Army, CIA Agreed on 'Ghost' Prisoners

By Josh White
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, March 11, 2005; Page A16

Top military intelligence officials at the Abu Ghraib prison came to an agreement with the CIA to hide certain detainees at the facility without officially registering them, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post. Keeping such "ghost" detainees is a violation of international law.

Army Lt. Col. Steven L. Jordan, who was second in command of the intelligence gathering effort at Abu Ghraib while the abuse was occurring, told military investigators that "other government agencies" and a secretive elite task force "routinely brought in detainees for a short period of time" and that the detainees were held without an internment number, and their names were kept off the books.

Guards who worked at the prison have said that ghost detainees were regularly locked in isolation cells on Tier 1A and that they were kept from international human rights organizations.

Jordan, in a statement that was included in the abuse investigation of Maj. Gen. George R. Fay, said that it was difficult to track ghost detainees and that he and other officers recommended that a memorandum of understanding be drafted between his 205th Military Intelligence Brigade, the CIA and the 800th Military Police Brigade "to establish procedures for a ghost detainee." An Army major at the prison "suggested an idea of processing them under an assumed name and fingerprinting them," but Col. Thomas M. Pappas, the top military intelligence officer there, "decided against it."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A25239-2005Mar10.html

our freedoms... it's convenient and they own the system, so they change the rules. changing the rules out of convenience is exactly what bushco is about.

Little effing wonder Bushco running shit scared.

Rumsfailed Admitted to Violating Geneva Convention

Rumsfailed admitted in public on TV that when CIA Director Tenet requested that an Iraqi prisoner be sent to a secret Afghan/US Prison that Rumsfailed did so. After four months a DOD Attorney stated that this was an illegal act. Rumsfailed then ordered that this prisoner be sent back to Abu Graihib but the prisoner was purposefully not listed at that location, also an illegal act. Rumsfeld also admitted to signing orders for tougher interogation methods which violated the Geneva Conventions.

Rumfailed has commited at least three violations of the Geneva Convention thereby also violations of The Constitution of the USA. Recently it has been found out that even more detainees were "ghost detainees". The fact that Rumsfailed and Tenet have not been charged speaks volumes. If Congress wishes to garner any respect they should move forward with Rep. Rangle's Impeachment Declaration of Rumsfailed and also proscecute Ex. CIA Tenet.

=========================
Q: Senator Jack Reed (Dem, RI): "If you were shown
a video of a United States Marine or an American
citizen in control of a foreign power, in a cell block,
naked with a bag over their head, squatting with their
arms uplifted for 45 minutes, would you describe that
as a good interrogation technique or a violation of
the Geneva Convention?"

A: Marine Gen. Peter Pace, the vice chairman of the
Joint Chiefs of Staff: "I would describe it as a violation."

A: Paul D. Wolfowitz, the deputy secretary of defense: "What
you've described to me sounds to me like a violation of the
Geneva Convention."

Thursday, May 13, 2004, Senate Armed Services Committee hearings

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A25737-20...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A25737-2004May13.htm

Friday 17 December 2004

“Scott Horton, a New York lawyer and president of the International League for Human Rights, has spent months investigating the role Bush administration officials played in the torture scandal. He says there is mounting evidence - including the May 10 FBI e-mail - that strongly suggests that Rumsfeld and his top intelligence aides were directly responsible for the wholesale abandonment of legal and ethical norms as well as international treaty obligations. Now that Republican senators and neoconservative ideologues are publicly turning their backs on the defense secretary, perhaps even he may someday be held accountable for this disgraceful stain on the honor of the U.S. armed forces.”

http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/121804X.shtml




Does the US, Govt., Congress, and the Justice Dept no longer abide by the Geneva Convention or the Constitution of the USA?

Thanks for this info, and where on earth did you get that great pic?

