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/ St. Clair's Scorching New History of a Decade of War
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Today's
Stories
May
4, 2004
Kurt
Nimmo
The CIA Privatized Torture
May
3, 2004
Virginia
Tilley
Let the Wall of Silence Fall
May
1 / 2, 2004
Patrick
Cockburn
An Army in Disgrace, a Policy
in Tatters, the Real Prospect of Defeat
Robert
Fisk
"Good Guys" Who Can Do No
Wrong
Alexander
Cockburn
Watching Niagara: Stupid Leaders,
Useless Spies, Angry World
Heather
Williams
Gringo, We're Going Home: Latin
American Troops Flee Iraq
Diane
Rejman
An Army Vet on Torture in Iraq:
Abu Ghraib as My Lai?
Diane
Christian
Blood Spilling: Osama, Bush and
Sharon Speak the Same Language
Patrick
Cockburn
Seems Like Old Times in Fallujah
Dave
Lindorff
Bush's Torturous Logic: Shocked,
Shocked, Shocked
Chris
Floyd
Suicide Bomber: Neocons, Nihilists
and Annihilation
April
29 / 30, 2004
Dave
Zirin
A Pawn in Their Game: the Unlonesome
Death of Pat Tillman
Kathy
Kelly
The Warden's Tour
Greg
Weiher
Fallujah and the Warsaw Ghetto: the
Banality of Evil
Michael
S. Ladah
Terrorism and Assassination: the
Ultimate Depception
Patrick
Cockburn
The Fallujah Mutinies
April
28, 2004
April
28, 2004
Christopher
Brauchli
Meet Congressman Know-Nothing:
Tom Tancredo
Wendy
Brinker
The Politics of the Numb
Faisal
Kutty
The Dirty Work of Canadian Intelligence
John
Chuckman
Seeking the Evil One
Mike
Whitney
Flag-Draped Coffins and the Seattle Times
Tom
Mountain
Rwanda and the F***** Word
Graeme
Greenback
The Iraqi Alamo: a CNN/CIA Production
Tracy
McLellan
The War Comes Home
M.
Junaid Alam
We are the Barbarians
William
Loren Katz
Iraq, the US and an Old Lesson
April 27, 2004
James
Davis
The Colombia 3 Acquitted
Dave
Lindorff
Chalabi as Prosecutor
Bruce
Schneier
Terrorist Threats and Political
Gain
Cockburn
/ Sengupta
British Generals Resist Calls for
More Troops to Aid Americans in Iraq
Walt
Brasch
Presidential Letters: The Day I
Was Asked to Feed an Elephant
Saul
Landau
The Empire in Denial and the Denial
of Empire
April 26, 2004
Patrick
Cockburn
Crossing the Shia Line: US Troops
Prepare to Enter Najaf
Wayne
Madsen
Trading Places: Will the US Go the Way of the USSR?
Grover
Furr
Protest, Rebellion, Commitment
Elaine
Cassel
Lies About the Patriot Act
Mickey
Z.
Inspired by Pat Tillman?
Greg
Moses
Bremer's De-De-Ba'athjfication Gambit
Gila
Svirsky
Anarchy in Our Souls
Uri
Avnery
Vanunu and the Terrible Secret
April 24 / 25, 2004
William
A. Cook
Tweedledee and Tweedledum: Kerry
and Bush Melt into One
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Stryking Out: a General, GM and the Army's Latest Tank
Brandy
Baker
A Revitalized Women's Movement? Let's Hope So
Robert
Fisk
A Warning to Those Who Dare Criticize Israel in the Land of Free
Speech
Ben
Tripp
October Surmise: a Case of Worst Scenarios
Nelson
Valdés
"Submit or Die": Iraq and the American Borg
Lucson
Pierre-Charles
Haiti's Return to the Future
Kurt
Nimmo
The CIA Killed Pat Tillman
Mark
Scaramella
Does Anybody Know Anything?
Patrick
Cockburn
The Return of Saddam's Generals
Gary
Engler
Welcome to La Paz: a Vacation in Tear Gas
Col.
