The story of Ahmed Chalabi and his possible provision of U.S. secrets to Iran is growing. It's now alleged that he gave an important, specific secret to Iran:

Ahmad Chalabi, the Iraqi leader and former ally of the Bush administration, disclosed to an Iranian official that the United States had broken the secret communications code of Iran's intelligence service, betraying one of Washington's most valuable sources of information about Iran, according to United States intelligence officials.

The New York Times says it was asked by the Bush Administration to sit on the details. Then, the information began getting out, and the request was withdrawn.

Billmon at Whisky Bar has a thorough recap and analysis.

by TChris

TalkLeft recently observed that the Army is investigating allegations of abuse against civilians as well as prisoners. Now we're learning more about the scope of the investigations.

Over the past year and a half, the Army has opened investigations into at least 91 cases of possible misconduct by U.S. soldiers against detainees and civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan, a total not previously reported and one that points to a broader range of wrongful behavior than defense officials have acknowledged.

Taken together, the 91 cases indicate misconduct by U.S. troops wider in type and greater in number than suggested by the focus simply on the mistreatment of Iraqis held at the Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad. The majority of the cases under investigation occurred in Iraq, although the Army has not provided an exact accounting of all the locations.

More than half of the 91 cases involved misconduct outside of detention facilities. Thirty of the investigations involving detainees related to the deaths of 34 individuals. Among those are ten homicides, only one of which has so far resulted in discipline. Eight homicide investigations "remain open amid evidence the dead detainees were assaulted before or during interrogation sessions."

We haven't seen too many liberal bloggers writing about Memorial Day. Skippy does, quite nicely. Skippy's dad was a WWII vet who served in the Pacific. TL's dad served in WWII in France and other places, from 1942 until 1945. Both came home to spend many years with their loved ones. We are truly sorry for the families of those who served in any war who were not so fortunate. We may be against the war, but we support our troops and feel the loss of those who died.

[comments now closed]

by TChris

Remember all those solemn assurances that the invasion of Iraq wasn't about oil? Maybe it wasn't solely about oil, but oil is never far from the minds of Bush and Cheney.

An e-mail from an Army Corps of Engineers official in March 2003 refers to Douglas Feith's approval of a decision to award a contract to Halliburton, the company that was formerly under Dick Cheney's stewardship.

According to an e-mail excerpt in Time, the contract was "contingent on informing WH [White House] tomorrow. We anticipate no issues since action has been coordinated w[ith] VP's office."

The Corps of Engineers gave Halliburton the contract three days later without seeking other bids, Time reports.

It doesn't look good for Cheney to be coordinating business with his former employer, so Cheney's office says that the "action" being coordinated was the announcement of the contract. And why would Cheney's office, in particular, be involved in the announcement of the contract? Well, um, you know, because they thought it might, well, look bad that Halliburton got the contract, and they wanted to give Cheney a "head's up," so he'd be prepared to deny that he had anything to do with it.

So according to Cheney's office, Cheney wasn't coordinating the contract, he was coordinating the announcement of the contract so that he'd be prepared to deny that he had anything to do with the contract being announced. Huh?

As if Abu Ghraib isn't bad enough, military officials have confirmed that the army is investigating reports of soldier assaults and thefts against Iraqi civilians not being held in detention centers:

The Army is investigating reports of assaults against Iraqi civilians and thefts of their money and jewelry by U.S. troops during patrols, raids and house searches, defense officials said on Monday.

The probe by the U.S. Army's Criminal Investigation Division, or CID, suggests that a major scandal over abuse of Iraqi prisoners by Americans goes beyond detention centers into the homes and streets of the troubled country.
"There are a number of criminal investigations by the Army into allegations of assault, theft and other issues that extend beyond the investigations into activities at detention facilities," Defense Department spokesman Bryan Whitman said.

Don't miss Jane Mayer's article, The Manipulator, in the New Yorker. By chronicling Chalabi and his supporters throughout the years, Mayer demonstrates how Ahmed Chalabi manipulated the Bush Administration.

Between 1992 and the raid on Chalabi’s home, the U.S. government funnelled more than a hundred million dollars to the Iraqi National Congress. The current Bush Administration gave Chalabi’s group at least thirty-nine million dollars. Exactly what the I.N.C. provided in exchange for these sums has yet to be fully explained..... Vincent Cannistraro, a former C.I.A. counter-terrorism specialist who now consults for the government, told me, “With Chalabi, we paid to fool ourselves. It’s horrible. In other times, it might be funny. But a lot of people are dead as a result of this. It’s reprehensible.”

Mayer delves into the role of Francis Brooke, Chalabi's "unofficial lobbyist in Washington" and the Rendon Group:

Brooke, who is a devout Christian, has brought an evangelical ardor to the cause of defeating Saddam. “I do have a religious motivation for doing what I do,” Brooke said. “I see Iraq as our neighbor. And the Bible says, When your neighbor is in a ditch, God means for you to help him.”

by TChris

It's no secret that the U.S. has been imprisoning people in Iraq without adequate cause to justify the detentions. The sudden drive to release prisoners after the embarrassment of Abu Ghraib demonstrates that many detainees should never have been taken into custody, or should have been released promptly.

Maj. Gen. John Ryder recognized that problem last fall, when he completed a report concluding that hundreds of Iraqi prisoners were being held in Abu Ghraib "despite a lack of evidence that they posed a security threat to American forces."

