Former U.S. Detainee in Iraq Recalls Torment

[gristy]

By MICHAEL MOSS
Published: December 18, 2006

One night in mid-April, the steel door clanked shut on detainee No. 200343 at Camp Cropper, the United States military’s maximum-security detention site in Baghdad.

American guards arrived at the man’s cell periodically over the next several days, shackled his hands and feet, blindfolded him and took him to a padded room for interrogation, the detainee said. After an hour or two, he was returned to his cell, fatigued but unable to sleep.

The fluorescent lights in his cell were never turned off, he said. At most hours, heavy metal or country music blared in the corridor. He said he was rousted at random times without explanation and made to stand in his cell. Even lying down, he said, he was kept from covering his face to block out the light, noise and cold. And when he was released after 97 days he was exhausted, depressed and scared.
<snip>

A spokeswoman for the Pentagon’s detention operations in Iraq, First Lt. Lea Ann Fracasso, said in written answers to questions that the men had been “treated fair and humanely,” and that there was no record of either man complaining about their treatment.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/18/world/middleeast/18justice.html?hp&ex=1166418000&en=8bbe0ca95f0b352c&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[ninkasi]

1. What a fine example

of the "freedom" we are trying to spread in Iraq by slaughtering them. These people need to be tried for war crimes. This was an American citizen, trying to do what he thought was his duty, and look at how he was betrayed by his own country. I can only imagine the level of hatred Iraqis have for us.

[TacticalPeek]

2. K&R

http://atrios.blogspot.com/2006_12_17_atrios_archive.html#116641326459422171

:kick:

[Kagemusha]

3. I'm sure that there was indeed no record of any complaints.

That hardly assures me that the "treated fair and humanely" part is at all true.

[psychopomp]

4. No doubt

I would not expect many to complain and risk even further scrutiny by their captors.

[Kagemusha]

5. More like I wouldn't expect captors to record it in this case

I mean, what would it get them?

[pnwmom]

6. NYT: Former U.S. Detainee in Iraq Recalls Torment

The detainee was Donald Vance, a 29-year-old Navy veteran from Chicago who went to Iraq as a security contractor. He wound up as a whistle-blower, passing information to the F.B.I. about suspicious activities at the Iraqi security firm where he worked, including what he said was possible illegal weapons trading.

But when American soldiers raided the company at his urging, Mr. Vance and another American who worked there were detained as suspects by the military, which was unaware that Mr. Vance was an informer, according to officials and military documents.

SNIP

The story told through those records and interviews illuminates the haphazard system of detention and prosecution that has evolved in Iraq, where detainees are often held for long periods without charges or legal representation, and where the authorities struggle to sort through the endless stream of detainees to identify those who pose real threats.

“Even Saddam Hussein had more legal counsel than I ever had,” said Mr. Vance, who said he planned to sue the former defense secretary, Donald H. Rumsfeld, on grounds that his constitutional rights had been violated. “While we were detained, we wrote a letter to the camp commandant stating that the same democratic ideals we are trying to instill in the fledgling democratic country of Iraq, from simple due process to the Magna Carta, we are absolutely, positively refusing to follow ourselves.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/18/world/middleeast/18justice.html?hp&ex=1166418000&en=8bbe0ca95f0b352c&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[RamboLiberal]

7. This is one Congress should investigate

and bring Rummy and his minions up on charges. Constitution - what Constitution? Even some of the RW are waking up to these facists.

[pnwmom]

8. And I hope he sues Rumsfeld, too. n/t

[leftchick]

9. I am sure this is still happening

every day. In our names. :(

[bklyncowgirl]

10. If this is how they are treating the Americans imagine how they are treating the Iraqis.

I wonder if this guy's whistle blower status was what kept him in there longer than the other guys from the same company. He was an embarrasment to the war effort to say the least and someone that they would have liked to keep silent.

It's one thing to trade weapons to insurgent and militia groups--it's quite another to tell the FBI that your colleagues are trading weapsons to insurgent and militia groups.

The man is lucky to be alive.

[freefall]

11. I can't believe this isn't on the greatest page already. Every American needs to know

that this is continuing and everyone of us needs to be doing whatever we can to put a stop to it. Yesterday.

I am horrified. I look around at my fellow citizens as they shop 'til they drop in apparent denial of what is being done in their names and I despair.

Peace,

freefall

K&R

[KansDem]

12. So, the Corporate Media has replaced "torture" with "torment?"

Doesn't sound quite as nasty, does it?

[grytpype]

13. Proof that being white is no defense against Bush's torturers.

They torture everyone who fall into their hands, and a white American troublemaker like Vance is no exception.

Congress must have hearings on this.

[pberq]

14. K&R

The article takes pains to avoid saying this, but it appears to be retaliation for whistleblowing.

[Judi Lynn]

15. How this man got caught up in this is astounding. He was trying to HELP them,

conspicuously ON THEIR SIDE.



Peter Wynn Thompson for The New York Times

Donald Vance, a security contractor, at his
lawyer’s office in Chicago this month.

From the article:

On his way out, Mr. Vance said: “They asked me if I was intending to write a book, would I talk to the press, would I be thinking of getting an attorney. I took it as, ‘Shut up, don’t talk about this place,’ and I kept saying, ‘No sir, I want to go home.’ ”
(snip)

He should consider writing that book, but his decision might make things harder for future prisoners. Jesus.