Dan Smith
Whistling in the Dark: Israel, Palestine and Bush
Greg
Weiher
Iraq is Utterly Unlike Vietnam...
Elaine
Cassel
Life on the Outside: a Review
Vanessa
Jones
Letter from Australia: Why an Independent Won Sydney
Jim
French
Agriculture's Bullied Market
Hammond
Guthrie
Al Aronowitz, Bob Dylan and The Beatles
Poets'
Basement
Jones, Holt, Albert, LaMorticella
April 23, 2004
Ron
Jacobs
The Only Solution is Immediate Withdrawal
Dave
Lindorff
Imagination Deficit Disorder
Mokhiber
/ Weissman
Contractors and Mercenaries: the Rising Corporate Military Monster
Norman
Solomon
Country Joe Band, 2004: "What Are We Fighting For?"
Cynthia
McKinney
All Things Are Not Equal: the Perils of Globalization
CounterPunch
Wire
A Bitch Called Wanda
Karyn
Strickler
Sierra Club, Inc.
Hammond
Guthrie
Yellow Caked in the Face
Paul
de Rooij
Graveyard of Justifications: Glossary
of the Iraqi Occupation
April 22, 2004
Patrick
Cockburn
When Terror Came to Basra: "I
Saw a Minibus of Children on Fire"
Tanya
Reinhart
The Wall Behind Disengagement
Lance
Selfa
Why is Kucinich Still in the Race?
Josh
Frank
Street Fighting Man? Kucinich's Pulled Punches
Sen.
Robert Byrd
Bush Owes America Answers on Iraq
William
S. Lind
Why We Get It Wrong
Mickey
Z.
Undoing the Latches
Robert
Jensen
Why They Fast: Remembering the Victims of the World Bank
John
L. Hess
The New York Times from 30,000 Feet
April
21, 2004
Gary
Leupp
Yeats on Iraq
Alfredo
Castro
Colombia's Forgotten Prisoners
Dr.
Susan Block
Bush's Taliban Drug Deal
William
A. Cook
George 1 to George 2
Jack
Random
Iraq and Vietnam
Jean-Guy
Allard
Alarcon Meets the Editors
Mike
Whitney
Charade in the Desert
Bill
Christison
Only Major Policies Changes Can
Help Washington Now
April 20, 2004
Dave
Lindorff
Bush and Kerry Share a Problem
Stan
Cox
Wal-Mart's Magic Numbers
Bruce
Anderson
On Listening to Air America
Joseph
Kalvoda
Czech Mate for Condi
Greg
Moses
Yesterday's Intelligence
Stan
Goff
The Democrats and Iraq
Website
of the Day
Santorum Happens
April 19, 2004
Kurt
Nimmo
The "Central Hand" of the
Resistance
Mike
Whitney
Bob Woodward's Imperial Trifles
Douglas
Valentine
52 Pick-Up and the 100-to-1
Rule
John
Chuckman
The Sharon Annex: Evil Does Often
Triumph
Doug
Giebel
Welcome to the Club
Rahul
Mahajan
Hospital Closings and War Crimes
April
16 / 18, 2004
Robert
Fisk
Bush Legitimizes Terror
Saul
Landau
Subverting Brazil and Cuba
Dave
Lindorff
Paying for War: $2,150 per Family
and Counting
Brandy
Baker
Fallujah's Collateral Damage
Mickey
Z.
The Left Attacks from the Right
Bruce
Jackson
The Bush Press Conference: Gott Mit
Uns
Norman
Solomon
How the "NewsHour" Changed
History
Alexander
Cockburn
Bush, Kerry and Empire
April
15, 2004
Greg
Moses
Follow the Families, Not the Script
Virginia
Tilley
The Carnage According to Gen. Kimmitt:
Just Change the Channel
Ron
Jacobs
They Coulda Been Champions of the
World: Hurricane Carter and Ron Kovic
Michael
Neumann
A Happy Compromise: Hate Crimes
Reporting in the Toronto Globe and Mail
April
14, 2004
Tom
Reeves
Return to Haiti: an American Learning
Zone
Reza
Fiyouzat
Japan and Iraq
Ron
Jacobs
What Bush Really Said
Diane
Christian
The Real Passion
Hot Stories
Alexander Cockburn
Behold,
the Head of a Neo-Con!
