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[ This message has been sent to you via the CASI-analysis mailing list ] This is an automated compilation of submissions to newsclippings@casi.org.uk Articles for inclusion in this daily news mailing should be sent to newsclippings@casi.org.uk. Please include a full reference to the source of the article. Today's Topics: 1. From Riverbend (Hassan) 2. GI: Boy mistreated to get dad to talk (Hassan) 3. Sergeant `flagged' for telling news media about prison abuses (Hassan) --__--__-- Message: 1 Date: Sun, 23 May 2004 08:53:53 -0700 (PDT) From: Hassan <hasseini@DELETETHISyahoo.com> Subject: From Riverbend To: CASI newsclippings <newsclippings@casi.org.uk>, IAC discussion <iac-discussion@yahoogroups.com> [ Presenting plain-text part of multi-format email ] Saturday, May 22, 2004 Back in Iraq... Chris Albritton is back in Iraq- check out his site. Check out his reportin= g on the Chalabi debacle. - posted by river @ 5:23 PM En Kint Tedri... Remember your first box of crayons? Probably not. Ok- remember your first b= ox of REAL crayons- you know, not the silly eight colors, but the first rea= l BIG box of crayons with four bewildering rows colors and six different sh= ades of brown that you never needed? Well, can you remember that mysterious= color- burnt sienna- that was never brown enough for trees, and never real= ly orange enough for flowers? That was the color of Chalabi's tie yesterday= as he gave his phenomenal post-raid interview on Al-Arabia. He sat, looking smug and supercilious, in a grayish suit with a tie that co= uld only be described as "burnt sienna". During the duration of the intervi= ew, a silly little smile played on his thin lips and his eyes flashed with = a combination of indignation and impatience at the questions. I always enjoy a good Chalabi interview. His answers to questions are alway= s so completely antagonistic to Iraqi public opinion that the whole thing m= akes a delightful show- rather like a vicious Chihuahua in the midst of a d= ozen bulldogs. There were several amusing moments during the interview. He = kept waving around his arms and made numerous flourishing movements with hi= s hands to emphasize some key points. A few interesting things I noted abou= t the interview: he was suddenly using the word 'occupation'. During past i= nterviews, he would never use the word 'occupation'. He used to insist on c= alling the invading army et al. 'coalition' and the whole fiasco was persis= tently labeled a 'liberation' by him and his cronies. He made several insipid comments about the raid and his falling out with Br= emer and the rest. My favorite comment was his "I've won the prize! I've wo= n the Iraqi nationality prize=85" Followed by a large grin (with several ga= ps between the teeth). The prize he was so proudly referring to was the dis= approval of the CIA and 'occupation'. Apparently, he thinks that now that h= e has been blacklisted by the CPA, he will be enfolded by the tender arms o= f the Iraqi public. It's almost exhausting to see his endless optimism. At = the same time, it's amazing to see his 'about-face' regarding his American = popularity. A few months ago, his value to the Bush administration was the = personal achievement he was proudest of- he never failed to flaunt his Amer= ican connections. Of course, several things occurred to us, after hearing of the raid. The fi= rst thing I thought was, "Well, it's about time=85" Then, as the news began= to sink in, it made less since. Chalabi was America's lapdog- why is he su= ddenly unsuitable for the new Iraq? He was convicted in Jordan several year= s ago and everyone knows he's a crook and a terrible politician=85 I'm also= convinced that the Bush administration knew full well that he was highly u= npopular in Iraq. He's not just a puppet- he's a mercenary. He encouraged t= he sanctions that killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and maimed the cou= ntry itself. He supported the war and occupation vehemently and fabricated = lies about weapons and threats to further his cause. He's a criminal- and a= lousy one at that. In the end, America had to know that Chalabi was virtually useless. Why thi= s sudden change of heart towards Mercenary #1? People are saying that it is= a ploy to help him rise in popularity, but I can hardly believe that. Coul= d the decision-makers currently mulling over the Iraq situation be so ridic= ulously optimistic? Or could they have really been so wrong in the past? We= have a saying in Arabic, "En kint tedri, fe tilk musseeba=85 in kint la te= dri, fa il musseebatu a'adham" which means, "If you knew, then that was a c= atastrophe=85 and if you didn't know, then the catastrophe is greater." Meanwhile, a couple of days ago, 40 people were murdered in western Iraq wh= ile they were celebrating a wedding- an American helicopter fired at the ci= vilians, killing women and children. Apparently, the guests at the wedding = were shooting klashnikovs into the air. You'd think that the Americans woul= d know by now that shooting klashnikovs into the air is a form of celebrati= on and considering the fact that the party was far from any major town or c= ity, the shots were virtually harmless. No one did anything about the shots= being fired when Saddam was caught- in spite of the fact that Baghdad was = a virtual firestorm of bullets for several hours. That was ok- that was 'ac= ceptable' and even amusing to the 'authorities'. I can see how dozens of wo= men, children and celebrating men would be a 'threat' though. Yes, it makes= perfect sense. "In a written statement the Pentagon said last night: "Our report is that t= his was not a wedding party, that these were anti-coalition forces that fir= ed first..." No. Of course not- it couldn't have been a wedding party. It was a resistan= ce cell of women and children (one deviously dressed in a wedding gown!). I= t wasn't a wedding party just as mosques aren't mosques and hospitals are n= ever hospitals when they are bombed. Celebrating women and children are not= civilians. 