
The Major Reports
The Torture Report
The New York Times
December 18, 2008
Most Americans have long known
that the horrors of
Abu Ghraib were not the work of a few low-ranking
sociopaths. All but President Bush’s most unquestioning
supporters recognized the chain of unprincipled decisions
that led to the abuse, torture and death in prisons run by
the American military and intelligence services.Now, a bipartisan
report by the Senate Armed Services Committee has made
what amounts to a strong case for bringing criminal charges
against former Defense Secretary
Donald Rumsfeld...
The Fay Report Leads to Indictments:
A newly released 177
page pdf file report. This is the Defense
Department report on the abuses at Abu Ghraib prison,
issued Wednesday, August 25,2004 which will almost
certainly give rise to criminal charges or disciplinary
action against many of the more
than 50 people found
responsible.
The Final Report of the Independent
Panel: Chaired by James
Schlesinger. The report
is 126 pages and will take about 30 minutes to
download on a 56 k connection. There is an informative
appendix with a reference to a psychological study
revealing how responsibility is abdicated. Released
August 24, 2004.
The General's Report: Major General
Antonio
Taguba's Report: It is fifty-three pages. It is professionally
written. It contains a shameful indictment of the Bush
Administration and points to a cover-up that leads
directly to the president. It's here in a PDF file.
The Red Cross Report: twenty-four pages
in a PDF
file.
The Gonzales Memo on the
Geneva Convention in a PDF file.
The Powell Memo on the
Geneva Convention in
a PDF file.
The Major Articles
Secret U.S. Endorsement of
Severe Interrogations
By SCOTT SHANE, DAVID JOHNSTON
and JAMES RISEN
When the Justice Department publicly declared
torture “abhorrent” in a legal opinion in December
2004, the Bush administration appeared to have
abandoned its assertion of nearly unlimited presidential
authority to order brutal interrogations.But soon after
Alberto R. Gonzales’s arrival as attorney general in
February 2005, the Justice Department issued another
opinion,
this one in secret.
General Taguba Says Prison Inquiry
Led to His Forced Retirement
By DAVID S. CLOUD
The Army general who investigated the Abu Ghraib
prison abuse scandal has said he was forced into
retirement by civilian Pentagon officials because
he had been “overzealous.”
Steven L. Jordan, Abu Ghraib Officer
Faces Court-Martial
The only U.S. military officer
charged with a crime in
the Abu Ghraib scandal will be court-martialed on
eight charges, including cruelty and maltreatment
of prisoners, the Army
said Friday.
At a Secret Interrogation,
Dispute Flared Over Tactics
By DAVID JOHNSTON
Abu Zubaydah, the first Osama bin Laden henchman
captured by the United States after the terrorist
attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, was bloodied and feverish
when a C.I.A. security team delivered him to a secret
safe house in Thailand for interrogation in the early
spring of 2002. Bullet fragments had ripped through
his abdomen and groin during a firefight in Pakistan
several days earlier when he had been captured. The
events that unfolded at the safe house over the next
few weeks proved to be fateful for the Bush administration.
Within days, Mr. Zubaydah was being subjected to coercive
interrogation techniques — he was stripped, held in an
icy room and jarred by
earsplittingly loud music —
Administration Seeks
to
Weaken War Crimes Law
Changes would end risk of
prosecution
for political appointees, CIA officers
By R. Jeffrey Smith
The Bush administration has drafted
amendments to a war crimes law that
would eliminate the risk of prosecution for
political appointees, CIA officers and former
military personnel for humiliating or degrading
war prisoners, according to U.S. officials
and a copy
of the amendments.
Army Charges Lt. Col. Steven L. Jordan,
the Former Abu Ghraib Officer
4/28/2006
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Army on Friday charged
the former head of the interrogation center at Abu Ghraib
prison in Iraq with cruelty and maltreatment, dereliction
of duty and other criminal offenses for his alleged
involvement in the abuse of detainees at the notorious
prison in 2003 and for interfering with the abuse
investigation. Lt. Col. Steven L. Jordan, was charged
with 12 counts of violations of the Uniform Code of
Military Justice for seven
separate offenses.
Charges Sought Against
Officer
at Abu Ghraib
Lt. Col. Steven L. Jordan
would be the
first to be held criminally liable in the
Iraq abuse scandal. His supervisor, granted
immunity, may testify.
By Richard
A. Serrano and Mark Mazzetti
Shocking The Conscience
Of America:
Bush And Cheney Call For
The Right
To Torture And Are Decisively and
Correctly Rebuffed by the House
By JOHN W. DEAN
Friday, Dec. 16, 2005
If the events I am about to describe
were taking
place in a movie, or novel, I would lose my ability
to suspend disbelief: Who could conceive of an
American President and Vice President demanding
that Congress give them authority to torture anyone,
under any circumstances?
