[News] More torture: Iraqi prisoner died in CIA interrogation

Fri Feb 18 08:58:02 EST 2005

2 Articles follow

Iraqi prisoner died in CIA interrogation
by
Friday 18 February 2005 2:17 AM GMT

An Iraqi whose corpse was photographed with grinning US soldiers at Abu 
Ghraib prison died under CIA interrogation while being suspended by his 
wrists, with his hands cuffed behind his back.

According to documents made available recently and reviewed by the 
Associated Press, Manadil al-Jamadi was one of the CIA's "ghost" detainees 
at Abu Ghraib - prisoners being held secretly by the agency.

Al-Jamadi's death became known last year when the Abu Ghraib prison scandal 
broke.

US prison guards were seen in photos giving thumbs-up over his bruised and 
puffy-faced corpse which had been packed in ice.

The US military had previously said the death had been ruled a murder, but 
the exact circumstances under which he died were not disclosed at the time.

Palestinian-hanging

But documents now show al-Jamadi died in a position known as "Palestinian 
hanging". It is unclear whether that position was approved by the Bush 
administration for use in CIA investigations.

Al-Jamadi died in a prison shower room during about a half-hour of 
questioning, before interrogators could extract any information, according 
to the documents, which consist of statements from US army prison guards to 
investigators with the military and the CIA's inspector-general's office.

One guard, Sergeant Jeffery Frost, said the prisoner's arms were stretched 
behind him in a way he had never before seen.

Frost and other guards had been summoned to reposition al-Jamadi, who an 
interrogator said was not cooperating. As the guards released the shackles 
and lowered al-Jamadi, blood gushed from his mouth "as if a faucet had been 
turned on", according to the interview summary.

The military pathologist who ruled the case a murder found several broken 
ribs and concluded al-Jamadi died from pressure to the chest and difficulty 
in breathing.

Clear torture

Dr Vincent Iacopino, director of research for Physicians for Human Rights, 
called the hyper-extension of the arms behind the back "clear and simple 
torture".

The European Court of Human Rights found Turkey guilty of torture in 1996 
in a case of Palestinian hanging – a technique Iacopino said is used 
worldwide but named for its alleged use by Israel in Palestine.

US Navy SEALs had apprehended al-Jamadi as a suspect in the October 2003 
bombing of Red Cross offices in Baghdad.

According to court documents, the SEALs punched, kicked and struck 
al-Jamadi with their rifles before handing him over to the CIA early on 4 
November. By 7am that day, he was dead.

Agencies
By

You can find this article at:
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/A7FC399F-6479-47A5-9D4B-C65D58515D8D.htm 

Army Destroyed Mock Execution Pictures

Documents: Army Pictures of Mock Afghan Executions Were Destroyed After 
Iraq Prison Scandal

By LARRY NEUMEISTER

The Associated Press

Feb. 18, 2005 - Pictures of U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan posing with hooded 
and bound detainees during mock executions were destroyed after the Abu 
Ghraib prison scandal in Iraq to avoid another public outrage, Army 
documents released Friday by the American Civil Liberties Union show.

The results of an Army probe of the photographs were among hundreds of 
pages of documents released after the ACLU obtained a federal court order 
in Manhattan to let it see documents about U.S. treatment of detainees 
around the world.

The ACLU said the probe shows the rippling effect of the Abu Ghraib scandal 
and that efforts to humiliate the enemy might have been more widespread 
than thought.

"It's increasingly clear that members of the military were aware of the 
allegations of torture and that efforts were taken to erase evidence, to 
shut down investigations and to humiliate the detainees in an effort to 
silence them," ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero said.

The Army did not immediately return a telephone message seeking comment.

The probe of the pictures in Afghanistan began after a CD found there 
during a July office cleanup contained pictures of uniformed soldiers 
pointing guns at bound and hooded detainees.

The investigation showed that the pictures were taken in and around Fire 
Base Tycze in southern Afghanistan, according to the documents, which 
blacked out the identities of those interviewed.

An Army specialist told investigators that similar photographs were 
destroyed after images of torture at Abu Ghraib were leaked to the media.

Another Army specialist admitted he was photographed standing behind a 
prisoner while holding a weapon to his head, according to the released 
records. The specialist told investigators he considered those kinds of 
pictures bad because they would enrage the public.

The probe established probable cause to believe eight soldiers committed 
dereliction of duty when they jokingly pointed weapons at bound detainees 
and took pictures, the Army records show.

Earlier documents released by the ACLU had primarily been from the FBI. The 
ACLU also is seeking documents from the CIA and the Department of Defense.

Other Army documents released Friday outlined the case of an Iraqi detainee 
who said Americans in civilian clothes beat him, dislocated his arms, fired 
an unloaded pistol into his mouth and beat his leg with a bat before making 
him denounce his abuse claims to win release. A criminal file on the 
alleged abuse was closed because the probe could not prove or disprove the 
claims.

The Army documents also describe a probe into complaints by senior 
psychological operations officers in Afghanistan that they saw assaults by 
special forces on civilians during raids in May 2004 in the villages of 
Gurjay and Sukhagen.

That investigation was suspended because the victims could not be 
interviewed and prospective witnesses were enemy forces, the Army said in 
its documents.

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