The unpublished report ... reflects what other senior Army officers have described as a deep concern among some American officers and officials in Iraq over the refusal of top American commanders in Baghdad to authorize the release of so-called security prisoners.

General Ryder, the Army's provost marshal, reported that some Iraqis had been held for several months for nothing more than expressing "displeasure or ill will" toward the American occupying forces. The Nov. 5 report said the process for deciding which arrested Iraqis posed security risks justifying imprisonment, and for deciding when to release them, violated the Pentagon's own policies. It also said the conditions in which they were held sometimes violated the Geneva Conventions.

Ryder gave his report to Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, the top American commander in Iraq, but Sanchez apparently deferred to the desire of other officers to ignore international law by keeping the prisoners locked up.

by TChris

Can deception turn a soldier into a slave? Former Denver Bronco Reggie Rivers argues that many U.S. soldiers never would have enlisted had they known that they would be sent to war under false pretenses.

And I don't think "slave" is too strong a word to describe someone who is not permitted to quit his job no matter how dangerous it becomes or how much he hates it. For most of us, the 13th Amendment abolished slavery and guaranteed that we have the right to withhold our labor. It doesn't protect soldiers.

Camilo Mejia learned that lesson when he refused to return to Iraq after deciding that he couldn't further an immoral war -- a very different campaign from the honorable and necessary war of liberation he was told he'd be fighting. Rather than participating in the violent occupation of Iraq, he's spending a year in prison for desertion. He may not be a slave, but he's sure not free.

According to Rivers, kids are induced to sign up for something that's very different from the reality in Iraq:

[O]ur kids get bombarded with formal and informal recruiting messages -- and they sign up. One day, they find themselves sitting in a Humvee in Iraq, with their best friend lying dead on the floor next to them, and they suddenly realize the deception of their recruitment and the shackles of their slavery.

As a general rule, if you're induced by a false representation to enter into a contract, you can get out of the contract. Should soldiers be entitled to ditch the military when they realize they've been sold a boat that doesn't float?

by TChris

Chief Warrant Officer Lewis Welshofer is being investigated in the death of Maj. Gen. Abed Hamed Mowhoush, a top officer in Saddam Hussein's military at a Qaim detention facility on Nov. 26, 2003.

Mowhoush, who had turned himself in Nov. 10, died during an interrogation conducted by Welshofer and another officer, according to a summary of investigative reports obtained by The Denver Post. Investigators also are looking into whether "Other Governmental Agency" employees, a term often used to describe CIA officers, beat Mowhoush in the days before his death, according to the summary.

There isn't any doubt that the Geneva Conventions applied to Mowhoush, who was a military officer. Nor is there much doubt that the protections afforded by those agreements were ignored.

"It is estimated that MG Mowhoush was interrogated at least once each day he was in custody," the investigative summary says. "Approximately 24 to 48 hours prior to (Nov. 26), MG Mowhoush was questioned by (other governmental agency officials), and statements suggest that MG Mowhoush was beaten during that interrogation." A CIA spokeswoman declined to comment.

When Welshofer and his partner took over, they slid a sleeping bag over Mowhoush's head and rolled him from his back and to his stomach while asking questions, the documents allege. Then, Welshofer sat on Mowhoush's chest and placed his hands over the general's mouth, the report says. Mowhoush died during the interrogation, and both officers were reprimanded, the documents say.

The military later issued a press release stating that Mowhoush died of natural causes. No word yet on whether the investigation will affect the Welshofer's anticipated transfer to Fort Huachuca, Ariz., "to teach military intelligence."

by TChris

More than 600 detainees were released from Abu Ghraib today, to the joy of their families, friends, and supporters.

Raising their voices in slow, melodic chants of "God is Greater," hundreds of Iraqis took over a highway in front of Abu Ghraib prison today to greet busloads of men freed from months of detention. Women wept and clung to each other as they strained to glimpse husbands or sons through the dusty windows of each bus that bounced along the dirt road leading out of the prison and rolled past them onto the highway. Men whistled and pumped their fists into the air in a show of solidarity.

The emotional scene at the prison was a testament to the extent that Iraqis have banded together in their outrage over the abuse, which Iraqi citizens have said reminded them of the treatment prisoners suffered under Saddam Hussein.

About 3,000 detainees remain, down from a high of 7,000. Most have been held without charges. More are expected to be released before June 30.

More about the Stanford study in 1971 showing inmate abuse in the U.S. much like that at Abu Ghraib. The lesson: What happened at Abu Ghraib was predictable--and therefore (in our view) preventable. There's even a name for the syndrome: The "Lord of the Flies Effect."

It's 2:30 a.m. Bored prison guards pull prisoners from their cells, strip them naked, chain them together and force them to simulate sodomy. The guards know someone is recording their activities, but they don't let concerns about future consequences interfere with the degradation and abuse. Sound familiar? It might sound like abuses that occurred at Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad, but these pictures were taken over 30 years ago — at Stanford University.

In 1971 a group of 24 college men volunteered to act as either guards or prisoners in an experimental prison. Under the watchful eye of Dr. Philip Zimbardo, esteemed professor of psychology and former president of the American Psychological Foundation, volunteers went through several rounds of testing to ensure psychological and physical health and "normalcy." They were then designated either guards or prisoners by the simple flip of a coin.

[Ed. Date of study corrected]

by TChris

The death toll for American soldiers in Iraq since the start of the war has reached 800.

How many more?