Rene — Fisk — Follow Torture Trail at Abu Ghraib
Topic(s): Iraq | Comments Off on Rene — Fisk — Follow Torture Trail at Abu GhraibFollow Torture Trail at Abu Ghraib
by Robert Fisk
Wednesday, May 26, 2004
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
I can’t wait to see Abu Ghraib prison reduced to rubble by the
Americans — at the request of the new Iraqi government, of course. It
will be turned to dust in order to destroy a symbol of Saddam Hussein’s
brutality. That’s what President Bush tells us. So the rewriting of
history still goes on.
Last August, I was invited to Abu Ghraib — by my favorite
U.S. Gen. Janis Karpinski, no less — to see the million-dollar
U.S. refurbishment of this vile place. Squeaky clean cells and
toothpaste tubes and fresh pairs of pants for the “terrorist”
inmates. But now, suddenly, the whole kit and caboodle is no longer
an American torture center. It’s still an Iraqi torture center and
thus worthy of demolition.
The rewriting of Iraqi history is now going on at supersonic speed.
Weapons of mass destruction? Forget it. Links between Saddam
and al-Qaida? Forget it. Liberating the Iraqis from Saddam’s Abu
Ghraib life of torture? Forget it. Wedding party slaughtered? Forget
it. Clear the decks for both “full (sic) sovereignty” and “chaotic
events.” This is, at any rate, according to Bush. When I heard his
hesitant pronunciation of Abu Ghraib as “Abu Grub” on Monday night,
I could only profoundly agree.
But we’re in danger again of missing the detail. Just as the
unsupervised armed mercenaries being killed in Iraq are being described
by the occupation authorities as “contractors” or, more mendaciously,
“civilians” — so the responsibility for the porno interrogations at
Abu Ghraib is being allowed to slide into the summer mists over the
Tigris River.
So let’s go back, for a moment, to the long weeks in which the
Department of Bad Apples allowed its jerks to put leashes around
Iraqi necks, forced prisoners to have sex with each other and raped
some Iraqi lasses in the jail.
And let’s cast our eyes upon that little, all-important matter of
responsibility. The actual interrogators accused of encouraging
U.S. troops to abuse Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib jail were working
for at least one company with extensive military and commercial
contacts with Israel. The head of an American company whose personnel
are implicated in the Iraqi tortures, it now turns out, attended
an “anti-terror” training camp in Israel and, earlier this year,
was presented with an award by Shaul Mofaz, the right-wing Israeli
defense minister.
According to J.P. London’s company, CACI International, the visit
of London — sponsored by an Israeli lobby group and including
U.S. congressmen and other defense contractors — was “to promote
opportunities for strategic partnerships and joint ventures between
U.S. and Israeli defense and homeland security agencies.”
The Pentagon and the occupation powers in Iraq insist that only
U.S. citizens have been allowed to question prisoners in Abu Ghraib
but this takes no account of Americans who may also hold double
citizenship. The once secret torture report by U.S. Gen. Antonio Taguba
refers to “third country nationals” involved in the mistreatment of
prisoners in Iraq.
Taguba mentions Steven Staphanovic and John Israel as involved
in the abuses at Abu Ghraib. Staphanovic, who worked for CACI —
known to the U.S. military as “Khaki” — was said by Taguba to
have “allowed and/or instructed MPs (military police), who were not
trained in interrogation techniques, to facilitate interrogations by
‘setting conditions’ … he clearly knew his instructions equated
to physical abuse.” One of Staphanovic’s co-workers, Joe Ryan —
who was not named in the Taguba report — now says he underwent an
“Israeli interrogation course” before going to Iraq.
We know the Pentagon asked Israel for its “rules of engagement”
in the occupied West Bank and Gaza. Israeli officers have briefed
their U.S. opposite numbers and, according to The Associated Press,
“in January and February of 2003, Israeli and American troops trained
together in southern Israel’s Negev desert … Israel has also hosted
senior law enforcement officials from the United States for a seminar
on counter-terrorism.”
Staphanovic of CACI, who may also be Australian, was accused
by Taguba’s army report of making “a false statement to the
investigation team regarding … his knowledge of abuses.” Another
outside interrogator, Adel Nakhla, who may be of Egyptian origin,
was a witness to the “stacking” of naked prisoners in Abu Ghraib. John
Israel “misled” investigators by denying he had witnessed misconduct
and did not have “security clearance.”
Israel, according to Titan — two of whose employees were
mentioned in Taguba’s report — works for one of the company’s
“sub-contractors.” Titan refused to name the “sub-contractor.”
Why? Among the company’s former directors is ex-CIA director
James Woolsey, one of the architects of the U.S. invasion of Iraq,
a friend of Ahmed Chalabi and a prominent pro-Israeli lobbyist in
Washington. London says CACI “does not condone or tolerate or endorse
in any fashion any illegal, inappropriate behavior on the part of
its employees in any circumstances at any time anywhere.”
But it is clear the torture trail at Abu Ghraib has to run much
further than a group of brutal U.S. military cops, all of whom claim
“intelligence officers” told them to “soften up” their prisoners for
questioning. Were they Israeli? Or South African? Or British? Are
we going to let the story go?
Robert Fisk writes for The Independent in Great Britain.