The leaders of the new Iraqi government are threatening to begin their rule with martial law. How democratic.

As we reported yesterday, CIA contractor David Passaro has been charged with crimes arising from the death of an Afghan prisoner. Some are asking why:

Have you asked yourself why David Passaro, of all the possible number of people involved in just such incidents in Afghanistan--where the number of deaths under interrogation goes into, I believe, at least the double digits--gets indicted? Today, an excellently researched and reported story in the WaPo by Susan Schmidt and Dana Priest gives one possible answer.

You see, the person killed in that incident was a man called Abdul Wali who last June 21 voluntarily gave himself up for questioning at the CIA/Special Forces base at Asadabad--and he had been accompanied to the base by the Hyder Akbar, the 18-year-old, US-educated son of a nearby, US-installed provincial governor, Sayed Fazl Akbar.

Read the Wapo article for the rest of the story.

Turns out it was not just one detainee that Rumsfeld ordered held from the Red Cross, but at least two detainees.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld admitted Thursday that he ordered the secret detention of at least two prisoners captured in Iraq so that they could be interrogated by the Central Intelligence Agency, a move that some legal experts say may have violated the Geneva Conventions. The Geneva Conventions, which outline proper treatment of prisoners of war, forbid holding prisoners incommunicado and require that their identities be registered with the International Committee of the Red Cross.

"It is clearly conduct in violation of international law," said Deborah Pearlstein, the director of the U.S. Law and Security Program of Human Rights First, a New York-based advocacy group formerly known as the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights.

Human Rights First today issued a new report on the Bush Administration's prisoner violations, titled "Ending "Secret Detentions" (pdf) charging that it held:

The first civilian contractor has been charged with crimes in federal court as a result of the death of a prisoner in Afghanistan.

A contractor working for the CIA was indicted Thursday by a federal grand jury on charges stemming from the beating death of a prisoner in Afghanistan. The North Carolina man is the first civilian to face criminal charges related to the detainee abuse scandal. The four-count indictment was handed up in Raleigh, N.C., against David A. Passaro for the June 21, 2003, death of a prisoner in U.S. custody. Copies were distributed in Washington ahead of a planned news conference by Attorney General John Ashcroft.

The prisoner, identified as Abdul Wali, was being held at a U.S. detention facility in Asadabad, in the Kunar province of Afghanistan. Court documents say Wali had surrendered voluntarily and was being questioned by Passaro about frequent rocket attacks directed at the U.S. facility. Wali died after Passaro allegedly beat him "using his hands and feet, and a large flashlight" during two days of interrogations, the indictment said.

Passaro has been charged with two counts of assault and two counts of assault with a dangerous weapon - a flashlight. He faces a total of up to 40 years in prison.

Don't miss This Won't Hurt Much in the Guardian--it's funny, and it shows the absurdity of the Administration's parsing of words when it comes to torture. It's written by Terry Jones, "Terry Jones is a writer, film director, actor and Python." How can you go wrong with Monty Python?

by TChris

The U.S. military, growing more attentive to the need to respond to criminal acts committed against Iraqis in the wake of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, reportedly intends to charge an officer with murder for shooting a wounded Iraqi citizen. Soldiers fired on a vehicle carrying suspected al-Sadr loyalists on May 21, severely injuring the driver and a passenger.

After the vehicle came to a stop, the Army captain allegedly approached the car and shot the wounded driver, killing him instantly. Military officials told NBC's Jim Miklaszewski that the soldier was apparently acting in good faith, shooting the badly wounded driver to "put him out of misery."

Shooting a horse to put it out of its misery might be an act of good faith. Shooting a human, rather than providing medical care, is murder. The officer in question has not been publicly identified.

by TChris

Continuing the Bush administration's tireless efforts to persuade the public that the invasion of Iraq was necessary to protect the U.S., Vice President Cheney this week reiterated the claim that Saddam Hussein had "long-established ties" to al Qaeda. Responding to those comments yesterday, President Bush claimed that the presence in Iraq of Islamist militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was "the best evidence of (a) connection to al Qaeda affiliates and al Qaeda."