'Contractors' traveling with the American army to torture and k= ill Iraqis ARE civilians. CIA personnel are 'civilians' and the people who = planned and executed the war are all civilians. We're not civilians- we are= insurgents, criminals and potential collateral damage. Check out mykeru.co= m to read some thought-provoking commentary on the whole sadistic incident. In conclusion, some words of advice to Chalabi- you are a mercenary to be b= ought and sold... it's time to put you up on the market again and hope for = bidders. Get the car ready, make the trunk as comfortable as possible and h= ead for the borders. - posted by river @ 5:16 PM --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Domains - Claim yours for only $14.70/year --__--__-- Message: 2 Date: Sun, 23 May 2004 08:54:41 -0700 (PDT) From: Hassan <hasseini@DELETETHISyahoo.com> Subject: GI: Boy mistreated to get dad to talk To: CASI newsclippings <newsclippings@casi.org.uk>, IAC discussion <iac-discussion@yahoogroups.com> [ Presenting plain-text part of multi-format email ] http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0405200268may20,1,4673476.stor= y THE OCCUPATION OF IRAQ: THE PRISON ABUSE SCANDAL GI: Boy mistreated to get dad to talk Says 16-year-old was stripped naked By Mike Dorning Washington Bureau Published May 20, 2004 WASHINGTON -- A military intelligence analyst who recently completed duty a= t Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq said Wednesday that the 16-year-old son of a de= tainee there was abused by U.S. soldiers to break his father's resistance t= o interrogators. The analyst said the teenager was stripped naked, thrown in the back of an = open truck, driven around in the cold night air, splattered with mud and th= en presented to his father at Abu Ghraib, the prison at the center of the s= candal over abuse of Iraqi detainees. Upon seeing his frail and frightened son, the prisoner broke down and cried= and told interrogators he would tell them whatever they wanted, the analys= t said. The new account of mistreatment came as Army Spec. Jeremy Sivits was senten= ced in Iraq to a year in prison Wednesday and a bad-conduct discharge after= pleading guilty in the first court-martial stemming from the abuses at Abu= Ghraib. In Washington, top commanders for U.S. forces in Iraq told senators they ne= ver approved abusive techniques for interrogating prisoners. But they also = promised that investigators would scrutinize everyone in the chain of comma= nd, including the generals themselves. Sgt. Samuel Provance, who maintained the 302nd Military Intelligence Battal= ion's top-secret computer system at Abu Ghraib prison, gave the account of = abuse of the teenager in a telephone interview from Germany, where he is no= w stationed. He said he also has described the incident to Army investigato= rs. Provance's account of mistreatment of a prisoner's son is consistent with c= oncerns raised by the International Committee of the Red Cross, which had r= eceived reports that interrogators were threatening reprisals against detai= nees' family members. Provance already has been deemed a credible witness by Maj. Gen. Antonio Ta= guba, who included the Army sergeant in a list of witnesses whose statement= s he relied on to make his findings of prisoner mistreatment at Abu Ghraib. Although Pentagon officials have portrayed the abuses at the prison as the = isolated conduct of a few out-of-control guards, Provance's account offers = fresh evidence of broader participation. He said members of Abu Ghraib's mi= litary intelligence unit were well aware that prisoners were subjected to s= exual humiliation and other abuse. One female interrogator told him of forcing detainees to wear nothing but w= omen's underwear and questioning a male prisoner who was kept naked during = interrogation, Provance said. He said he overheard colleagues in the milita= ry intelligence battalion laughing as a soldier in the unit described watch= ing MPs use two detainees as "practice dummies," first knocking one prisone= r unconscious with a blow and then doing the same to the other. Account is 2nd-hand Provance, 30, said he was not present for the mistreatment of the detainee'= s son, which he said occurred in December or possibly January. But he said = an interrogator described the incident to him shortly afterward. When conta= cted by the Tribune on Wednesday, that soldier declined to comment. Provance said he escorted the boy from the interrogation cellblock to the p= rison's general population immediately after the encounter between the teen= ager and his father. "This kid was so frail. He