Home

'She Was Following Orders'

Sat, 2008-02-09 12:46 - Kerry

An Attorney For One Of The Soldiers Charged With Mistreating Iraqi Prisoners Speaks Up About Abu Ghraib

Newsweek Web Exclusive
Updated: 7:44 PM ET Jan 25, 2008

As more photographic evidence of Iraqi prisoner abuse emerges, the question of who was in charge of Abu Ghraib prison remains unanswered. Were American soldiers who physically and sexually degraded prisoners acting independently or under orders from supervisors in the Army? Seven reservists assigned to Abu Ghraib from the 327th Military Police company, based near Cumberland, Md., have been charged with offenses related to the alleged abuse like conspiring to mistreat detainees and failing to protect prisoners. They include Spc. Jeremy Sivits, 24; Spc. Megan Ambuhl, 29; Pfc. Lynndie England, 21; Spc. Sabrina Harman, 26; Cpl Charles Graner, Jr., 35; Sgt. Javal Davis, 26; and Staff Sgt. Van Frederick, 37. All of the soldiers have been separated from their unit and are being held in Baghdad, except Pfc. England, 21, who is pregnant and being detained instead at Fort Bragg, NC.

Harvey J. Volzer, the attorney representing Ambuhl, who faces charges of conspiring to mistreat detainees and dereliction of duty for failing to protect prisoners, recently traveled to Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq to gather evidence for Ambuhl's upcoming trial and got a firsthand look inside the notorious prison. He also spoke with some of the detained and allegedly abused Iraqis. Volzer talked to NEWSWEEK's Julie Scelfo about the abuse allegations and the conditions at Abu Ghraib. Excerpts:

NEWSWEEK: What is your client's alleged involvement in the abuse?

Harvey J. Volzer: My client wasn't alleged to have done anything other than be there. I guess she was following orders to be there.

Does your client appear in any of the photographs?

Her boots are in one photograph. That's about it....The place where all these activities occurred is very tiny. If you're there, you're going to see what's going on. If you're Pvt. England or these two specialists, what in the hell are you supposed to do? You know that Military Intelligence is telling the people above you what to do...I feel sorry for the women. I don't think there's much they could have done to control their situation. England looks like she's a tiny little thing.

What was the purpose of your visit to Iraq?

Sunday [May 2] I spent the entire day at the prison interviewing detainees. I have hand-written, dated statements from [some prisoners] and they're all witnessed by an Army interpreter and every one of them says my client was loving and caring and respected by the prisoners.

What is the prison like?

I don't have to worry about what hell looks like when I die. To the outside, to the causal observer, you wouldn't believe that anybody [actually used the building]. It looked like it had been strafed. Inside, it's just hotter than hell. Frankly, the detainees almost have it better [than the U.S. soldiers assigned to watch them] because they can go outside during the day. Granted, outside means rock on the ground. It's not like you have a tree or anything to take care of you. At least it's outside. It's hotter than hell inside. You have no idea how hot it is.

So it was horrible for American soldiers to work there?

Oh yeah, it really is. You're in the middle of nowhere, the conditions are awful, and there's not really any incentive you can offer to the prisoners, because you don't have anything to offer them. [And] the number of prisoners just grew like topsy in a very short period of time. I don't think the powers-that-be anticipated it would grow that much. The problem was the [number of] reservists intended to [guard the prison] didn't grow at all. It made for an uncomfortable situation--suddenly, you had many more prisoners than guards, some of who were trained in correction work before, but most of them were not. The point is, it's not a situation you'd want in the civilian world, let alone when you're supervising detainees. And the people at Abu Ghraib were the worst prisoners in Iraq. They're the worst criminal offenders against the Iraqi people and the suspected terrorists.

Who was in charge of giving orders to the reservists at Abu Ghraib?

The MPs were under the supervision of Military Intelligence. The role of the prison was dual: to have a place where detainees could be kept and...for intelligence. Military Intelligence [officers] were supervising activities there. It was contested at first, but now it's become obvious with [Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's] testimony.

What about rumors in the unit that the reservists in the photographs were just drinking or high?

