Bush Adviser Toured Abu Ghraib: Visit Was Seen as Sign White House Wanted

Bush Adviser Toured Abu Ghraib
Visit Was Seen as Sign White House Wanted Better Intelligence

A deputy national security adviser to President Bush toured Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison last November to review procedures for intelligence sharing among officials there and elsewhere in Iraq, prompting a senior prison official to conclude the White House wanted more and better information from interrogations, according to government officials and the official's sworn testimony.

Lt. Col. Steven L. Jordan, an Army Reservist who ran the Joint Interrogation and Debriefing Center at Abu Ghraib, told Army investigators early this year that the visit by Fran Townsend -- then Bush's top counterterrorism adviser -- was among the pressures he felt to intensify intelligence-gathering efforts in the prison.

<snip>

ordan reported being told many times that the intelligence must be improved because of the widening attacks, according to an account published first in USA Today and confirmed by several government officials. Adding to the pressures to perform was a statement by a superior military officer at the prison that intelligence derived from the prison interrogations was read closely by Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and by other senior officials in Washington, Jordan was quoted as saying.

<snip>

But Townsend, a former Justice Department official and a specialist in intelligence issues, said in an interview yesterday that she did not discuss interrogations during her visit to Abu Ghraib, and placed no pressures on anyone there. She said she spent only 15 minutes touring detention cells during a prison visit that lasted for two hours and occurred shortly before Thanksgiving.

<snip>

Townsend, who was accompanied by an official of the CIA's operations directorate and by Brian Parr, a Secret Service official detailed to her personal staff, met with Maj. Gen. Barbara Fast, the top military intelligence officer in Iraq, and with members of the CIA station.

...more...

lots of good reading in this article

had to edit to add the following article and add a paragraph to the first - they dove-tail nicely together:

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/19/international/middleeast/19ABUS.html?ex=1088222400&en=fbcc98ba70122ea5&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE

Documents Are Said to Show Earlier Abuse at Iraq Prison

WASHINGTON, June 18 — American military officials in Baghdad said this week that military lawyers and some colonels had received internal documents that reportedly cited complaints of abuse at Abu Ghraib prison starting in November, about two months before top military officials say they were alerted to the abuse.

<snip>

At least 20 complaints of abuse were reported in the routine memos, according to interviews of military intelligence personnel, including the beating of five former Iraqi generals in November who were blamed for causing prisoner riots. After reviewing 106 of the memos this week, the military officials said they found only one complaint, in which a prisoner said he had been handcuffed too long, but said that thousands of additional files had not been reviewed.

<snip>

The former prison workers described a close relationship between General Fast and the Detainee Assessment Branch. In late November and early December, General Fast began requesting more detail in the unit's Memorandums For Record, the documents that cited most of the abuse complaints, according to the interviews.

"She was the one who was sending all the instructions down," said one military intelligence soldier. "She was the one telling us what to do."

...more...

out of someone
when you do not speak Arabic
and he does not understand English?

How does the cattle prod help?

looked into..in depth! Her name keeps coming up.

Abu Graib yet there is NOTHING that says she is being investigated, questioned or anything. It is very strange, imo.

This a old cut and paste from an older post I had. Tomorrow I'll look to see what's new because General Barbara Fast is the one who should have been paraded all over the place and not Karpinski.



Where the HELL is General Barbara Fast? The head of Intel in Iraq and now promoted to being Commandant of Army Training & Doctrine for all Intel? Haul her ugly ass out of her cushy little reward for torture assignment NOW (she is now at Fort Huachuca training more interrogators!)! Those soldiers & people were under HER control, SHE was the one meeting with Sanchez & Pappas every morning, SHE was the one reading the intel reports every morning and also the one who refused to release the hundreds of prisoners Karpinski had recommended for release because there were no charges against them (they're the ones you see being released by the hundreds everyday now). Haul her ass out & stop protecting Intel!

I want to see this bwitch hauled out and made to answer!
==================

<snip>

Colonel Hackworth said he believed that more junior soldiers would soon "blow the whistle" on the abuse scandal. He said the general in charge of military intelligence in Iraq, General Barbara Fast, who has so far escaped media scrutiny, would soon receive more attention.

