| The
Truth About the Torture - Robert Fisk |
Thursday, May
27 2004 @ 10:11 AM EDT
"Israel, according to Titan -
two of whose employees were mentioned in Taguba's report -
works for one of the company's 'sub-contractors'.."
By Robert Fisk
I can't wait to see Abu Ghraib prison reduced to rubble by
the Americans -- at the request of the new Iraqi government,
of course. It will be turned to dust in order to destroy a
symbol of Saddam Hussein's brutality. That's what President
Bush tells us. So the rewriting of history still goes on.
Last August, I was invited to Abu Ghraib -- by my favorite
U.S. Gen. Janis Karpinski, no less -- to see the
million-dollar U.S. refurbishment of this vile place.
Squeaky clean cells and toothpaste tubes and fresh pairs of
pants for the "terrorist" inmates. But now,
suddenly, the whole kit and caboodle is no longer an
American torture center. It's still an Iraqi torture center
and thus worthy of demolition.
The rewriting of Iraqi history is now going on at supersonic
speed.
Weapons of mass destruction? Forget it. Links between Saddam
and al-Qaida? Forget it. Liberating the Iraqis from Saddam's
Abu Ghraib life of torture? Forget it. Wedding party
slaughtered? Forget it. Clear the decks for both "full
(sic) sovereignty" and "chaotic events." This
is, at any rate, according to Bush. When I heard his
hesitant pronunciation of Abu Ghraib as "Abu Grub"
on Monday night, I could only profoundly agree.
But we're in danger again of missing the detail. Just as the
unsupervised armed mercenaries being killed in Iraq are
being described by the occupation authorities as
"contractors" or, more mendaciously,
"civilians" -- so the responsibility for the porno
interrogations at Abu Ghraib is being allowed to slide into
the summer mists over the Tigris River.
So let's go back, for a moment, to the long weeks in which
the Department of Bad Apples allowed its jerks to put
leashes around Iraqi necks, forced prisoners to have sex
with each other and raped some Iraqi lasses in the jail.
And let's cast our eyes upon that little, all-important
matter of responsibility. The actual interrogators accused
of encouraging U.S. troops to abuse Iraqi prisoners at Abu
Ghraib jail were working for at least one company with
extensive military and commercial contacts with Israel. The
head of an American company whose personnel are implicated
in the Iraqi tortures, it now turns out, attended an
"anti-terror" training camp in Israel and, earlier
this year, was presented with an award by Shaul Mofaz, the
right-wing Israeli defense minister.
According to J.P. London's company, CACI International, the
visit of London -- sponsored by an Israeli lobby group and
including U.S. congressmen and other defense contractors --
was "to promote opportunities for strategic
partnerships and joint ventures between U.S. and Israeli
defense and homeland security agencies."
The Pentagon and the occupation powers in Iraq insist that
only U.S. citizens have been allowed to question prisoners
in Abu Ghraib but this takes no account of Americans who may
also hold double citizenship. The once secret torture report
by U.S. Gen. Antonio Taguba refers to "third country
nationals" involved in the mistreatment of prisoners in
Iraq.
Taguba mentions Steven Staphanovic and John Israel as
involved in the abuses at Abu Ghraib. Staphanovic, who
worked for CACI -- known to the U.S. military as
"Khaki" -- was said by Taguba to have
"allowed and/or instructed MPs (military police), who
were not trained in interrogation techniques, to facilitate
interrogations by 'setting conditions' ... he clearly knew
his instructions equated to physical abuse." One of
Staphanovic's co-workers, Joe Ryan -- who was not named in
the Taguba report -- now says he underwent an "Israeli
interrogation course" before going to Iraq.
We know the Pentagon asked Israel for its "rules of
engagement" in the occupied West Bank and Gaza. Israeli
officers have briefed their U.S. opposite numbers and,
according to The Associated Press, "in January and
February of 2003, Israeli and American troops trained
together in southern Israel's Negev desert ... Israel has
also hosted senior law enforcement officials from the United
States for a seminar on counter-terrorism."
Staphanovic of CACI, who may also be Australian, was accused
by Taguba's army report of making "a false statement to
the investigation team regarding ... his knowledge of
abuses." Another outside interrogator, Adel Nakhla, who
may be of Egyptian origin, was a witness to the
"stacking" of naked prisoners in Abu Ghraib. John
Israel "misled" investigators by denying he had
witnessed misconduct and did not have "security
clearance."
Israel, according to Titan -- two of whose employees were
mentioned in Taguba's report -- works for one of the
company's "sub-contractors." Titan refused to name
the "sub-contractor."
Why? Among the company's former directors is ex-CIA director
James Woolsey, one of the architects of the U.S. invasion of
Iraq, a friend of Ahmed Chalabi and a prominent pro-Israeli
lobbyist in Washington. London says CACI "does not
condone or tolerate or endorse in any fashion any illegal,
inappropriate behavior on the part of its employees in any
circumstances at any time anywhere."
But it is clear the torture trail at Abu Ghraib has to run
much further than a group of brutal U.S. military cops, all
of whom claim "intelligence officers" told them to
"soften up" their prisoners for questioning. Were
they Israeli? Or South African? Or British? Are we going to
let the story go?
-Robert Fisk writes for The Independent in Great Britain
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