From:
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=&imgrefurl=http://jews-for-allah.org/messianic-jews/christianhistorywithjews/Christian-naziphotos.htm&h=340&w=265&sz=29&tbnid=eqbr8vzCu9MJ:&tbnh=114&tbnw=89&start=17&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dhitler%2Bchurch%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26sa%3DG

Hitler wth Archbishop Cesare Orsenigo, the papal nuncio in Berlin

I don't know what to call the country I live in now, but it's sure as hell not the America I was born in over 60 years ago.

:grr:

MILITARY – GHOSTS IN THE MACHINE: Senators yesterday expressed dismay and outrage over the fact that no senior Pentagon officials have been held accountable in the rampant cases of abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. Now there's a new wrinkle. New, secret documents obtained by the Washington Post show "top military intelligence officers at the Abu Ghraib prison came to an agreement with the CIA to hide certain detainees at the facility without officially registering them." Keeping prisoners hidden, off the books, is in direct violation of international law. There have been reports of at least 100 "ghost" detainees held in prisons in Iraq, but the Pentagon previously said they must have just fallen through the cracks and weren't part of any official arrangement. Now, however, Army Lt. Col. Steven L. Jordan, second in command of intelligence gathering at Abu Ghraib, told investigators that his superior, Col. Thomas M. Pappas, put in motion a secret procedure in November 2003 to keep detainees off the books for the CIA. Pappas told investigators that Jordan was the one who facilitated the arrangement with the CIA in the first place.

============

Related WP story:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A25203-2005Mar10.html

Senators Question Absence of Blame in Abuse Report

By Josh White and Bradley Graham
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, March 11, 2005; Page A17


Senators expressed dismay yesterday that no senior military or civilian Pentagon officials have been held accountable for the policy and command failures that led to detainee abuse in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the Navy admiral who wrote the most recent review of U.S. detention policies was largely unable to say where that accountability should lie. Vice Admiral Albert T. Church III's review of interrogation policy and detention operations did not place specific blame for the confusing interrogation policies that migrated from Washington to the battlefield, and he told the Senate Armed Services Committee at a hearing that no high-level policy decisions directly led to the abuse. But Church said he did not interview top officials, including Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, nor did he make conclusions about individual responsibility, saying it was not part of his mission.

Still, Brig. Gen. Janis L. Karpinski, one of the officers in charge of detention operations in Iraq at the time of the abuse, said yesterday that she has been issued an administrative reprimand, the first such action against a top officer since the abuse allegations surfaced last year. So far, only a handful of enlisted soldiers have faced courts-martial for their actions at the Abu Ghraib prison and elsewhere, while others have faced administrative punishment. The main open question in the abuse cases is how far up the chain of command official discipline or criminal charges will reach.

Church's report called the development of interrogation policies for use in the fight against terrorism a series of "missed opportunities" to eliminate confusion and clearly spell out doctrine. But his report concluded that even clear policies might not have stopped dozens of abuse cases. Sen. Carl M. Levin (Mich.), the ranking Democrat on the committee, said a "major gap" in Church's report and in nine other Pentagon reviews is the issue of senior-leadership responsibility for the creation of an environment that contributed to or condoned abusive behavior.

In a sparsely attended hearing -- only 10 of the 24 panel members were there -- senators from both parties, including Jack Reed (D-R.I.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.), offered strong criticism of the findings. Sen. James M. Talent (R-Mo.), praising the report, said he did not "need an investigation to tell me that there was no comprehensive or systematic use of inhumane tactics by the American military, because those guys and gals just wouldn't do it." Sen. John W. Warner (R-Va.), the committee chairman, said there will be at least one more hearing to examine culpability. "There has not been a finality in terms of the assessment of accountability of either senior policy people or senior officers," he said.

more.........

most DU'ers already get it, we live in a FASCIST gov now.

when will the rest of us wake up?

or do you think it's too late and we (the world) will have to suffer through another fascist regime hell bent on taking over the world :scared:

peace