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Graphic Photos May Be More Evidence of Abuse

by Open-Publishing - Thursday 6 May 2004
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New Prison Images Emerge
Graphic Photos May Be More Evidence of Abuse

By Christian Davenport "Washington Post"

The collection of photographs begins like a travelogue from Iraq. Here are U.S. soldiers posing in front of a mosque. Here is a soldier riding a camel in the desert. And then: a soldier holding a leash tied around a man’s neck in an Iraqi prison. He is naked, grimacing and lying on the floor.

Mixed in with more than 1,000 digital pictures obtained by The Washington Post are photographs of naked men, apparently prisoners, sprawled on top of one another while soldiers stand around them. There is another photograph of a naked man with a dark hood over his head, handcuffed to a cell door. And another of a naked man handcuffed to a bunk bed, his arms splayed so wide that his back is arched. A pair of women’s underwear covers his head and face.

The graphic images, passed around among military police who served at the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad, are a new batch of photographs similar to those broadcast a week ago on CBS’s "60 Minutes II" and published by the New Yorker magazine. They appear to provide further visual evidence of the chaos and unprofessionalism at the prison detailed in a report by Army Maj. Gen. Antonio M. Taguba. His report, which relied in part on the photographs, found "numerous incidents of sadistic, blatant, and wanton criminal abuses" that were inflicted on detainees.

This group of photographs, taken from the summer of 2003 through the winter, ranges widely, from mundane images of everyday military life to pictures showing crude simulations of sex among soldiers. The new pictures appear to show American soldiers abusing prisoners, many of whom wear ID bands, but The Post could not eliminate the possibility that some of them were staged.

The photographs were taken by several digital cameras and loaded onto compact discs, which circulated among soldiers in the 372nd Military Police Company, an Army Reserve unit based in Cresaptown, Md. The pictures were among those seized by military investigators probing conditions at the prison, a source close to the unit said.

The investigation has led to charges being filed against six soldiers from the 372nd. "The allegations of abuse were substantiated by detailed witness statements and the discovery of extremely graphic photographic evidence," Taguba’s report states.

For many units serving in Iraq, digital cameras are pervasive and yet another example of how technology has transformed the way troops communicate with relatives back home. From Basra to Baghdad, they e-mail pictures home. Some soldiers, including those in the 372nd, even packed video cameras along with their rifles and Kevlar helmets.

Bill Lawson, whose nephew, Staff Sgt. Ivan L. "Chip" Frederick, is one of the soldiers charged in the incident, said that Frederick sent home pictures from Iraq on a few occasions. They were "just ordinary photos, like a tourist would take" and nothing showing prisoner abuse, he said.

"I would say that’s something that’s very common that’s going on in Iraq because it’s so convenient and easy to do," Lawson said of troops sending pictures home. He added that his nephew also mailed videocassettes "of him talking into a camcorder to [his wife] when he was going on his rounds."

But in the case of prisoner abuse, the ubiquity of digital cameras has created a far more combustible international scandal that would have been sparked only by the release of Taguba’s searing written report. Since the "60 Minutes II" broadcast, pictures of abuse have been posted on the Internet and shown on television stations worldwide.

The photographs have been condemned by U.S. military commanders, President Bush and leaders around the world. They have sparked particularly strong indignation in the Middle East, where many people see them as reinforcing the notion "that the situation in Iraq is one of occupation," said Shibley Telhami, who holds the Anwar Sadat Chair for Peace and Development at the University of Maryland.

The impact is heightened by religion and culture. Arabs "are even more offended when the issue has to do with nudity and sexuality," he said. "The bottom line here is these are pictures of utter humiliation."

It is unclear who took the photographs, or why.

Lawyers representing two of the accused soldiers, and some soldiers’ relatives, have said the pictures were ordered up by military intelligence officials who were trying to humiliate the detainees and coerce other prisoners into cooperating.

"It is clear that the intelligence community dictated that these photographs be taken," said Guy L. Womack, a Houston lawyer representing Spec. Charles A. Graner Jr., 35, one of the soldiers charged.

The father of another soldier facing charges, Spec. Jeremy C. Sivits of Hyndman, Pa., also said his son was following orders. "He was asked to take pictures, and he did what he was told," Daniel Sivits said in a telephone interview last week.

Military spokesmen at the U.S. Central Command in Qatar and at the Combined Joint Task Force 7 headquarters in Baghdad referred requests for comment about those claims to Col. Jill Morgenthaler, a U.S. military spokeswoman. Morgenthaler could not be reached by telephone yesterday and did not return requests to comment by e-mail. Requests to speak with Col. Thomas M. Pappas — who commands the 205th Military Intelligence Brigade, based in Germany, and whose troops were stationed at Abu Ghraib — were declined by a U.S. military spokesman for the Army’s V Corps in Heidelberg, Germany.

