[images added by this website] This rather extraordinary war against terror is not really a 'war', any more than the war against obesity means that you can detain people. The Sunday Telegraph London, Sunday, July 4, 2004 Rumsfeld Gave Go-Ahead for Abu Ghraib Tactics, Says General in Charge By Julian Coman THE former head of the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad has for the first time accused the American Secretary of Defence, Donald Rumsfeld, of directly authorising Guantánamo Bay-style interrogation tactics. Brig-Gen Janis Karpinski, (left, above, with Rumsfeld at Abu Ghraib) who commanded the 800th Military Police Brigade, which is at the centre of the Abu Ghraib prisoner-abuse scandal, said that documents yet to be released by the Pentagon would show that Mr Rumsfeld personally approved the introduction of harsher conditions of detention in Iraq. In an interview with The Signal newspaper of Santa Clarita, California, which was also broadcast on a local television channel yesterday, Gen Karpinski was asked if she knew of documents showing that Mr Rumsfeld approved 'particular interrogation techniques' for Abu Ghraib. Gen Karpinski was interviewed for four hours by Maj- Gen Antonio Taguba, who was ordered to investigate abuse at Abu Ghraib and produced a damning report [pdf file zipped] which heavily criticised Gen Karpinski for a lack of leadership at the prison. During inquiries into the scandal, she has repeatedly maintained that the treatment of Iraqi detainees was taken out of her hands by higher-ranking officials, acting on orders from Washington. 'Since all this came out,' she replied, 'I've not only seen, but I've been asked about some of those documents, that he [Mr Rumsfeld] signed and agreed to.' Asked whether the documents have been made public, Gen Karpinski replied 'No' and went on to describe the methods approved in them as involving 'dogs, food deprivation and sleep deprivation'. The Pentagon has consistently denied that Mr Rumsfeld authorised the transfer of harsher techniques of interrogation and detention from Guantánamo Bay to Abu Ghraib, where all prisoners are supposed to be protected by the Geneva Conventions. Replying to Gen Karpinski's allegations, a spokesman for the Pentagon told The Telegraph: 'Mr Rumsfeld did not approve any interrogation procedures in Iraq. The Secretary of Defence was not in the approval chain for interrogation procedures, which would have remained within the purview of Central Command, headed by Gen John Abizaid.' The Bush administration has been dogged by suspicions that harsh interrogation methods employed at Guantanamo were transferred to Abu Ghraib, as Iraqi insurgents began to score significant hits against coalition forces last year. In May [2004], before the Senate armed services committee, Stephen Cambone, the under-secretary of defence for intelligence, publicly denied charges that Mr Rumsfeld had approved Guantanamo-style interrogations in Iraq. Last month, the White House took the unusual step of releasing hundreds of internal documents and debates concerning interrogation procedures at Guantánamo. Extreme interrogation techniques at the camp, it was revealed, now require the explicit approval of Mr Rumsfeld. The Bush administration insists, however, that the notorious abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib was an aberration on the part of a handful of rogue soldiers. A Pentagon spokesman said that all relevant documents on interrogation techniques in Iraq would be made public but could not say when. Gen Karpinski has been suspended from duty pending ongoing investigations into abuse of prisoners at the Baghdad prison. In a recent interview with the BBC, she complained of being turned into a scapegoat for the scandal, arguing that the running of the prison was taken out of her hands.   IN a separate embarrassment for the Department of Defence last week, six recent studies, leaked to the Los Angeles Times, heavily criticised the military for failing to screen adequately potential recruits with violent and even criminal backgrounds. The reports were written by a senior Pentagon consultant. One was delivered in September 2003, weeks before the worst abuses of Iraqi prisoners took place. The title of the report was Reducing the Threat of Destructive Behaviour by Military Personnel. In it the author, Eli Flyer, a former senior analyst at the Department of Defence, stated: 'There are military personnel with pre-service and in-service records that clearly establish a pattern of sub-standard behaviour. These individuals constitute a high-risk group for destructive behaviour and need to be identified.' According to a 1998 report by Mr Flyer, one third of military recruits had arrest records. A 1995 report found that a quarter of serving army personnel had committed one or more criminal offences while on active duty. In his 2003 study, Mr Flyer said that military personnel officers had been reluctant to toughen up screening procedures, fearing that the result would be a failure to meet recruitment goals. Curtis Gilroy, who oversees military recruiting policy for the Pentagon, told the Los Angeles Times: 'It's hard to pick out all the bad apples, but we are striving to improve the system and are doing so.' London, Saturday, July 3, 2004 Israeli Interrogators 'in Iraq' THE US officer at the heart of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal says she has evidence that Israelis helped to interrogate Iraqis at another facility. Brig Gen Janis Karpinski told the BBC she met an Israeli working as an interrogator at a secret intelligence centre in Baghdad. A BBC reporter says it is the first time a senior US officer has suggested Israelis worked with the coalition. The Israeli foreign ministry said the reports were completely untrue. Intelligence Access Gen Karpinski was in charge of the military police unit that ran Abu Ghraib and other prisons when the abuses were committed. She has been suspended but not charged. She told BBC Radio 4's Today programme she met a man claiming to be Israeli during a visit to an intelligence centre with a senior coalition general. 'I saw an individual there that I hadn't had the opportunity to meet before, and I asked him what did he do there, was he an interpreter - he was clearly from the Middle East,' she said in the interview. 'He said, 'Well, I do some of the interrogation here. I speak Arabic but I'm not an Arab; I'm from Israel.'' Until a 1999 ruling by the Israeli Supreme Court, Israeli secret service interrogators were allowed to use 'moderate force'. The US journalist who broke the Abu Ghraib scandal told the programme his sources confirm the presence of Israeli intelligence agents in Iraq. Seymour Hersh said that one of the Israeli aims was to gain access to detained members of the Iraqi secret intelligence unit, who reportedly specialise in Israeli affairs. 'Convenient Scapegoat' BBC reporter, Matthew Grant, says that whatever the truth, these allegations could cause anger in the Arab world. Photographs of naked Iraqi detainees being humiliated and maltreated first started to surface in April, sparking shock and anger across the world. One soldier has been sentenced and six others are awaiting courts martial for abuses committed at Abu Ghraib jail. Gen Karpinski has said she was being made a 'convenient scapegoat' for abuse ordered by others. © 2004 Telegraph newspapers Ltd     Iraq resistance general: 'The liberation of Baghdad is not far away' Former British foreign office legal adviser says Iraq occupation illegal | Sir Jeremy Greenstock admits Saddam had no WMD Lawyer for one guard claims picture shows his client taking orders from others - will generals take the stand?   Index of items on this website about Abu Ghraib

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