Translator Questioned by Army in Iraq Abuse

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/23/international/middleeast/23SUSP.html

WASHINGTON, May 22 — Adel L. Nakhla, an Egyptian-American computer technician, found himself at Abu Ghraib prison last fall, working as a translator for the first time in his life. All around him, he witnessed fellow Arabs suffering humiliating abuses.

Interviewed by Army investigators in January, and reported in documents obtained by The New York Times, Mr. Nakhla at first said he was embarrassed for the prisoners, adding, "I tried to help them." But when investigators reinterviewed him a few days later, Mr. Nakhla amended his story and admitted that he had helped. He acknowledged holding down a prisoner who was lying on the floor during one session "so he would not run away."

<snip>

One of the Abu Ghraib photos that has been made public shows Mr. Nakhla, a big, beefy man who is 49 years old, standing over several naked prisoners stacked in a pile. He is reaching down, and his hand is shown on or near a prisoner's neck.

<snip>

Mr. Nakhla's résumé, posted on a Web site for the Unification Church, does not show that he held any sort of previous job that would have given him a security clearance, although his job in Iraq was to translate as interrogators tried to extract sensitive information from detainees.

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Huh???? WTF is a Moonie popping up in all of this for?? Is that even relevant or is it just a weird coinkydink?

Well, I've just decided all the bigwigs in Military Intelligence either use fake names or have good web scrubbers. There is nothing on Capt. Carolyn Wood before today's news story broke and nothing on Gen.Fay who is supposedly investigating their role. Both as pure as a newborn babe just dropped from the sky. Heck, I am just a schmuck nobody, but even my name shows up in various things. :tinfoilhat: :shrug: :tinfoilhat:

when I have looked at various time for people who had been heavily involved in the gubmint for ages, like Gen. Fay, and come up with nada.

I simply felt bewildered, then stupid. It never occurred to me that anyone might have ways of REMOVING data. Now that would make sense.

Thanks.

yields dooda - here's a tidbit:

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

'Rules of engagement'
On Wednesday, Pentagon officials testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee that a female Army officer identified only as "Captain Woods" drafted a set of interrogation "rules of engagement" used in Iraq. Those rules had been posted at Abu Ghraib by October, and became public during hearings into the abuses at the prison.

The list shows two sets of procedures -- those approved for all detainees and those requiring special authorization by Sanchez. Among the items requiring approval from Sanchez were techniques such as "sensory deprivation," "stress positions," "dietary manipulation," forced changes in sleep patterns, isolated confinement and the use of dogs.

Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) said at a May 12 hearing that some of those techniques went "far beyond the Geneva Conventions." Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld countered that they all had been approved by Pentagon lawyers.

Wood was the head of the military intelligence unit that controlled the interrogation center at Abu Ghraib. On Friday, the New York Times reported that Wood's unit developed aggressive rules and procedures while it was stationed in Afghanistan and imported them to Iraq.

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.
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more: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/21/politics/21ABUS.html?pagewanted=2&ei ...