Yesterday, in Fort Ashby, W.Va., two siblings and a friend identified Pfc. Lynndie England, 21, as the soldier appearing in a picture holding a leash tied to the neck of a man on the floor. England, a member of the 372nd, has also been identified in published reports as one of the soldiers in the earlier set of pictures that were made public, which her relatives also confirmed yesterday. England has been reassigned to Fort Bragg, N.C., her family said. Attempts to reach her were unsuccessful. The military has not charged her in the case.

England’s friends and relatives said the photographs must have been staged. "It just makes me laugh, because that’s not Lynn," said Destiny Goin, 21, a friend. "She wouldn’t pull a dog by its neck, let alone drag a human across a floor."

England worked as a clerk in the unit, processing prisoners before they were put in cells, taking their names, fingerprinting them and giving them identification numbers, her family said. Other soldiers would ask her to pose for photographs, said her father, Kenneth England. "That’s how it happened," he said.

Soon after CBS aired its photographs, Terrie England said she received a call from her daughter.

" ’Mom,’ she told me, ’I was in the wrong place at the wrong time,’ " Terrie England said.

The pictures obtained by The Post include shots of soldiers simulating sexually explicit acts with one another and shots of a cow being skinned and gutted and soldiers posing with its severed head. There are also dozens of pictures of a cat’s severed head.

Other photographs show wounded men and corpses. In one, a dead man is lying in the back of a truck, his shirt, face and left arm covered in blood. His right arm is missing. Another photograph shows a body, gray and decomposing. A young soldier is leaning over the corpse, smiling broadly and giving the "thumbs-up" sign.

And in another picture a young woman lifts her shirt, exposing her breasts. She is wearing a white band with numbers on her wrist, but it is unclear whether she is a prisoner.

Staff writers Michael Amon, Scott Higham and Josh White contributed to this report.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A5623-2004May5.html

Forum posts

  • It is systemic, wanton, sadistic, criminal, torture and a War Crime. !

    1. Excerpt from MG Taguba’s report. In one of the two previous reports used by M G Taguba as references for his, the third sequential, investigation (Italics are my emphasis):

    "With respect to interrogation, MG Miller’s Team recommended that CJTF-7 dedicate and train a detention guard force subordinate to the Joint Interrogation Debriefing Center (JIDC) Commander that "sets the conditions for the successful interrogation and exploitation of internees/detainees."

    Regarding Detention Operations, MG Miller’s team stated that the function of Detention Operations is to provide a safe, secure, and humane environment that supports the expeditious collection of intelligence. However, it also stated "it is essential that the guard force be actively engaged in setting the conditions for successful exploitation of the internees."

    Comment: Maj General Miller was previously responsible for the management of detention and interrogation/intelligence collection at Guanatanamo Bay, Cuba (Gitmo). He has subsequently been appointed to manage all detention operations in Iraq after the removal of M G Karpinski. Please note, M G Miller and a team of 30-odd ’specialists’ visited Abu Ghrieb in July/August 2003 with the specific aim of improving "interrogation/intelligence collection and set the conditions for the successful interrogation and exploitation of internees/detainees", based on ’lessons learned’ through management and techniques he and staff developed at Gitmo, since 9/11. Remarkably, M G Miller is now conducting restricted tours for the media and promising improved conditions at Abu Gharieb. I suggest the subsequent events re the photographs and torture that took place from Nov ’03 thru to Jan ’04 are likely a ’direct’ causual consequence of his and his teams ’sanctioned by Command’ efforts. M G Miller can in no way be regarded as someone without ’blood’ on his hands. Cover-up ?

    2. Excerpt from MG Taguba’s report, (Italics are my emphasis):

    "In general, U.S. 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..."

    My Comment: ’Third-country nationals’ is an intelligence community euphemism for nationals from a ’politically sensitive’ country. The phrase is used to mask ’National Security’/Classified operations in conjunction with other nations Military, security, Intelligence communities, i.e. CIA, Shin Bet, MI6, etc. Note contracted US interrogators/translators, local (Iraqi, ex Iraqi Mukhabarrat (de-ba’athified ?) interrogators/translators are commented on collectively with ’third country nationals’. Therefore the clear implication is the probability of interrogators/translators from Israel, Syria, Saudi Arabia, etc directly participating in or offering training expertise re interrogators/translation/analysis throughout Abu Gharieb, possibly Iraq, Afghanistan, Gitmo with the full sanctioned knowledge of US Intelligence community & military command.