Drinking? High? Let me tell you one thing, there is nowhere to get high or drunk over there. We're not talking about the US of A. There's no beer, no liquor. Good luck finding any drugs! How do these idiots think [the reservists] got [the hoods and electric wires and women's underpants]? Iraq is a Muslim country. They have guard dogs and drug sniffing dogs three or four times to get into the country. There's no way to have fun over there.

Are you saying that the objects used for torture were provided by Military Intelligence?

You saw hoods in Guantanamo [Bay], didn't you? And you see them at Abu Ghraib. Do you think it's something the military brigade from Cumberland, Maryland, brought with them? 'Gee, do I have everything, I got my credit card, I got my M16, I got my hood.'....What's the common thing between Guantanamo base, [another jail in Iraq called Camp] Bucca and Abu Ghraib? The other places have....the same techniques, the hoods, the training, the photographs....The only common thing is Military Intelligence is interrogating at all of those places. As the kids say, "Duh!'

I know your client and the other soldiers are being held in Baghdad. Where exactly are they staying?

They all live in the same tent in Camp Victory [a military installation]. They were separated from the other members of the brigade. Spc. Sivits was moved last Saturday [May 1] ... but he left a goodbye note for everybody. It was a goodbye note that said he was moving and I think he asked Graner to pack up his stuff. There's no animosity between them and no back biting.

Are they allowed to socialize with other people in Camp Victory?

Absolutely. They were in same tent compound as I was, tent 81. You hear rockets and mortars.

How are other U.S. soldiers treating them?

As a matter of fact, after the "60 minutes II" [segment about prisoner abuse] came on last Thursday, no one knew it was going to happen, so Friday I was sitting in the mess hall--remember there's an 8 hour gap in time between the United States and Iraq--and CNN plays in the mess hall, and it was a perfect opportunity to ask the people I was sitting with what they thought of it all....And the reaction of the soldiers was, 'What do they expect? We're at war!' If you're trying to get information from terrorists, you can't be asking "pretty please.' So they're not upset at all, and they see these people all the time. There hasn't been anything--no threats, no violence, no 'God, we're going to get killed because of you.' I guess it's because the military is just so different from civilians. One thing that's really impressive is the camaraderie of the troops over there.

How are your client's spirits?

It's what would be expected. She's a little disappointed about all of this that's happening.

URL: http://www.newsweek.com/id/105028

©  2004 Newsweek.com

Comments

Sat, 2008-02-09 16:35 — Niels

No drugs in Iraq?

Lawless Iraq is 'key drug route'

Drug smugglers exploiting internal chaos in Iraq have turned the country into a transit route for Afghan heroin, an influential drug agency says.

High levels of insurgent violence and porous borders have drawn traffickers to Iraq, according to the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB).

The board says Jordan has seized large quantities of drugs on the Iraq border.

Authorities in Afghanistan say their drug problem is so severe the country's existence could be threatened.

Drugs are transported through Iraq and into Jordan, where they are moved onto traditional trafficking routes into Europe.

Apart from heroin and other opium-based drugs, Jordan has seized significant amount of cannabis resin and amphetamine-type pills on its borders.

Growing alarm

The president of the INCB, Hamid Ghodse, said the pattern of drug-trafficking in Iraq was similar to that observed in other post-conflict situations.

"You cannot have peace, security and development without attending to drug control," Mr Ghodse said.

"Whether it is due to war or disaster, weakening of border controls and security infrastructure make countries into convenient logistic and transit points, not only for international terrorists and militants, but also for traffickers."

The INCB is an independent body set up to monitor implementation of United Nations drug control initiatives.

Mr Ghodse conceded that no concrete figures existed for the amounts of drugs smuggled through Iraq. But he said the INCB was "alarmed" at evidence of a growing problem.

Newly established authorities in Iraq were co-operating with drug control bodies, but lacked resources, he added.

Sat, 2008-02-09 16:37 — Kerry

How much?

How much control is needed to keep a peaceful environment?  Can that be regulated or dictated?

Sat, 2008-02-09 18:57 — Niels

peace

I take that to be rhetorical, cause I can't imagine true peace can be forced. And even if it is possible it probably won't last. Look at what happened in Yugoslavia, where Tito was able to maintain peace among the various ethnic/religious groups. Soon after his death, old nationalistic and chauvinistic feelings were rekindled and the result was on television all through the 90's.

Maintaining peace is already a difficult task, creating peace is neigh impossible. Especially in a country like Iraq, which hasn't known peace for the last 5000 years.

Sat, 2008-02-09 19:55 — Kerry

size and location

I was referring to the prison-environment, specifically.

How much "control" is needed to keep peace within it's walls and spaces?  I would think, what takes place in there will eventually filter-out onto society... won't it?

Sat, 2008-02-09 17:05 — Niels

more on no drugs?

Ever since the invasion of Afghanistan the export of opium from that country has grown as I know from it's availability over here (the Netherlands). It's no surprise Iraq is very much a transit country, not only bordering Jordan as the above article says, but also Turkey, which gives easy access to the European mainland, while the Iraq/Turkey border is controlled by Kurds. Like in any war the military is probably involved in drug trafficking too, like this article suggests:

from: www.left.ru

Russian Military Oligarch Accuses the CIA and MI-6 of Flooding Russia with Drugs

Translator’s Note. The name Vladimir Ilyich Filin (“Ilyich”, “Vova Filin”)does not say anything to Western public even though it might have been long known to intelligence services and drug enforcement agencies around the world. Filin was not a public figure even in Russia until last year when he debuted as political scientist and expert on “revolutionary and guerilla movements in the developing world” at the Moscow Institute for Globalization Studies. His public appearance was preceded by a number of publications in Russian press alleging that Filin was the leader of an “organized criminal society” involved in drug trafficking and run by a group of former Soviet army intelligence officers from the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff since the early 1990s. 1 Allegedly, the activities of this society include trafficking large quantities of Afghan heroin to Europe, using Russian military bases and transport, as well as shipments of Colombian cocaine to Russia where the society is said to control almost 80 percent of the wholesale cocaine market. According to several documents published, some of these activities were until recently protected by a secret decree, issued by Yeltsin and the corresponding orders of Russian Defense Ministry, which allowed Russian military to transit drugs through the territory of Russian Federation. According to one report, this decree was rescinded only recently. Whatever is the truth of these allegations, according to public statements by Filin and his partners, Filin is the president of the “international consulting agency” Far West Ltd, headquartered in Lausanne, Switzerland. Officially, the agency offers help to “investors in countries with unstable regimes” and has unidentified partners in the United States. According to some reports, these partners include private military companies KBR Halliburton and Diligence LLC. The agency has offices in Colombia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, Kosovo, Turkey, Kyrgyzstan, and Ukraine. Filin’s articles regularly appear in Zavtra and Pravda-info.

Russian original: Alexander Nagorny 2 , "Narkobarony iz CIA i MI-6" Pravda-info 2004.09.13 and Zavtra (38/565) 2004.09.14

There have been reports in mass media about the involvement of the U.S. military in Afghanistan in drug trafficking. I asked the well-known political scientist and specialist on organized crime Vladimir Filin to comment on this.  

-Vladimir Ilyich, is it true that Americans are involved in drug business?

-Yes, they are in ideal situation for this. They control the Bagram airfield from where the Air Force transport planes fly to a U.S. military base in Germany. In the last two years this base became the largest transit hub for moving Afghan heroin to other US bases and installations in Europe. Much of it goes to Kosovo in the former Yugoslavia. From there the Kosovo Albanian mafia moves heroin back to Germany and other EU countries. 3 

-Why such a complex arrangement?

Drug traffickers enjoy relative safety on military bases. There is no serious control there. German police cannot work there. However, outside of military bases German law-enforcement is in effect. True, any police can be bought. But the level of corruption in Germany is not as high as, say, in Russia. This is why it is more convenient for Americans to establish distribution centers in other places. I believe that, in time, such centers will move to their military installations in Poznan, Poland, and also in Romania and Bulgaria. Poland is already a EU member. Romania and Bulgaria are expected to be in 2007. Corruption in these countries is almost as high as in Russia.

-How big is American drug traffic to Europe and who is behind it?

-About 15-20 tons of heroin a year. When Poznan become open, I think it could rise to 50, even 70 tons. Behind this business are the CIA and the DIA (Defense Intelligence Agency). Actually, this is what they did already in Indochina in the 1960s-70s and in Central America in the 1980s.

- What are the goals of these U.S. secret services?

- In the first place, it's personal enrichment. Second, special services make huge amounts of money out of drug trafficking. They can spend this money at their own discretion, without the knowledge of the Congress and even the U.S. president. Finally, with this money secret services can solve certain political problems. For example, they can enter into mutually profitable agreements with Afghan warlords, who give "protection" to drug business in their fiefdoms. This also gives secret services powerful influence on Kosovo Albanian diaspora in Europe, which is more than one million strong. It is a kind of "fifth column" of the United States in "the old Europe."

- And what are the consequences for Russia?

-The new American route for drug trafficking creates an alternative to the old ones, which included transit through Russia. The new route is no longer controlled from inside Russia, but by other forces. So the smaller drug traffic through Russia is, the weaker is the drug mafia, which has contacts with external forces.

- Does it mean that before this drug traffic was controlled by us?  

-Well, how should I put it? In 1994 the Talibs came from Pakistan to Afghanistan and took control of the southern part of the country. In 1996 they entered Kabul and two years later came to Kunduz. Ahmad Shah Masud was left just with Panjshir and a small territory on the border with Tajikistan. In Tajikistan itself, after the civil war power went to the Kuliab clan. They totally depended on Russia, on our 201st Division. Masud also depended on Russia. We sent him advisors and shipments. His aviation was based in Kuliab. In other words, Masud and Tajiks completely depended on Russia's support. Our influence was dominant. True, already back then the British entered into the picture, represented by Aga Khan IV Foundation. But that had only local significance. As to "special merchandise," mainly it always went--and for now continues to go--to Europe via Iran and Turkey. No more than 15 percent ever passed through Tajikistan.  

-And exactly who did this?

-Tendencies, not names are important. Before 2000, Russia was not a significant user of heroin. Its population was too poor and heroin was expensive. Besides, there was no tradition of using heroin. So the main part of "special merchandise"--25-30 tons a year--went to Kosovo Albanians in Europe. You see, it's not that simple to traffic drugs from Afghanistan to Tajikistan, from there to Russia and from Russia to Europe, former Yugoslavia. It took a serious organization with much power and good protection.

-You mean special services and the army?

- Why necessarily the army? Aga Khan IV Foundation always did this as well. And then not the entire army was involved in this.

- What did change after 2000?

Oil prices went up. Russia was getting easy money and a large internal market was created. It's easier to get "special merchandise" from Tajikistan to Russia than to move it from Russia to Europe. Monopoly and centralization does not help here. On the contrary, more effective is decentralization, a cell structure based on the multitude of predominantly small and middle-size ethnic societies, Tajik, for example. Besides the Tajik, this business attracted the government circles of Turkmenistan. The country is well located for this: the Caspian Sea, Astrakhan, and Azerbaijan. Afghan heroin comes to Azerbaijan from Iran as well. It used to come from Turkey too before last spring when they closed Batum. I believe it won't stay closed for long. In the end, all this heroin reaches Russia. Our Azeri diaspora is two million strong, the Tajik one million. There are also Gypsies, the worst of them all. In short, there exists a ready retail network for drugs. Nor do they have problems with laundering drug money in Russia. The Moscow construction business alone can take care of this! Approximately in 2002 British MI-6 and DIS (British military intelligence) took control of this drug business. They control it indirectly, of course, but very effectively.

- And how did this happen?

- In the end of 2001 the British came to the Kanduz province. It's their zone in Afghanistan. Within the multinational forces they are responsible for drugs control in the entire Afghanistan, not just in their zone in the north. To be more precise, officially they are supposed to fight poppy cultivation. Not the Americans, but the British are responsible for that. They began by flooding with drugs their own country. The use of heroin in Britain went up 1,5 times within one year. And four fifth of all heroin was trafficked through Tajikistan. After that they decided that it was enough for Britain and turned to the Russian market.

-How?

- They recruited big narcobarons, who were prominent statesmen of Tajikistan and had influence with the Tajik diaspora in Russia. This gave them an established retail network, ties with corrupt elements in police, FSB, and the customs. Besides, they had old ties with some Russians in Tajikistan, in the military and the border service, who are having financial problems after our troops withdrew from Bosnia and Kosovo. Not that they became poor, but before they did not have to count their money and now they do. In other words, these people cannot resist when their old partners in the Tajik elite approach them with "business" proposals. This is a typical commercial recruiting through intermediaries, a traditional British method.

-It turns out that the British control drug business in Russia?

-Yes, indirectly they control about 70 percent of both whole and retail sales of heroin. They do this through Tajik and Russian citizens, recruited on a commercial basis.

-What is to be done? How can we fight this?

-This situation cannot be changed radically by controlling the shipments of acetic anhydride to Asian countries. Nor the recent arrest of Gafur "Gray-haired" will solve all problems. [One of the closest associates of Tajik President Emomali Rakhmonov and the former head of the Presidential Guard, General Gafur Mirzoev was arrested in August 2004. At the time of his arrest Mirzoyev was the head of Tajik Drug Control Agency http://www.nobf.ru/engl/news/news_archive_04.html].

There must be real struggle against corruption of customs officials and in the law-enforcement agencies. But with the present Russian administration these are pure dreams. However, I believe it is possible to scale down air and rail cargo transportation from Tajikistan, which will be also in the interests of our law-enforcement services. This would make harder large wholesale deliveries. Also something must be done with migration, both legal and not. This would be a blow to the network of drug dealers. In general, we need to cut down the traffic of Afghan heroin to our country by any means possible.

- But where there is demand for drugs there will be supply.  

- Anyway, one has to fight this. We need to study the experience of other countries. There is one point of view--though I strongly disagree with it--that if heroin traffic is stopped, at least temporarily, it will be replaced by cocaine. That happened in the United States in the 1970s-80s after they had left Indochina. Cocaine is, of course, a poison, but heroin is much worse.

-Why?

In the first place, heroin is more harmful to health. Secondly, cocaine is more expensive and therefore less accessible. Thirdly, there is no Colombian diaspora in Russia, and in Colombia there are not enough representatives of those organizations that "control" Russian seaports. Colombia is not a Petersburg. It's a dangerous country for FSB agents, there is a war going on, you can be kidnapped or killed. In short, the [Colombian] connection is fragmented and less vulnerable to the US and British influence. Finally, we have only few seaports that ships from Latin America can call. In contrast, our borders with Central Asia and the Trans-Caucasus are immense. So it is easy to monitor and control [cocaine traffic].

-But you said you did not agree with this viewpoint?

- Of course, I do not. It would be great to shield ourselves from all drugs. I just don't know how this can be done.

Translated by Ralph Moody

1  In English, see Pakistan Times at http://pakistantimes.net/2004/01/31/scoop.htm

2  Alexander Nagorny is deputy of Alexander Prokhanov, chief editor of the weekly “Zavtra”, which has the reputation of a nationalist and anti-Semitic publication, but since 2002 formed an anti-Putin alliance with Boris Berezovsky and Yukos oil company. Presently it supports Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s electoral bid for a seat in the Duma.

3  It is instructive to compare Filin’s description of the U.S. trafficking scheme with his recent statement on the new contract that his company Far West Ltd. signed on September 1, 2005 in Istanbul. “-This is a commercial contract. It’s transparent for the controlling agencies of the countries involved. Our cargo is absolutely legal. Our competitors would like very much to find drugs in it. They have been searching for three years and failed to find anything because there were drugs in it. The new contract renews the similar old one that was signed in 2002. It has to do with the transportation of commercial cargo from Afghanistan--where our company has representation—to the Black Sea ports. There is a well-known US Air Force base in Bagram, Afghanistan. It is connected by air with a number of U.S. Air Force bases in Germany. One of them is the biggest base in Frankfurt am Mein., where they fly to with a stopover in Chkalovsk, near Moscow. But the route from Bagram to the American air force base in Magas in Kyrgyzstan is the most attractive from a commercial point of view. By the way it is located not far from the Russian base in Kant. Through Magas passes a significant cargo traffick and there is a niche for commercial cargo as well. This is very profitable. More profitable than to transport commercial shipments from Afghanistan to Tajikistan. This is why last year we stopped shipments through Tajikistan and closed our local representation. -Who are your business partners?-The identity of our business partners is our commercial secret. I can only say that these are four private companies from three countries: Turkey, Russia, and the United States, which are in the cargo business among other things. One of these firms is a subdivision of a well-known American corporation. This firm is one of the co-founders of our agency.”

Sun, 2008-02-10 22:11 — Kerry

Picture-Perfect Scape Goats

In keeping with the "two sides of every story" I like to maintain for myself, I found the following article that was an eye-opener in terms of what Image and Message means for those on the inside of certain operations.

Written in 2004, Saving Private England  is very interesting in terms of what fact and fiction means to those living the very real life-stories bestowed upon them by their superiors.

I wonder just how much freedom in choice and decision-making there is in the games of politics.   I wonder if being a woman helped or hurt England's station among her peers, (making her easy prey for mind-games).  Most of all, I wonder who's taking care of her baby as she serves her three-year sentence in prison?

Mon, 2008-02-11 14:34 — neophyte

such a shame!

England's plea to jury to be with her baby

September 28, 2005 - 11:44AM

US Army Reserve Private Lynndie England has pleaded with jurors not to separate her from her baby boy even though she has been found guilty of abusing and sexually humiliating Iraqi prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad.

"I was scared I'd have to leave him and he wouldn't know me when I returned and he wouldn't view me as his mother, he'd view me as a stranger," England said today after her lawyer asked her how she felt about her court martial.

England became infamous when photos of the diminutive soldier holding a naked prisoner by a leash were broadcast around the globe.

Today she was found guilty today of a charge of conspiracy to maltreat prisoners, four charges of maltreatment and a charge of committing an indecent act.

The panel of five military officers who found England guilty in her court martial at Fort Hood, Texas, will decide her sentence.

Her lawyers have tried to paint the 22-year-old reservist as a naive young woman whose learning disabilities allowed her to be manipulated by the ringleader of the abuse, Charles Graner, who at the time was her lover.

In closing, Captain Jonathan Crisp asked the military panel to remember how hard it was for England to express herself on the stand and imagine how impossible it would have been for her to stand up to her lover and friends and say the abuse was wrong.

He asked them to consider the impact a jail sentence would have on England's baby and "send her home".

The prosecution used previous statements by England to show that she was laughing and having a good time while she and other soldiers forced detainees to masturbate, piled them naked into a human pyramid and took pictures of England pointing to the word "rapeist" (sic) scrawled on the naked buttocks of one man.

Prosecutor Captain Chris Graveline asked the panel to remember the victims of England's actions - the prisoners and the reputation of the US armed forces at a time of war.

A number of witnesses who said a breakdown in the chain of command, a blurring of the role of military police and interrogators and confusion about the application of Geneva Conventions created an environment in which deviant behaviour became both acceptable and inevitable.

Graner, whose testimony led England to lose her plea agreement after military judge Colonel James Pohl declared a mistrial, continued to defend his actions at the prison.

Today Graner said he had discussed the abuse with his superiors and their only reaction was to install a wall so that the soldiers could abuse the prisoners without being seen.

"I nearly beat a military detainee to death with military intelligence there," he said.

England described how Graner wooed her and later abandoned her when she became pregnant with his child.

England spoke in stilted sentences and paused often during her statement, her head rolling slightly from side to side, her jaw clenching. She described a childhood where she was often confused and afraid to ask questions, and said other children made fun of her clothes and facial tics.

She is the ninth US soldier charged in the Abu Ghraib scandal and the last to go to trial.

Graner got the harshest sentence: 10 years in a military prison. Staff Sergeant Ivan Frederick, the highest ranking soldier charged in the scandal, got eight years in his own plea bargain.

Most of the others got terms of six months to one year in plea deals.

No officer has been tried, though the prison's former commander, US Army Reserve brigadier general Janis Karpinski, and military intelligence officer colonel Thomas Pappas were punished in nonjudicial proceedings.

AFP