Subcomandante
Marcos
The
Death Train of the WTO
Norman Finkelstein
Hitchens
as Model Apostate
Steve Niva
Israel's
Assassination Policy: the Trigger for Suicide Bombings?
Dardagan,
Slobodo and Williams
CounterPunch Exclusive:
20,000 Wounded Iraqi Civilians
Steve
J.B.
Prison Bitch
Sheldon
Rampton and John Stauber
True Lies: the Use of Propaganda
in the Iraq War
Wendell
Berry
Small Destructions Add Up
CounterPunch
Wire
WMD: Who Said What When
Cindy
Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter
I Can't Hear From
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
Click
Here for More Stories.
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May
4, 2004
CACI's Private
Horror Chambers
Torture at Abu
Gharib
By BARRY LANDO
The nauseating pictures of torture at
the Abu Gharib prison in Iraq are only an opening salvo. A growing
presumption is that the few reservists of the 372nd Military
Police Company, who have been formally accused to date, are scapegoats
for an investigation that should have gone much further, and
much, much higher. The soldiers and their Commander, General
Janis Karpinski, say they were operating under the orders of
Military Intelligence units who had told them to soften up the
prisoners for interrogation.
But it turns out it they were
receiving orders not just from MI and the CIA but from employees
of a private contractor as well, a contractor also directly involved
with U.S. intelligence.
There are estimated to be as
many as 15,000 private contractors in Iraq, many of them carrying
out what we used to think of as duties of the military. Now,
with the scandal at Abu Gharib, we learn that the DOD and the
CIA are also outsourcing some of their most sensitive operations,
interrogation and intelligence analysis.
According to Seymour Hersh,
in the current edition of the New Yorker, one of the recommendations
of the officer who investigated the military's prison system
in Iraq, Major General Antonio Taguba, was not just that one
of the MI brigade commanders be reprimanded, but that also two
civilian contractors be sanctioned. One of them, Steven Stephanowicz,
was to be dismissed from his army job and denied his security
clearance for lying to the investigators and allowing or ordering
military policemen to employ techniques that equated to physical
abuse.
Stephanowicz and his colleague
work for a Virginia based firm called CACI International, a company
that has benefited handsomely from the recent surge in Pentagon
outsourcing.
According to their website,
"CACI International Inc provides the IT and network solutions
needed to prevail in today's new era of defense, intelligence
and e-government. Our solutions lead the transformation of defense
and intelligence, assure homeland security, enhance decision-making
and help government to work smarter, faster and more responsively."
The Defense Department provides
64% of CACI International's revenues, which have soared from
$557 million to $843 million from 2001 to 2003, and will probably
hit a billion this year.
They currently have some 7,600
employees, based around the globe. Among the mission's they're
ready to take on, for a price:
"Help America's intelligence
community collect, analyze and share global information in the
war on terrorism
"*Uncover terrorist activity
by providing capabilities ranging from complex space-based operations
to human source intelligence"
One of the many job's currently
listed on the company's site is:
"Interrogator, Baghdad
Iraq.
"Description: Under
moderate supervision, provide intelligence support for interviewing
local nationals and determining their threat to coalition forces.
"Required: Requires a Top Secret Clearance (TS)
that is current and US citizenship. Must have at least two years
experience as a military policeman or similar type of law enforcement/intelligence
agency whereby the individual utilized interviewing techniques.
Develop and present reports and briefings to the Military Chain
of Command.
"Desired: Experience
in conducting tactical and strategic interrogations in accordance
with local standard operating procedures (SOP) and DOD regulation.
Knowledge of the reporting tools used in tactical interrogation
operations."
They are also recruiting experienced
analysts with top secret clearances to provide "intelligence
analytical support to the interrogation team during development
and execution of the interrogation plan/cycle. Interface with
higher, lower and adjacent intelligence organizations to fully
prepare interrogation team for exploitation of detainees, as
well as prepare post interrogation analytical products/assessments
that support further targeting efforts, source development and
analysis of the threat."