    Follow this link for a reference to one of the identified interrogators (Joe Ryan, and a portion of his online diary whilst an intterogator at Abi Gharieb) employed in wing 1A as having indentified in his resume having attended Israeli Interrogation Course. http://billmon.org/archives/001450.html#comments. Further comments/analysis re the specifics of Joe Ryans diary to follow.

    3. Excerpts from MG Taguba’s report, (Capitalisation my emphasis):

    "The various detention facilities operated by the 800th MP Brigade have routinely held persons brought to them by other government agencies (OGAs) WITHOUT ACCOUNTING FOR THEM, KNOWING their identities, or even THE REASON for their detention. The Joint Interrogation and Debriefing Center at Abu Ghraib called these detainees "GHOST DETAINEES". ON AT LEAST ONE OCCASION, the 320th MP Battalion at Abu Ghraib held a handful of "ghost detainees" (6-8) for OGAs that they moved around within the facility to HIDE THEM from a visiting International Committee of the Red Cross survey team. This maneuver was DECEPTIVE, contrary to Army Doctrine and in VIOLATION OF INTERNATIONAL LAW…."(Findings and Recommendations, Part II, No. 33)

    My Comment: Other government agencies (OGAs) is a routine Intelligence euphemism for non-military intelligence agencies such as ASIS, MI6, FBI, NSA, CIA, etc. In the US Military/Intelligence context it almost always means CIA/NSA. Ghost Detainees are those that are not documented, processed or recorded in any way in order to systematically deny them Legal, Human and International Law and Genevea Convention rights protections. It is a practice that came to prominence throughout Latin America, Sudan, 1960’s Algiers, etc. Such activities clearly indicate a known, sanctioned, systemic Military/Intelligence/Government Agency command sanctioned policy of creating ’Disappeared’, ultimately resulting in extreme forms of unnaccountable torture and ultimaley ’disposal’ (i.e. murder, via Argentinian Deathsquads, circa Vietnam ’Phoenix’ operations in Vietnam/Laos, etc). Therefore it is highly probable this activity also occurs throughout any other area of operations of the US/UK etc in the so called ’war on terror’, ie. the Globe. This is outrageous !

    There’s no way in the world the practice of keeping "ghost detainees" in secret confinement - in flagrant violation of the Geneva Convention - can be written off as a ’non-systemic’ ’isolated abuse.’ This is like something out of Kiss of the Spider Woman, or journalist Jacobo Timerman’s account of his time in a secret Argentine political prison, Prisoner Without a Name, Cell Without a Number http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0299182444/103-3183057-6828619?v=glance. Is this what CIA counterterrorism chief Cofer Black meant when he said http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/2002_hr/092602black.html that after 9/11, "the gloves came off?" And did the humanity come off with them ?

    Follow this link for relevant references: http://billmon.org/archives/001455.html#comments. Please note the Amnesty International reference to suspicion of similar activities occurring at the High Value Detainee (HVD) section of detention facilities at the US Bagram Airforce Base in Afghanistan.

    4. An example of the extreme torture and subsequent death (murder ?) during interrogation, and ’disposal’ of a ’ghost detainee’ by the CIA at Abu Ghrieb. Yet another ’disappeared’ (you may have seen the Photo of the obviously ’beaten to death’ detainee packed in ice on a guerney ):

    Frederick’s version http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?040510fa_fact of a relevant incident is a good deal more, ah, colorful: In November, Frederick wrote, an Iraqi prisoner under the control of what the Abu Ghraib guards called "O.G.A.," or other government agencies-that is, the C.I.A. and its paramilitary employees-was brought to his unit for questioning. "They stressed him out so bad that the man passed away. They put his body in a body bag and packed him in ice for approximately twenty-four hours in the shower. . . . The next day the medics came and put his body on a stretcher, placed a fake IV in his arm and took him away." The dead Iraqi was never entered into the prison’s inmate-control system, Frederick recounted, "and therefore never had a number."

    Comment: as above for para 4. This is the end result re ’ghost detainees’, undocumented, unaccountable torture, death and dissapearance.

    5. Why is the Taguba report classified Secret/NOFORN (no Foriegn governement dissemination) when it is a formal US Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) investigation ?:

    TORTURE REPORT MAY HAVE BROKEN CLASSIFICATION RULES http://www.fas.org/sgp/news/secrecy/2004/05/050504.html Posted May 5, 2004 09:33 PM PST By classifying an explosive report on the torture of Iraqi prisoners as "Secret," the Pentagon may have violated official secrecy policies, which prohibit the use of classification to conceal illegal activities.

    My Comment: I suggest it had been classified SECRET/NOFORN because of the oblique, passing references that clearly indicate sanctioned, systemic, patently criminal, multi-theatre practices since at least 9/11 discussed above in para 2 & 3.