She was under the command of General Ricardo Sanchez, the senior US commander for the Iraq occupation forces.

"They're keeping her away from the media, but she was the general in charge of military intelligence and this happened on her watch," Colonel Hackworth said. So far, Mr Rumsfeld's sworn defence that the abuse of Iraqi prisoners did not go up the chain of command has secured his political survival.

<snip>

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/05/11/1084041400922.html

===
From Colonel Hackworth's site: "Soldiers for Truth" & vouched for by Senior NCOs all over the internet:



Hack,

The abuse and humiliation actually took place at 3 prisons in the Baghdad area. This was not done by accident, it was a planned, systematic way to break down the prisoners will to resist any interrogation, degrade them and then blackmail them into working for US Intelligence.

The pictures were taken as a way to intimidate the prisoners and then keep them working as low level collectors (if they did not the pictures would have been released to their family and tribes) Videos were also made as a way to record the "success" to be used as a teaching tool at Fort Huachuca (to train future interrogators). The MPs and Interrogators were told the Geneva Convention did not apply to Iraq Soldiers and Civilian Detainees. The methods the MPs used were actually taught to the MPs by military intelligence professionals and civilian contractors. This was a sanctioned operation and the methods were known to be used by Generals in the chain of command. Women MPs were sought out to further humiliate the Iraqi prisoners. The female MPs who accepted the jobs, conducted degrading acts upon the Iraq men, because such acts by women on men in the Arab culture are so humiliating, it was thought that the men would then talk just to stop the abuse by the female MPs. This abuse was done in stages and the less cooperative Iraqis were given the more degrading abuse to condition them to interrogation. The Major General ( Barbara Fast) in charge of the MI personnel in Baghdad sanctioned this treatment.

Hack, if they are going to hang privates and NCOs for meting out this abuse, they better go after the Generals and Colonels who sanctioned and approved these methods being used. This is a not an isolated case of abuse by a few soldiers, this was a planned campaign well known by the entire chain of command. There is also evidence that people in the Pentagon also knew and approved of these methods many months prior to the pictures being released and only told the President when the pictures were published.

The DOD is now trying to pin the blame on anything else, other than the Generals and Colonels who sanctioned this treatment.

MI Senior NCO

http://www.sftt.org/cgi-bin/csNews/csNews.cgi?database=Hacks%20Target%20Feedback%202004.db&command=viewone&op=t&id=13&rnd=994.7894187964637

===

<snip>

Pappas has admitted that under certain circumstances, intelligence officers under his command had naked prisoners shackled to the floor during interrogations. However, at the time in question, Pappas was under withering fire from his superiors in Iraq to extract more intelligence from detainees.

Pappas was directly supervised by his commander, Maj. Gen. Barbara Fast, with whom he met up to 5 times per week. It was Maj. Gen. Barbara Fast who prioritized interrogations, leaving it up to Pappas to carry them out.

Disciplinary action against Col. Pappas was recommended in the leaked summary of the secret Taguba report, but no recommendations have been made against his direct superiors, Maj. Gen. Barbara Fast and Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez.

<snip>

http://www.antiwar.com/rothschild/?articleid=2616
==
<snip>

One of the great mysteries is what role, if any, Maj. Gen. Barbara Fast, the top military intelligence officer in Iraq, had in the evolving scandal.

Defense sources said that she was under enormous pressure last year from her superiors in Baghdad and in the Pentagon to develop "actionable" intelligence to counter the growing insurgency as well as to find weapons of mass destruction.

Army Maj. Carolyn Dysart, Fast's public affairs officer, said Fast would not be available for an interview.

