Follow torture trail at Abu Ghraib
By ROBERT FISK
BRITISH COLUMNIST

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/174902_fisk26.html

I can't wait to see Abu Ghraib prison reduced to
rubble by the Americans -- at the request of the new
Iraqi government, of course. It will be turned to dust
in order to destroy a symbol of Saddam Hussein's
brutality. That's what President Bush tells us. So the
rewriting of history still goes on.

Last August, I was invited to Abu Ghraib -- by my
favorite U.S. Gen. Janis Karpinski, no less -- to see
the million-dollar U.S. refurbishment of this vile
place. Squeaky clean cells and toothpaste tubes and
fresh pairs of pants for the "terrorist" inmates. But
now, suddenly, the whole kit and caboodle is no longer
an American torture center. It's still an Iraqi
torture center and thus worthy of demolition.

The rewriting of Iraqi history is now going on at
supersonic speed.

Weapons of mass destruction? Forget it. Links between
Saddam and al-Qaida? Forget it. Liberating the Iraqis
from Saddam's Abu Ghraib life of torture? Forget it.
Wedding party slaughtered? Forget it. Clear the decks
for both "full (sic) sovereignty" and "chaotic
events." This is, at any rate, according to Bush. When
I heard his hesitant pronunciation of Abu Ghraib as
"Abu Grub" on Monday night, I could only profoundly
agree.

But we're in danger again of missing the detail. Just
as the unsupervised armed mercenaries being killed in
Iraq are being described by the occupation authorities
as "contractors" or, more mendaciously, "civilians" --
so the responsibility for the porno interrogations at
Abu Ghraib is being allowed to slide into the summer
mists over the Tigris River.

So let's go back, for a moment, to the long weeks in
which the Department of Bad Apples allowed its jerks
to put leashes around Iraqi necks, forced prisoners to
have sex with each other and raped some Iraqi lasses
in the jail.

And let's cast our eyes upon that little,
all-important matter of responsibility. The actual
interrogators accused of encouraging U.S. troops to
abuse Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib jail were working
for at least one company with extensive military and
commercial contacts with Israel. The head of an
American company whose personnel are implicated in the
Iraqi tortures, it now turns out, attended an
"anti-terror" training camp in Israel and, earlier
this year, was presented with an award by Shaul Mofaz,
the right-wing Israeli defense minister.

According to J.P. London's company, CACI
International, the visit of London -- sponsored by an
Israeli lobby group and including U.S. congressmen and
other defense contractors -- was "to promote
opportunities for strategic partnerships and joint
ventures between U.S. and Israeli defense and homeland
security agencies."

The Pentagon and the occupation powers in Iraq insist
that only U.S. citizens have been allowed to question
prisoners in Abu Ghraib but this takes no account of
Americans who may also hold double citizenship. The
once secret torture report by U.S. Gen. Antonio Taguba
refers to "third country nationals" involved in the
mistreatment of prisoners in Iraq.

Taguba mentions Steven Staphanovic and John Israel as
involved in the abuses at Abu Ghraib. Staphanovic, who
worked for CACI -- known to the U.S. military as
"Khaki" -- was said by Taguba to have "allowed and/or
instructed MPs (military police), who were not trained
in interrogation techniques, to facilitate
interrogations by 'setting conditions' ... he clearly
knew his instructions equated to physical abuse." One
of Staphanovic's co-workers, Joe Ryan -- who was not
named in the Taguba report -- now says he underwent an
"Israeli interrogation course" before going to Iraq.

We know the Pentagon asked Israel for its "rules of
engagement" in the occupied West Bank and Gaza.
Israeli officers have briefed their U.S. opposite
numbers and, according to The Associated Press, "in
January and February of 2003, Israeli and American
troops trained together in southern Israel's Negev
desert ... Israel has also hosted senior law
enforcement officials from the United States for a
seminar on counter-terrorism."

Staphanovic of CACI, who may also be Australian, was
accused by Taguba's army report of making "a false
statement to the investigation team regarding ... his
knowledge of abuses." Another outside interrogator,
Adel Nakhla, who may be of Egyptian origin, was a
witness to the "stacking" of naked prisoners in Abu
Ghraib. John Israel "misled" investigators by denying
he had witnessed misconduct and did not have "security
clearance."

Israel, according to Titan -- two of whose employees
were mentioned in Taguba's report -- works for one of
the company's "sub-contractors." Titan refused to name
the "sub-contractor."

Why? Among the company's former directors is ex-CIA
director James Woolsey, one of the architects of the
U.S. invasion of Iraq, a friend of Ahmed Chalabi and a
prominent pro-Israeli lobbyist in Washington. London
says CACI "does not condone or tolerate or endorse in
any fashion any illegal, inappropriate behavior on the
part of its employees in any circumstances at any time
anywhere."

But it is clear the torture trail at Abu Ghraib has to
run much further than a group of brutal U.S. military
cops, all of whom claim "intelligence officers" told
them to "soften up" their prisoners for questioning.
Were they Israeli? Or South African? Or British? Are
we going to let the story go?

Robert Fisk writes for The Independent in Great
Britain.






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