U.S. Cites Exception in Torture
Ban -- McCain Law May Not Apply
to Cuba Prison
Bush administration lawyers,
fighting a claim of
torture by a Guantanamo Bay detainee, yesterday
argued that the new law that bans cruel, inhuman
or degrading treatment of detainees in U.S. custody
does not apply to people held
at the military prison.
Charges Sought Against
Officer at Abu Ghraib
Lt. Col. Steven L. Jordan would be the
first to be held criminally liable in the
Iraq abuse scandal. His supervisor,
granted immunity, may testify.
By Richard A. Serrano
and Mark
Mazzetti, Times Staff Writers
WASHINGTON — Army investigators
have
recommended that criminal charges be filed
against a supervising military officer in the
abuse of detainees at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison,
according to Pentagon officials and legal
documents obtained
Thursday.
Bush Could Bypass
New Torture Ban
By Charlie Savage
The Boston Globe
Wednesday 04 January 2005
Waiver right is reserved.
Washington - When President Bush last
week signed the bill outlawing the torture of
detainees, he quietly reserved the right to
bypass the law under his powers as
commander
in chief.
CIA Holds Terror Suspects
in
Secret Prisons
By Dana Priest
Wednesday 02 November 2005
Debate is growing within agency
about
legality and morality of overseas system
set up after 9/11. The CIA has been hiding
and interrogating some of its most important
al Qaeda captives at a Soviet-era compound
in Eastern Europe, according to US and
foreign officials familiar with the arrangement.
Now with video
Uproar Over Secret Prisons
European and U.S. human rights
groups seek answers on alleged
CIA camps for terror suspects in
Poland and Romania.
By Nicholas Watt
Pressure was growing on the United States
and its new allies in eastern Europe Thursday
night amid allegations that the CIA has been
interrogating al-Qaida suspects at former
Soviet camps in Poland
and Romania.
Cheney For Legalized Torture
Amid all the natural and political
disasters it
faces, the White House is certainly tireless in
its effort to legalize torture. This week, Vice
President Dick Cheney proposed a novel solution
for the moral and legal problems raised by the
use of American soldiers to abuse prisoners and
the practice of turning captives over to governments
willing to act as proxies in doing the torturing. Mr.
Cheney wants to make it legal for the Central
Intelligence Agency
to do this wet work.
The Dark Heart of Dick Cheney
by Georgie Anne Geyer
But this week, the vice president
took a turn into
the deepest heart of human darkness. This week,
unprecedented in history, an elected vice president
of the United States of America proposed that
Congress legally authorize the torture of foreigners
by Americans. The Washington Post titled its
devastating editorial "Vice President for Torture."
I would say that the deceptive man from sunny
Wyoming has become the Marquis de Sade of
America. Think about it -- he is insistent upon
making torturers of many of our young soldiers --
your children.
Soldier Lifts Lid on
Camp Delta
By Paul Harris
An American soldier has revealed shocking
new details of abuse and sexual torture of
prisoners at Guantánamo Bay in the first
high-profile whistleblowing account to emerge
from inside the
top-secret base.
Rumsfeld gave
go-ahead for Abu Ghraib
tactics according to the
general in charge.
FBI Refers to Presidential
Order
Authorizing Inhumane
Interrogation
Techniques A document
released for the
first time by the American Civil Liberties
Union suggests that President Bush issued
an Executive Order authorizing the use of
inhumane interrogation methods against
detainees in Iraq.
Emails Implicate Bush
in Torture
A document released for
the first time by the
American Civil Liberties Union suggests that
President Bush issued an Executive Order
authorizing the use of inhumane interrogation
methods
against detainees in Iraq.
Also released by the ACLU are
a slew
of other records including a December 2003
FBI e-mail that characterizes methods used
by the Defense Department as "torture" and
a June 2004 "Urgent Report" to the Director
of the FBI that raises concerns that abuse
of detainees is being covered up.
A Prescient N.Y. Times:
The Roots of Abu Ghraib
In response to the outrages
at Abu Ghraib,
the Bush administration has repeatedly
assured Americans that the president
and his top officials did not say or do
anything that could possibly be seen
as approving the
abuse or outright
torture of prisoners.
Disgraced by Silence
When will the president respond
to the cascading allegations of
prisoner abuse by the military?
Infiltrating the U.S. Military
Gen. Boykin’s “Kingdom
Warriors”
On the Road to Abu Ghraib and Beyond
By
Katherine Yurica
Red Cross Says U.S.
Abuses Prisoners in
Guantanamo
The International Committee
of the Red Cross
has charged in confidential reports to the
United States government that the American
military has intentionally used psychological
and sometimes physical coercion "tantamount
to torture" on prisoners at Guantanamo.