<snip>

http://www.nynewsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/ny-usengl0513,0,4626919.story?coll=ny-nationalnews-headlines

===
From Taguba's report:

24. (U) The screening, processing, and release of detainees who should not be in custody takes too long and contributes to the overcrowding and unrest in the detention facilities. There are currently three separate release mechanisms in the theater-wide internment operations. First, the apprehending unit can release a detainee if there is a determination that their continued detention is not warranted. Secondly, a criminal detainee can be released after it has been determined that the detainee has no intelligence value, and that their release would not be detrimental to society. BG Karpinski had signature authority to release detainees in this second category. Lastly, detainees accused of committing "Crimes Against the Coalition," who are held throughout the separate facilities in the CJTF-7 AOR, can be released upon a determination that they are of no intelligence value and no longer pose a significant threat to Coalition Forces. The release process for this category of detainee is a screening by the local US Forces Magistrate Cell and a review by a Detainee Release Board consisting of BG Karpinski, COL Marc Warren, SJA, CJTF-7, and MG Barbara Fast, C-2, CJTF-7. MG Fast is the "Detainee Release Authority" for detainees being held for committing crimes against the coalition. According to BG Karpinski, this category of detainee makes up more than 60% of the total detainee population, and is the fastest growing category. However, MG Fast, according to BG Karpinski, routinely denied the board’s recommendations to release detainees in this category who were no longer deemed a threat and clearly met the requirements for release. According to BG Karpinski, the extremely slow and ineffective release process has significantly contributed to the overcrowding of the facilities. (ANNEXES 40, 45, and 46)

===

"Over Karpinski's apparent opposition, military police units at Abu Ghraib were under the command of Col. Thomas M. Pappas, whose 205th Military Intelligence Brigade came under Fast's oversight."

Martin interviewed "Larry Korb, a former Navy captain and assistant secretary of defense in the Reagan administration," who said "'it's a legitimate question' why the investigation stopped at Pappas' level and didn't examine the role of his superiors, including Maj. Gen. Fast, head of intelligence in Iraq."

"In Taguba's report," Martin writes, "the only mention of Fast refers to her position as 'detainee release authority,' in charge of deciding which inmates accused of crimes against the coalition could be released.

<snip>

Martin informs that " Fast, 50, graduated from the University of Missouri with a degree in education and has a master's degree in business administration from Boston University. Before her current assignment, she was director of intelligence for U.S. European Command in Stuttgart, Germany, and deputy commander of Fort Huachuca in Arizona."

As for Fast's future military assignments, Martin confirms that "Last month, the Pentagon announced Fast will return to Fort Huachuca - to head the Army Intelligence Center. ... The fort's Web site described the center as 'focused on leading, training, equipping and supporting the world's premier corps of military intelligence professionals - imbued with a warrior spirit, self-discipline and mutual respect.'"

http://www.disinfopedia.org/wiki.phtml?title=Barbara_ Fast
====

Sorry Rummy, Karpinski + 6 ain't gonna fly. I want the real culprits here & they're not reservists who didn't know what they were doing, they're your professionals. Bring the entire house of cards DOWN!

about Abu Ghraib? And what was there a working relationship with General Barbara Fast and Cambone?

I remember two turkeys, one was plastic. Does this have a connection with the extra pressure to get information, and up the use of torture?

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thanks for playing.

Knowing miltary and technolgy, you can bet there was live video from the "interrogations" to the White House situation room. Wanna bet Boy George and Biggus Dickus got woodies watching the rough stuff?

I read the news today O-boy.
A bill criminalizing war-profiteering was defeated as well as a bill forbidding interrogation by civilian contractors (mercenaries).

How low can these mofos go? Get ready for the Neo-Inquisition if Bu$hco steals the election again.

Abu Ghraib officer describes ‘pressure’ to extract information

<snip>
The officer who oversaw interrogations at Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad testified that he was under intense “pressure” from the White House, Pentagon and CIA last fall to get better information from detainees, pressure that he said included a visit to the prison by an aide to national security adviser Condoleezza Rice.

http://www.navytimes.com/story.php?f=1-292925-3021231.php

..and Condi sent her in with a sign that read____________
(you fill in the blank).

Yeah, what the WH wanted..."It was SOMEBODY ELSE'S FAULT, NOT MINE!!!", screeched the Chimp.

Do a search on her. She is something else. Its amazing how you can get somewhere in Government. apparently at one time Janet Reno was her mentor.

seen so far about the situation.

It deserves a thread of its own, if one hasn't been created already.

To hell with the commercial newspapers--I'll take the Navy Times any day! Thanks so much for posting it.

who did this on their own? My brain is going...to...explode....White House...not...honest...lie...Freedom...can't compute...LINGUO IS DEAD!

:hi: