Tuesday, May 11, 2004Israeli
link possible in US torture techniques In
exchange for interrogation training, did Washington
award security contracts? By Ali Abunimah
Special to The Daily Star CHICAGO, Illinois: The head of
the American defense contracting firm implicated in
the torture of Iraqis at Abu Ghraib prison has
close ties to Israel and visited an Israeli
"anti-terror" training camp in the occupied West
Bank earlier this
year. 
Their
treatment does not reflect the nature of
the American people. That's not the way we
do things in
America. |
Truthseekers.com:APART from the failings
of the senior officers who should have
done more to prevent the abuse, General
Taguba names four individuals as key
suspects. "Specifically," Taguba wrote, "I
suspect that Col. Thomas M. Pappas, LTC
Steve L. Jordan, Mr. Steven
Stephanowicz, and Mr. John
Israel were either directly or
indirectly responsible for the abuses at
Abu Ghraib and strongly recommend
immediate disciplinary action." Jordan is former director of the Joint
Interrogation and Debriefing Center and
Liaison Officer to the 205th MI
Brigade. Stephanowicz is a "civilian
interrogator" employed by CACI
International of Chantilly, Va., and "John Israel" is said to be a "civilian
interpreter." Both were working with the 205th MI
Brigade at the time of the abuse.
According to the report these private
contractors were at times supervising the
interrogations. "In general," Taguba wrote, "U.S.
civilian contract personnel (Titan Corp.,
CACI, etc.) third country nationals, and
local contractors do not appear to be
properly supervised within the detention
facility at Abu Ghraib." The third country nationals are not
identified in the report. Although Stephanowicz and Israel are
both named as being "directly or
indirectly responsible for the abuses at
Abu Ghraib," very little has been said
about either of them in the mainstream
media. Why are they being overlooked? |
Jack London, chairman, president and CEO
of CACI International Incorporated, traveled to
Israel in January this year
[2004] as part
of a high-level delegation of US Congressmen,
defense contractors and pro-Israel lobbyists,
sponsored and paid for in part by the Jerusalem
Fund of Aish HaTorah, a pro-Israel lobbying and
fundraising group, and Greenberg Traurig, LLP, a
prominent Washington law and lobby firm. The purpose of the visit, according to a CACI
press release, was "to promote
opportunities for strategic partnerships and
joint ventures between US and Israeli defense
and homeland security companies." 
As one of the highlights of the visit, London
was presented with the Albert Einstein Technology
Award by Israeli Defense Minister
[Lieutenant-General]
Shaul Mofaz (above right, with
friend) at a gala dinner at Jerusalem city
hall, for "achievements in the field of defense and
national security." Delegates also spent several hours in the
occupied Syrian Golan Heights with Housing and
Construction Minister Effie Eitam, a former
Israeli general, who is notorious for his view that
Israel should "transfer" -- that is, expel -- all
the Palestinians. According to the official itinerary for the Jan.
11-17 Defense Aerospace Homeland Security Mission,
obtained from the Jerusalem Fund of Aish HaTorah,
London's trip included  a
visit to Beit Horon, "the central training camp for
the anti-terrorist forces of the Israeli police and
the border police," in the occupied West Bank. The
visitors were also "briefed by top experts," and
were able to "witness exercises related to
anti-terror warfare." Two CACI employees, Steven Stephanowicz
and John Israel, were named in the leaked
report [download
pdf] by US Major General Antonio M.
Taguba (above) on the abuses
at Abu Ghraib prison. Taguba wrote that
Stephanowicz, a "contract US
civilian interrogator," "allowed and/or instructed MPs
(military police), who were not trained in
interrogation techniques, to facilitate
interrogations by 'setting conditions' which
were neither authorized or in accordance with
applicable regulations/policy. He clearly knew
his instructions equated to physical abuse." John Israel, an interpreter, did not have the
appropriate security clearance, according to
Taguba. Although Taguba
recommended that Stephanowicz be
terminated
and his security clearance revoked, a May 5
[2004]
statement from CACI confirmed, "at present, all
CACI employees continue to work on site
providing the contracted for services to our
clients in that location." It added: "We have
not received any information to stop any of our
work, to terminate or suspend any of our
employees." Although no evidence has emerged directly
linking CACI's involvement in the Abu Ghraib
atrocities to Israel, it has long been known that
the US military has been interested in "learning"
from Israel's experience attempting to suppress the
Palestinian uprising. In March 2003, for example,
the AP reported that the "the (US) military has
been listening closely to Israeli experts and
picking up tips from years of Israeli Army
operations in Palestinian areas and Lebanese
towns." This cooperation has included briefings of US
personnel by Israeli officers, and, according to
AP, "In January and February (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
counterterrorism." Meanwhile, more evidence has emerged undermining
the US thesis that the abuses at Abu Ghraib was the
work of a "few bad apples." The Guardian
reported that the "sexual humiliation of Iraqi
prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison was not an invention
of maverick guards, but part of a system of
ill-treatment and degradation used by special
forces soldiers that is now being disseminated
among ordinary troops and contractors." 
This system, known to insiders as "R2I," short
for resistance to interrogation, also includes such
methods as "hooding, sleep deprivation, time
disorientation and depriving prisoners not only of
dignity, but of fundamental human needs, such as
warmth, water and food." These are all techniques
long employed by Israel. The visit of the US delegation that included the
CACI head exposes a rarefied web of influence
sharing in which US government officials and
congressmen, defense contractors and lobbyists
parcel out huge contracts, and siphon significant
portions off to Israel. As Batya Feldman of Israel's Globes
financial news service put it, the visit provided
Israeli companies with "an
excellent opportunity to encounter big bucks in
homeland security." To help Israeli companies pry some of these "big
bucks" loose, the visit included seminars for
Israeli companies given by US pro-Israel lobbyists
called "How to Approach the Homeland Security
Department," and "How to Sell to the US Defense
Department." Israeli participants would have had a chance to
test the helpful tips, since present on the trip
were Assistant Secretary for Homeland Security
Robert Liscouski and many leading US
legislators, including top members of the US House
and Senate Armed Services Committees, which jointly
oversee tens of billions of dollars in military
spending.  
Historic document's
text
Report
of the International Committee of the Red Cross
(ICRC) on the treatment by the Coalition Forces
of prisoners of war ... in Iraq-
[Updated:]
The
Classified Report of Maj. General Antonio M.
Taguba: Article 15-6 Investigation of the
800th Military Police
Brigade
[pdf,
85K]
-- see
the role of an Israeli-owned "civilian
contractor" interrogation firm, and a Mr "John
Israel"
-
Geneva
Convention (1949): The Protection of Civilian
Persons in Time of
War
[pdf,
108K]
|
![[]](../../std/dings/list.gif){kind=small}
write to David
Irving