Abu Ghraib At Guantanamo
A New York
Times Editorial
"Prisoners at Guantánamo Bay, where
the
United States warehouses men captured in
Afghanistan, have been subject to unremitting
abuse that is sometimes 'tantamount to
torture.' This continued well after the Abu Ghraib
scandal came to light, and it may still be going
on." A
must read.
Abu Ghraib, Whitewashed
A New York
Times Editorial: "The
only way
to learn why innocent Iraquis were tortured by
American soldiers is a formal Congressional
inquiry, with subpoena power."
Prison Scandal
New Book Says Bush
Officials Were
Told of Detainee Abuse
A new
book by Seymour Hersh reveals that
Bush Administration officials were repeatedly
warned that prisoners in military custody
were
being abused.
Guantánamo Inmate
Complains
of Threats and Long
Isolation
By NEIL A. LEWIS A brief
unsealed in a Seattle
courtroom this week contains an account by a
prisoner at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, alleging
that he was mistreated in several ways that
may have violated the Geneva Conventions,
including having his life threatened, being
beaten and being kept in prolonged
isolation.
Nick Berg
Decapitation Video a Fake
Anyone who saw the film Gosford
Park will know why the video decapitation
of Nick Berg is a fraud. If you haven't
a clue, click here.
And read medical experts,
and forensic death experts discussion.
New Evidence Connecting
Bush to Policy of Torture
Pentagon Report Set Framework for
Torture: Bush wasn't bound by laws
prohibiting torture, lawyers said. Last
year, attorneys for the president contended
government agents who might torture
prisoners at Bush's direction couldn't
face Justice Department prosecution.
Some Prisoners Exempted
From Geneva Conventions
The Los Angeles Times broke the story
that General Karpinski was asked by her superiors to
sign a letter dated December 24, 2003 addressed to
the Red Cross asserting that some prisoners at Abu
Ghraib were "not entitled to the full protections of the
Geneva Convention." The implication is clear:
the decision to exclude prisoners from the protection
of the Geneva Convention was
made in the White House.
Army Whistle Blower
Disciplined.
Sgt. Samuel Provance
who reported the prison abuse and
torture to his superiors and spoke to the press has been
disciplined and is regarded as an outcast by
fellow
soldiers.
Rumsfeld Bans Cameras
"Digital cameras,
camcorders and cellphones with
with cameras have been prohibited in military
compounds in Iraq.
Seymour M. Hersh, "The
Gray Zone."
in an explosive third article of a series, Hersh reveals
that Rumsfeld approved the program that instituted
the killing and torture techniques. The program had
Condi Rice's approval. And Bush
was informed.
Michael Isikoff Reveals
the Significance
of the legal memos drafted by the Justice Department's
lawyers urging the President to make a clear
presidential directive proclaiming the Geneva
Conventions did not apply, the President and
White House officials could be charged with
war crimes. Click on Gray Box #8.
Officer at Abu Ghraib
takes the Fifth An officer
in
charge of interrogations refused
to testify during a secret
hearing on the grounds that he
might incriminate himself.
Seymour M. Hersh
writes the
second report in a three part series
for The New Yorker, tracing the abuses
at Abu Ghraib prison, revealing the
Pentagon shielding itself, a blurred
chain of command, with no preparation
and rules and regulations
for
interrogations.
Powell says Bush was
Informed of Red Cross
Concerns An important article
by Mark Matthews from the
Baltimore
Sun.
Torturing Iraqi Prisoners:
The Abu Ghraib prison
gives the terrorists
justification for their violence against the
the U.S. bad
dream.
The Buck Stops...Where?
Stop blaming your henchmen,
Mr. President by Fred
Kaplan.
"I too have misunderestimated
the
president."
A Time for Truth
Patrick Buchanan takes aim
at the Neo-Conns and the
Bush Administration
and
hits a bull's-eye.
IMPORTANT: Neither
Rumsfeld nor
pentagon officials know which Army
entity manages the contracts for
interrogators.
Torture and Abuse in Iraq
Red Cross was told Iraq
Abuse was 'Part
of the Process'.
Maj. General Antonio
Taguba
said abuse was caused by faulty leadership
with the possibility of CIA
and
civilian contractor culpability .
Just Trust Us
It's the mantra of the
Bush Admin-
istration. Paul Krugman asks
"Didn't you know, in your gut, that
something like Abu Ghraib would
come
to light?
An Editorial onThe Torture
Photos The New York
Times calls for "some humility,
an apology to the abused men
and women and an immediate,
full and public accounting of what
happened and who was responsible.
Instead, the Bush administration
began one of its now-classic defensive
maneuvers."
The administration's moral
road guide goes astray
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