Posted on 12/08/2004 10:24:53 AM PST by Tumbleweed_Connection
Members of a U.S. special operations task force punched and abused prisoners in Iraq in front of Defense Intelligence Agency agents and then threatened the agents to try to keep them quiet, a document made public on Tuesday stated.
A letter from the head of the DIA to a senior Pentagon intelligence official, which detailed previously unknown incidents of abuse by U.S. forces on prisoners in Iraq, said the agents also saw detainees with burn marks and bruises.
It was written two months after photographs of U.S. soldiers abusing prisoners at Abu Ghraib jail near Baghdad became public, and five months after American commanders in Iraq first learned of the Abu Ghraib abuse.
The Abu Ghraib revelations prompted international outrage and undercut U.S. credibility as it sought to stabilize Iraq amid a bloody insurgency after last year's invasion.
The new revelations of abuses elsewhere were included in a June 25 letter from Navy Vice Admiral Lowell Jacoby, director of the DIA, to Stephen Cambone, undersecretary of defense for intelligence.
The letter was one of numerous U.S. government documents released by the American Civil Liberties Union (news - web sites), which obtained them under the Freedom of Information Act. Other documents depict a split between the Defense Department and the FBI (news - web sites) over Pentagon use of harsh interrogation methods on prisoners.
Jacoby wrote that two unidentified DIA agents, who worked as interrogators and debriefers at a detention facility in Baghdad, saw task force officers "punch a prisoner in the face to the point the individual needed medical attention."
Jacoby said that "the debriefer was ordered to leave the room." The date of the incident was not stated.
The DIA personnel also observed "prisoners arriving at the Temporary Detention Facility in Baghdad with burn marks on their backs. Some have bruises, and some have complained of kidney pain," Jacoby wrote. One of the DIA agents took pictures of the injuries and showed them to his supervisor in the task force "who immediately confiscated them," Jacoby wrote.
AGENTS THREATENED
Members of the task force acted against the DIA agents, the letter said, including making unspecified threats, confiscating their vehicle keys, ordering them "not to talk to anyone in the U.S.," and telling them their e-mails were being screened.
The letter said task force members also "instructed them (the DIA agents) not to leave the compound without specific permission, even to get a haircut at the PX (store for military personnel)."
The job of the task force was not specified. During the Iraq war, the Pentagon has used several task forces made up of special operations troops and sometimes CIA agents, searching for "high-value" fugitives and weapons of mass destruction.
Jameel Jaffer, an ACLU lawyer, said the documents show an attempt to cover up abuse, noting the threats made to the two DIA agents. Pointing to the account of burns on the backs of some prisoners and bruises, Jaffer added, "By anyone's definition, that suggests that something akin to torture has been going on. This is alarming."
The Pentagon had no immediate comment on the documents.
The Pentagon previously has acknowledged abuse of prisoners in Iraq by special operations troops. Members of an elite Navy SEAL unit were charged in September with abusing prisoners, including one who died in November 2003 after being dropped off at Abu Ghraib with severe head injuries.
A Pentagon report on detainee treatment by special forces in Iraq is due to be made public as early as next month.
Boy, talk about recycling the Abu Graib story. The ACLU is pulling out all the stops on this one.
I'm uncomfortable with outright physical torture, but given the tactics the enemy is using I frankly don't care. If the US intelligence agencies can stop another beheading or suicide bomber, I think anything short of murder and dismemberment should be on the table.
The axis of evil = terrorists, ACLU and communists.
SOF operators do not snatch random people or terrorize nuns and puppies.
They are after high value targets. If those targets get banged up in the process of capture, tough. If the jihadis hadn't chosen that way of life, they wouldn't have SEALs sitting on them.
What? They aren't casterating them? How come they aren't casterating them? The Military has gone soft on these stinking terrorists.
The media wants them to walk up to a bunch of terrorists armed with RPGs and explosive belts who want nothing more than to slowlty saw off the heads of each and every infidel, soldier or not, and ask them to "Surrender, pretty please"
Well, now we know what John Kerry's plan was for a "kinder, more sensitive war on terror"
If the left's so smart, why do they have the collective IQ of a box of rocks?
If a few slaps, punches, panties on the head, leading by leach adventures, etc. will provide info that saves ANY of the lives of our soldiers over there, innocent Iraqis, or even citizens over HERE, then it's worth it. The definitino of torture has expanded like the meaning of "child abuse" has over the last coupel of decades.
IF our guys were cutting off fingers, shocking genitals, etc, that MIGHT be different, but I have yet to hear anything that qualifies as real TORTURE/ABUSE. People so easily forget that these folks are TERRORISTS who were, in most cases, caught in the act of trying to hurt/kill our guys or Iraqi civilians.
Some of the media wants us to go really soft on terrorists.
The media is working for the terrorists.
Oh Pulllease.
Patton did worse to his own men...
Who and what is this Defense Intelligence Agency?
I'm so glad the ACLU is out there defending my rights as an American Citizen /sarcasim
(they STILL get federal $$$ right?)
To the MSM:
I could give a crap less. Abuse them, I don't care.
Thank you
cork
Good. I like to know my tax dollars are being well spent.
BTT. I really like the responses on this thread. Well said everyone. I don't have a thing to add.
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