was shaking like a leaf," he said. Provance said he urged the interrogators not to put the teenager in the pri= son's unruly, poorly supervised general population, but was rebuffed. "I even went inside and said, `This kid is scared for his life. He's probab= ly going to be raped. He can't be put in general population,'" Provance sai= d. He said he did not know the identity of either the father or son but said t= he father was described to him as a "high-level individual" who had not pro= vided useful intelligence in previous questioning. Army spokesman Col. Joseph Curtin said he could not comment on the incident= s described by Provance because they are part of an investigation. But Curt= in said, "We are working very hard to get to the truth." Maj. Paul Karnaze, a spokesman for the Army Intelligence School at Ft. Huac= huca, Ariz., said Army policy forbids any abuse or threats of abuse against= family members during interrogations. "That's just so far from the Army va= lues we train," Karnaze said. Provance said he described the incidents to investigators, most recently in= an interview this month with Maj. Gen. George Fay, who is overseeing the A= rmy's investigation of military intelligence officials' involvement in pris= oner abuse. Concerns over a cover-up Provance said he became concerned about a possible cover-up of the role of = military intelligence officials after receiving written instructions shortl= y after the interview telling him not to discuss Abu Ghraib. In addition, Provance said, Fay warned that he likely would recommend admin= istrative action against Provance for not reporting abuses before his first= sworn statement, made in January. The administrative action would effectiv= ely bar promotions for Provance. "I felt like I was being punished for being honest," Provance said. An Army official said it was routine procedure for military investigators t= o instruct witnesses not to discuss events that are under examination. Provance said he questioned treatment of prisoners several times last fall = without effect. "I would voice my opinion . . . and they would say, `What do you know? You'= re a system administrator,'" he said. Among the interrogators "there's a ce= rtain cockiness," he added. Provance said his duties recently were switched from a computer systems adm= inistrator to a military intelligence analyst but he remains on duty with h= is unit, which returned from Iraq in February. He is now stationed in Heide= lberg, Germany, he said. Copyright =A9 2004, Chicago Tribune --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Domains - Claim yours for only $14.70/year --__--__-- Message: 3 Date: Sun, 23 May 2004 08:55:24 -0700 (PDT) From: Hassan <hasseini@DELETETHISyahoo.com> Subject: Sergeant `flagged' for telling news media about prison abuses To: CASI newsclippings <newsclippings@casi.org.uk>, IAC discussion <iac-discussion@yahoogroups.com> [ Presenting plain-text part of multi-format email ] http://news.yahoo.com/?tmpl=3Dstory&cid=3D2027&ncid=3D2027&e=3D3&u=3D/chitr= ibts/20040522/ts_chicagotrib/sergeantflaggedfortellingnewsmediaaboutprisona= buses Sergeant `flagged' for telling news media about prison abuses By Mike Dorning Washington Bureau The Army on Friday disciplined a military intelligence analyst who told The= Tribune about the mistreatment of a 16-year-old boy and other abuses by in= terrogators at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq (news - web sites). Sgt. Samuel Provance, 30, said his battalion commander instructed him to tu= rn in his top-secret clearance and was informed he would be reassigned. Provance said he also was told his record is "flagged," meaning he cannot r= eceive promotions, awards or honors. He added that he was warned he might b= e subject to further disciplinary action for discussing abuses at the priso= n with the news media. "It's in reference to what's happened--for going public," the sergeant said= . "It's not unexpected." Now stationed in Germany, Provance recently completed an assignment at Abu = Ghraib, outside of Baghdad. He also gave on-the-record interviews describin= g interrogators' roles in the abuses to ABC News, the Washington Post and T= he Associated Press. A lawyer familiar with the case said Provance also was ordered Friday not t= o discuss abuses at the prison with other government agencies, which the la= wyer said appeared intended to bar him from giving information to congressi= onal investigators. Army spokesman Paul Boyce said he could not discuss the sanctions, saying t= hat Pentagon (news - web sites) policy is to keep personnel actions private= . But he said Provance is considered a material witness in the investigation = of abuses at Abu Ghraib prison and has been admonished not to discuss matte= rs that could come up in future testimony to a court-martial. This week Provance described how interrogators abused the 16-year-old to en= d his father's resistance to questioning. The teen was stripped naked, thro= wn in the open back of a truck, driven around on a cold night, splattered w= ith mud and then presented to his father, he said. The father then broke down and cried after the incident, and told interroga= tors he would tell them what they wanted, Provance said. --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! 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