A different kind of hell for one American in Iraq (an American veteran tortured like an Iraqi)

Source: MSNBC

American contractor snared in secret U.S. prison
FBI informant imprisoned and treated like an insurgent for 97 days
By Lisa Myers
Senior investigative correspondent
Updated: 7:25 p.m. ET June 17, 2007
This report aired Dateline NBC Sunday, June 17

For Donald Vance, a 29-year-old veteran and an American citizen, the desire to play a small part in a big event would lead to the scariest experience of his life. While in Iraq, he was neither a victim of a roadside bomb nor taken prisoner by insurgents. Instead, he was held captive by the U.S. government — detained in a secret military prison.

"It's probably the worst thing I've ever lived through," says Vance, who along with another American is now suing his own government, which he says "treated me like a terrorist."

...

The two men say they — and other employees who were Westerners — were taken to the U.S. embassy and debriefed. But their ordeal was just beginning.

" soldiers with shackles in their hands and goggles and zip-ties. And we just knew something was terribly wrong," says Vance.

Vance and Ertel were eventually taken to Camp Cropper, a secret U.S. military prison near the Baghdad airport. It once held Saddam Hussein and now houses some of the most dangerous insurgents in all of Iraq.

Here's what Vance and Ertel say happened in that prison: They were strip-searched and each put in solitary confinement in tiny, cold cells. They were deliberately deprived of sleep with blaring music and bright lights. They were hooded and cuffed whenever moved. And although they were never physically tortured, there was always that threat.

...

Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19226700/

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That is how they treat everyone who falls into their hands.

And that they will tell of what happened to them at the hands of the US government.

Or else they would have recognized this behavior as mere "fraternity hijinx", as Rushbo and the rest of the neo-cons said.

more tattered bits of the Constitution floating away on the breeze...


edit: sp.

American citizens held for months by other American citizens with no trial, no chance to look at evidence against them. And the idiots holding them only had to check with the FBI to find out they were working with law enforcement not against them. But hey, when no one is checking up on illegal prisons and illegal torture techniques, they can get away with murder.

the arrogance of a fascist government trampling individual's rights?

a deliberate strategy, based on a sort of fascist chaos principle, AIMED AT civil war, for the purpose of drawing Iran in--and also that specific policies, like widespread torture of random people, and big net arrests and horrible treatment, with a lot of innocents abused, and widespread crime and human indecency in the lower ranks (dictated from the top) was cover for something else, for targeted tortures and deaths with specific purpose, having nothing whatever to do with "keeping us safe" or "protecting our troops."

See my post about Jay Garner's recent remarks...
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2884257

I first thought of this in connection with the WMD-planting theory of Plamegate--that what that was all about was a failed (or rather foiled) effort to plant WMDs in Iraq, after the invasion, to be "found" by the US troops who were "hunting" for them. I won't go into that, but what occurred to me is that the massive looting and civil chaos that Rumsfeld permitted, initially, might be cover for this, for moving the WMDs in, and the seemingly chaotic and random torture and death of prisoners might be cover for eliminating witnesses or inconvenient operatives of a WMD-planting scheme that went awry.

I think these notions might also be applicable to Guantanamo Bay and the many secret prisons around the world--that the tortures, renditions, long detentions without charge, and deaths have little or nothing to do with stopping "terrorism," and almost everything to do with covering tracks to Bushite crimes (for instance, Bush Cartel money trail to Al Qaeda), extracting information about who knows what, eliminating witnesses and potential whistleblowers, planning more crimes, and perhaps doing favors for oil company and other buds, and various cronies (like the Saudi princes). The torturers may not even realize what information Rumsfeld and others were looking for. Or maybe some torturers were their special operatives and had some idea. I wonder, too, if some of these operatives might be dead, for having learned too much. (Nick Berg comes to mind, and the four mercenaries who were shot, burned and strung up on the Falluja bridge. Both items had P.R. value, but were they also assassinations of expendable or overly knowledgeable operatives?)

The Bush Junta is seeming more and more like a lawless gang--a "Mafia"--with each new scandalous revelation. (It's interesting that Gen. Taguba uses that word, "Mafia," to describe the treatment he got for his honest report on Abu Ghraib. He felt like the Pentagon had become the "Mafia.") I would put nothing past them, and it's reasonable to presume the worst, in studying any particular situation. We are so used to presuming otherwise ("innocent until proven guilty"), and expecting, or wishing for, our government to be well-intended, with ill intention as the exception, and we are also constantly fed propaganda from the corporate news monopolies that feeds those illusions, we should perhaps scan our thinking processes, now and then, for misleading assumptions about the Bushites. I am so inclined to think that they are ill intended, in the worst way, that I try to scan my thinking for going too far in that direction.

One thing we can be sure of, and that is that we are not seeing anything like full accountability--or the full story--on any Bushite-related matter. And much of the information we get is highly distorted. For instance, the story of Taguba and Rumsfeld (as told by Hersh in the New Yorker) makes it seem like the issue is WHEN Rumsfeld got informed about all this criminal conduct--torture, massive violations of the UCMJ--in the lower ranks, and why he didn't do something about it sooner (and then protected top brass and let underlings go to the brig). Hersh cannot help but convey this impression. He is limited to what he knows, what he has discovered, through interviews and testimony, etc. But I think it's much more likely that the widespread torture and abuse was ordered from the top, that Rumsfeld knew quite well what was going on, and that he and others had criminal (not anti-"terrorist") motives. In other words, Rumsfeld is totally playing a game when he makes statements about not being given the descriptions of torture, or the photos, or the Taguba report, until such and such time. We get sucked into the game. ("What did he know and when did he know it?") But this is the wrong end of the telescope.

but they wouldn't want to miss the next episode of their favorite "reality-based" TV show. That's much more important than actual reality.

"The company’s name has changed, but it's still doing business in Iraq. Neither the company, nor its executives, has been charged with any wrongdoing." WTF? And now we know the US is supplying arms to the Sunni insurgency.

1. Our govt. wants arms sold to any/everybody.
2. Our govt. wants to stoke a civil war.

Or a combination of the two, and this doesn't even address the oil issues. I hope the real agenda is exposed in time for the culprits to be punished.

I agree with wageslave71 (post #7) and Peace Patriot (post #6) that elements of our government or their contractors are illegally arming various factions in Iraq in order to promote civil war thereby having an excuse to ensure our military presence in Iraq for years to come and for expansion into Iran. There are those who profit mightily in many ways from continuing warfare.

Although I have a remaining sliver of hope and continue to put one foot in front of the other in the fight against these corrupt forces of evil, at heart I am afraid that I believe they have won. Part of me is now devoted to finding ways of equipping my children and grandchildren with the knowledge and skills necessary to protect themselves from the ravages to come. Part of me still hopes that we can stop this madness.

Peace,

freefall