Lawyer: Top U.S. Officer (Sanchez) Present During Abuse

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A48229-2004May22.html


This is HUGE!!

OMFG!!!!

The acceleration of these stories is unbelievable.

The Commander in Chief is responsible for the conduct of his troops. And in this case, I think he knew. I also think this will become clear to the American public before too much longer.

George AWOL Skull & Bones Bush is responsible.

Bush (and the whole BushCo Gang) must go. Now.

Restore the honor of the US of A. Now.

I want my America back.

Shuck noted that the abusive tactics deployed on Tier 1A of Abu Ghraib were not a secret.

"All of that was being questioned by the chain of command and denied, general officer level on down," Shuck said. "Present during some of these happenings, it has come to my knowledge that that Lt. Gen. Sanchez was even present at the prison during some of these interrogations and/or allegations of the prisoner abuse by those duty ."

Reese did not testify that day because he had invoked the military version of his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.

This needs to get out as loudly and as quickly as possible.

I'd say that is pretty loud, however maybe not loud enough with all of the other stories out there.

with "Wanted" posters for these war criminals - indictments issued from the Hague.

That is loud :D

The unsigned Sept. 10 draft authorized approaches spelled out in Army Field Manual 34-52 and other widely used interrogation techniques, as well as sensory deprivation, which could mean the hooding of prisoners.

On Sept. 14, General Sanchez approved the first formal policy for Iraq that allowed the use of "sleep management" techniques, like limiting prisoners to four hours' rest each 24 hours, and stress positions, including standing or crouching for up to an hour at a time, Senate aides said.

~~
That policy was sent to the Central Command and to other military, legal and intelligence experts for review. On Oct. 12, in response to objections from military lawyers, General Sanchez issued a second, much narrower policy that Colonel Warren said Wednesday complied with the Geneva Conventions.

Most of the harsher methods that had been automatically authorized in the Sept. 14 directive, like long-term isolation of a prisoner, were dropped in the October version, except in cases in which General Sanchez sanctioned them.

The Oct. 12 directive also ordered that interrogators take control of the "lighting, heating, and configuration of the interrogation room, as well as food, clothing and shelter" given to those questioned at Abu Ghraib, a Senate aide said. The memo directed interrogators to work closely with military police guarding the prisoners to "manipulate internees' emotions and weaknesses" to gain their cooperation.
~~~
more: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/21/politics/21ABUS.html?pagewanted=2&ei...

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I keep posting this, but no one seems to respond. :(

There are just so many new developments, my head is swimming!

wrong thread :(

and they sink faster than a rock at the time of posting... sometimes because of attention paid to flame-bait posts.
But, eventually, they come back to the surface.
Thanks for posting it.

okay, I'll quite being a crybaby :cry: if you read this one. ;)


Memo Gave Intelligence Bigger Role
Increased Pressure Sought on Prisoners
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A43708-2004May20.html

oh and just one more

NYT~ Justice Memos Explained How to Skip Prisoner Rights
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/21/politics/21MEMO.html

They all tie together quite nicely. :)

You people are spectacular.

Maddezmom :hug: that's for your skill and passion!!!!

The talent here is to be acknowledged!!!

:kick:

and they are going to keep being leaked out one by one, as needed, to prove every one of these assholes are lying.

Sanchez is in this to the neck - Rummy was out there with him in September 2003 "touring" Abu Ghraib - hopefully, they will hang together - along with their incompetent "leader"

Whoops. Sanchez is in deep caa caa now!!!!

WOW!!!

Glad this came out...this points all the way to the top.

* fell off his bicycle.

Awwwwww, did that hurt or what?

:dem: :kick:

wonder if this will? haven't seen anything on the news yet... :(

This story is incredible. There is no way that the authorization for this abuse and torture did not come from Bush and Rummy.

"Shuck said the company commander, Capt. Donald J. Reese, was prepared to testify in exchange for immunity. The military prosecutor questioned Shuck about what Reese would say under oath.

"Are you saying that Captain Reese is going to testify that General Sanchez was there and saw this going on?" asked Capt. John McCabe, the military prosecutor.

"That's what he told me," Shuck said. "I am an officer of the court, sir, and I would not lie. I have got two children at home. I'm not going to risk my career."'

(Shuck is assigned to defend Staff Sgt. Ivan L. "Chip" Frederick II of the 372nd Military Police Company)

not likely, I'd say.

He knows his goose is cooked. Is Abazaid next to go? remember that the insurgents almost got him once in Samarrah. He must have been pressing hard for information to end the perpetual embarrassment this war has become. As Michael Herr said years ago: Nothing's so embarassing as when things go wrong in a war."

usually always comes out over the weekend. I hope and pray this all leads back to the whitehouse, but I know it won't. Bush gets by with every lying crooked things he is involved with (or knows about)
ELECT KERRY 2004!!!!

I think we know the answer....

Sanchez lied (Under Oath) to the Senate!

I found it very scary and prophetic how the abuse took place at Gitmo. And this was before the abuses in Iraq and Guantanamo Bay came out.

The attitude of the CO (the Jack Nicholson character) at that base is, sadly, not another Hollywood fiction. :(

On a lighter note, my favorite movie quote ever came from that movie:

"You want the truth? YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH!"
:evilgrin:

Lt. Kendrick: I have two books at my bedside, Lieutenant: the Marine Corps Code of Conduct and the King James Bible. The only proper authorities I am aware of are my commanding officer, Colonel Nathan R. Jessep, and the Lord our God.

----------------------

Jackass...

Is that what it originally was? If so, the title has changed to something less accusatory.

and I just went again - I believe that they changed it - and toned it down in the process.

Tone it down for those who only read the headlines.

Disgraceful.

...but I'm staring right at the page, and it's NOT the same title.

Weird.

Do a Shift-Reload to refresh it from the server and you'll see the title has been changed (and the page info confirms it waas edited).

They probably modified the headline (Boo!) since it's going on Page 1 of the Sunday edition. (Yay!)

2 hours after ClassWarrior posted this.

It went from:

Lawyer: Top U.S. Officer (Sanchez) Present During Abuse

to

Lawyer: Top U.S. Officer Knew of Prison Abuse

to

Prison Visits By General Reported In Hearing


And the entire time "Sanchez unavailable for comment". Heads in D.C. must be spinning. The genie is NEVER going back in the bottle on this one!

What a scummy little freak he is.

Harry Truman fired god- he would have fired everyone involved in this horror ,and directed the Ag to file charges against everyone responsible. a real man would do the same..but the boy has no guts-just like he did in during Vietnam.

this deep down in my bowels! I know I'm right!!! I know it! I know it!!

vulgar but you surely got me on this one! LOL!

...you were out-grossed by an Amish guy.

Say bye bye, georgy. :puke:

I hope Reese gets some protection.

"The civilian attorney for Frederick, Gary Myers, said that he is asking the military to add investigators to his legal team so he can track down Reese and other witnesses, who have been scattered in military jobs throughout Iraq"

Of course, the other news stations have the recorded stuff they show most of the weekend (always pisses me off).

as he was testifying, trying to penetrate his face and his remarks, and mannerisms.

There's a lot to think over now, for sure. It's going to be fascinating if they rerun his testimony tonight, as they did last night on C-Span. Worth the price of admission to see him do it again, KNOWING he lied.


BEFORE THE FALL
Thank you, ClassWarrior.

And there's more to come tonight. Look at this tag at the end of the article:

A more detailed version of this story will be available at washingtonpost.com later tonight.

it'll be worth it...Sanchez needs to go and take his superior officers that knew along with him.

"We must fully investigate and fix responsibility, as well as accountability," for the abuses, Sanchez testified. "I am fully committed to thorough and impartial investigations that examine the role, commissions and omissions of the entire chain of command -- and that includes me. As a senior commander in Iraq, I accept responsibility for what happened at Abu Ghraib, and I accept as a solemn obligation the responsibility to ensure that it does not happen again.""

This Torture Scandal is not going to stop until we see Rummy being charted off to jail sitting in Bush's lap.

This is GREAT Finally some real journalist have appeared on the horizon

Give these guys a Heineken

shit who sat before congress and lied through their teeth. I watched parts of it again to day -- Abazaid, Sanchez, that Col. Blech. They should burn in hell -- but only after spending the rest of their lives at Leavenworth.

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/5039808/

excerpt:

Sanchez visited the 205th Military Intelligence Brigade's operation, which encompassed Tier 1A at Abu Ghraib, at least three times in October, according to Brig. Gen. Janis L. Karpinski, who was in charge of U.S. detention facilities in Iraq as commander of the 800th Military Police Brigade. That month, the serious abuses documented in published photographs -- naked detainees shackled together, a guard posing with a prisoner on a dog leash -- began.

In an interview yesterday, Karpinski said the number of visits by a commanding general struck her as "unusual," especially because Sanchez had not visited several of the 15 other U.S. detention facilities in Iraq.

Karpinski has said that she is being used as a scapegoat for the command failures at Abu Ghraib.

The general, a reservist from South Carolina, said she was not present during Sanchez's visits because her brigade had surrendered authority over that part of the prison to intelligence officers. She said she was alerted as a courtesy while the three-star general was planning to travel to the prison. Karpinski added that Sanchez might have visited without her knowledge after the intelligence officers were given formal authority over the entire prison on Nov. 19.

"He has divisions all over Iraq, and he has time to visit Abu Ghraib three times in a month?" Karpinski asked yesterday. "Why was he going out there so often? Did he know that something was going on?"

...lots more...

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0522-04.htm

Not much wiggle room here in my opinion.

:bounce:


edit: wrong link.

The senior military spokesman in Iraq -- Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt -- tells the Post that Sanchez is unavailable for comment but plans to respond later.

http://www.timesleader.com/mld/timesleader/news/8734652.htm

U.S. denies report that general witnessed Iraq abuse

The Associated Press
Last Updated 7:02 am PDT Sunday, May 23, 2004

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - The U.S. military command on Sunday denied a report that the top U.S. general in Iraq was present during some interrogations at the Abu Ghraib prison and witnessed some of the abuse of Iraqi inmates.

The Washington Post, in a story first released on its Web site Saturday night, said a military lawyer stated at an open hearing April 2 that Capt. Donald J. Reese told him that Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez and other senior military officers were aware of the abuse at the prison.

The military lawyer, Capt. Robert Shuck, represents Staff Sgt. Ivan L. "Chip" Frederick II, one of seven members of the 372nd Military Police Company facing criminal charges for abusing Iraqi inmates. Reese is the company commander.


"There was a news report published May 23, 2004, which suggests that Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, commander of Multinational Forces-Iraq, was aware of, and in some instances, present at Abu Ghraib while detainee abuse was occurring," the U.S. military said in a statement. "This report is false."

http://www.sacbee.com/24hour/front/story/1387847p-8645040c.html

Col. Jill Morgenthaler, public affairs officer in Baghdad, said the transcript of the April 2 hearing would not be released.

U.S. military officials have said there is no evidence that Sanchez or other senior military officers were aware of the prisoner abuse while it was happening. Prison officials have blamed the abuse on low-level military police, some of whom have maintained they were just following orders.

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They will just continue to lie and lie....then WaPo will release and they recant or dismiss, and blame it on "illegally leaked info".

Regime caught in another BIG lie, will it matter?