NYT: U.S. Inquiry Falters on Civilians Accused of Abusing Detainees

[kskiska]

WASHINGTON, Dec. 18 — A Justice Department team responsible for investigating accusations that civilian government employees had abused detainees has decided against prosecution in most of the nearly 20 cases referred in the last two years by the Pentagon and the Central Intelligence Agency, said lawyers who have been officially briefed on the effort.

The prosecution team, which was established in June 2004 at the United States attorney’s office in Alexandria, Va., has not brought a single indictment and has been plagued by problems.

The team has been unable to collect forensic evidence or find witnesses needed to bring indictments out of war-ravaged areas of Iraq and Afghanistan. In some cases, the unit has been stymied by the absence of facts in the referrals, the lawyers said. A few investigations remain open, although the lawyers declined to be specific about how many cases fell in that category.

The team was set up in the aftermath of the uproar over abuses at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq; it was to investigate accusations that detainees had been mistreated by civilian personnel. Civilians have worked in large numbers in Afghanistan and Iraq, among them C.I.A. officers, Americans hired by companies under contract with the military as interrogators and translators, and local residents temporarily employed as support workers.

more…
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/19/washington/19detain.html?hp&ex=1166504400&en=93111c55717d76ae&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[babylonsister]

1. Who hired the prosecution team? Phew! It's nice to know

everyone's innocent. :eyes:

[DoYouEverWonder]

2. Maybe the DOJ should change their name

to the Department of Injustice? What a crock.

[gratuitous]

3. Don't ask, don't tell

I wonder how motivated the investigators were to really, you know, find fault with all those contractors who were such heavy contributors to the administration? Oh well, I'm sure those contractors didn't abuse anybody in the Middle East who would hold a grudge or anything.

[deadparrot]

4. Senator (Durbin) seeks detainee abuse case update

WASHINGTON - A key Democratic senator asked the Justice Department on Monday for an update on its progress prosecuting government employees who were accused in at least 17 cases of abusing detainees in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In response, a Justice spokesman said at least some of the cases are still under investigation.

In a letter sent Monday to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, incoming Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., noted that the department began looking into the allegations of abuse two and a half years ago.

"In that time, there have not been any indictments in any of these cases," wrote Durbin, who first pressed the Justice Department for a prosecutions update in November 2005, when now-Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty was seeking Senate confirmation.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061219/ap_on_go_co/abuse_prosecutions

[Solly Mack]

5. from the article

"In one case, Justice Department prosecutors investigated an accusation that a civilian translator working under a contract with the military had sexually assaulted a detainee at Abu Ghraib prison. But when investigators arrived in Iraq, the detainee and witnesses had been released in Baghdad and could not be found.

In another case, a referral cited abusive conduct by a government employee but did not include the names of witnesses or victims or where they lived. In other cases, investigators began their inquiries long after the alleged crimes occurred, when any forensic evidence a crime scene might have provided had been lost.

One of the investigations that remains open involves the November 2003 death of Manadel al-Jamadi, who died at Abu Ghraib after a brutal interrogation in one of the most widely publicized abuse cases in Iraq. Mr. Jamadi was in the custody of a C.I.A. officer and a contract interpreter at the time of his death, although he had first been captured by a team of Navy Seals.

Justice Department prosecutors who reviewed the case advised superiors that neither of the civilians could be charged. They concluded that Mr. Jamadi probably sustained severe injuries when he was in military custody before he was turned over to the intelligence agency and that therefore the civilians could not be prosecuted for his death. Frank Spinner, who represented some of the Navy Seals who have faced disciplinary proceedings, denied that military personnel were responsible for Mr. Jamadi’s death. “He walked into Abu Ghraib, into the custody of the C.I.A.,” Mr. Spinner said."



America has no shame and all the reason in the world to be deeply ashamed.

[saigon68]

6. These are the guys Who RECTALLY RAPED the young boys

with plastic flashlights

As the young boys shrieked in pain

Note: see the Taguba Report.