A few questions:
--What powers do such contract
spooks have? To whom do they report? Their company chiefs?
To their DOD and CIA bosses? Who decides what is "SOP"
.
--What is their legal status?
Being civilians they are not subject to the Code of Military
Justice, nor to the Geneva Conventions. Nor are they required
out of military duty by to follow any orders they receive.
More to the point: Why are
they being used? Is this another result of Donald Rumsfeld's
decision to ignore extensive plans drawn up by the State Department
for the occupation of Iraq? Is it also a fall out of Rumsfeld's
determination to keep the number of U.S. forces on the ground
to a bare minimum?
Is anyone outside the military
and the intelligence community keeping tabs on all this? The
U.S. Congress, for instance?
-How could President Bush have
been so apparently shocked and outraged by the Abu Gharib pictures?
The military's internal investigation was concluded last February.
Had Rumsfeld not been informed of their explosive findings?
Maybe not. This past weekend, General Myers, the Chairman of
the Joint Chiefs of Staff, admitted he had not yet read
the report. "It's working its way to me," he told
Bob Schieffer of CBS.
-In fact, why is only now that
everyone, press included, is suddenly so outraged? Amnesty International
and other human rights organizations have been making similar
charges over the past year. "Virtually none of the allegations
of torture or ill-treatment has been adequately investigated
by the authorities," says Amnesty.
"Our extensive research
in Iraq suggests that this is not an isolated incident. It is
not enough for the USA to react only once images have hit the
television screens. There is a real crisis of leadership in
Iraq -- with double standards and double speak on human rights."
There have been very similar
charges of detainees being brutalized-or worse-in American military
custody in Afghanistan for years. (By the way, the folks from
CACI International also work for the DOD in Afghanistan.)
-And finally, the Orwellian
nature of it all: Imprisoned in Abu Ghraib are thousands of
civilians, including women and teenagers, according to Seymour
Hersh, "picked up in random military sweeps and at highway
checkpoints." Many of them suspected of what are known as
"crimes against the coalition; and a small number of suspected
'high value' leaders of the insurgency against the coalition
forces."
--But what is the crime? Who
are the law breakers? According to latest opinion polls, the
majority of Iraqis want the coalition out, immediately. The
Iraqi insurgents have taken up arms against an occupying force
that, lacking an explicit U.N. sanction, has been illegally in
their country, from the start.
Or do such considerations no
longer count?
Barry Lando is a former producer for 60 Minutes
who now lives in Paris. He can be reached at: Barry.Lando@wanadoo.fr
Copyright, 2004, Barry Lando
Weekend Edition
Features for April 24 / 25, 2004
William
A. Cook
Tweedledee and Tweedledum: Kerry
and Bush Melt into One
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Stryking Out: a General, GM and the Army's Latest Tank
Brandy
Baker
A Revitalized Women's Movement? Let's Hope So
Robert
Fisk
A Warning to Those Who Dare Criticize Israel in the Land of Free
Speech
Ben
Tripp
October Surmise: a Case of Worst Scenarios
Nelson
Valdés
"Submit or Die": Iraq and the American Borg
Lucson
Pierre-Charles
Haiti's Return to the Future
Kurt
Nimmo
The CIA Killed Pat Tillman
Mark
Scaramella
Does Anybody Know Anything?
Patrick
Cockburn
The Return of Saddam's Generals
Gary
Engler
Welcome to La Paz: a Vacation in Tear Gas
Col.
Dan Smith
Whistling in the Dark: Israel, Palestine and Bush
Greg
Weiher
Iraq is Utterly Unlike Vietnam...
Elaine
Cassel
Life on the Outside: a Review
Vanessa
Jones
Letter from Australia: Why an Independent Won Sydney
Jim
French
Agriculture's Bullied Market
Hammond
Guthrie
Al Aronowitz, Bob Dylan and The Beatles
Poets'
Basement
Jones, Holt, Albert, LaMorticella
|