If that's the "best evidence," it isn't strong enough to persuade the 9/11 Commission that a link existed between Hussein and al Qaeda. According to a staff report released today:

"There is no convincing evidence that any government financially supported al Qaeda before 9/11 -- other than limited support provided by the Taliban after bin Laden first arrived in Afghanistan."

The report by commission staff said al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden had met with a senior Iraqi intelligence officer in 1994 and had explored the possibility of cooperation, but the plans apparently never came to fruition.

The administration never lets facts stand in the way of assertions, so expect no retreat from the claim that invading Iraq was necessary to protect the U.S. from another al Qaeda attack. Just remember the report's bottom line: "We have no credible evidence that Iraq and al Qaeda cooperated on attacks against the United States."

Gen. Amir Saadi was a top official in Iraq under Saddam. He was the chief liaison between the Iraqi government and U.N. weapons inspectors. He surrendered to the U.S. in April, 2003, and says he has been illegally kept in solitary confinement:

Saadi was classified as a prisoner of war by U.S. authorities a month after his surrender. The Geneva Conventions say prisoners of war "may not be held in close confinement except where necessary to safeguard their health." They also may not be "threatened, insulted, or exposed to any unpleasant or disadvantageous treatment of any kind," if they refuse to answer questions, according to the conventions. Detlev F. Vagts, a Harvard Law School professor who specializes in international law governing wartime, said in a telephone interview, "Clearly we [U.S. forces] and Iraqi forces will have the right to confine people causing trouble or suspected of insurgency," but he added: "That would not cover al-Saadi."

Saadi has written to his wife, through the Red Cross. She made the letters available to the Washington Post. Here's what he had to say:

by TChris

Audits continue to show that Halliburton is treating the federal treasury as a deep pocket that is easily picked.

"DCAA has identified significant deficiencies in [Halliburton subsidiary] KBR's estimating practices related to the award of subcontract costs," said William Reed, director of the Defense Contract Audit Agency, in prepared testimony. He said these deficiencies led to potential overpricing at dining halls in Kuwait and Iraq for U.S. troops and that the military was holding back on paying $186 million for meals.

Vice President Cheney vigorously denies that he played any role in the decision to award lucrative contracts to Halliburton, his former employer. Here's a good argument that, like "many things uttered by the vice president, this simply is not true."

by TChris

Iraq's interim Prime Minister, Iyad Allawi, said Monday that Saddam Hussein will be turned over to the interim government within the next two weeks, but the White House will say only that Hussein's custody will be transferred at "an appropriate time."

Whether that "appropriate time" will arrive before Iraq becomes (sorta) sovereign on June 30 is unclear. President Bush says he's seeking "security assurances" before handing over Hussein.

"We want to make sure that he (Saddam) doesn't come back to power. And so therefore, it's a legitimate question to ask of the interim government: 'How are you going to make sure he stays in jail?' And that's the question I'm asking.

Answer: lock the door?

Update: UPI reports that the U.S. is likely to hold Hussein beyond the June 30 transfer of (at least a little) power. This despite a warning by the International Committee of the Red Cross that detaining Hussein after Iraq (kinda) regains its sovereignty could violate the Geneva Conventions.

Brigadier General Janis Karpinski says she's a scapegoat:

In an interview with British Broadcasting Corp. radio broadcast Tuesday, Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski said Miller told her last autumn that prisoners "are like dogs, and if you allow them to believe at any point that they are more than a dog then you've lost control of them."

Miller denies making the comment. Here's more:

Karpinski said that during a visit to Iraq in September, Miller - still the commander at the Guantanamo Bay prison - spoke of wanting to "Gitmoize" Abu Ghraib by applying the Cuban facility's regimented detention and interrogation techniques. "He talked about Gitmoizing in terms of what the (military police) were going to do; he was going to select the MPs, they were going to receive special training," she said. "That training was going to come from the military intelligence command," Karpinski added, noting that the troops under her command had no training in such interrogation techniques.

Update: Contract interrogators deny reports of top Generals:

Unfair Witness has compiled a photo album with most of the Abu Ghraib abuse photos. Go look.

There's also a great quote from Jay Leno:

According to the “New York Times”, last year White House lawyers concluded that President Bush could legally order interrogators to torture and even kill people in the interest of national security - so if that’s legal, what the hell are we charging Saddam Hussein with?