Iraq 'power play' behind leaking of jail abuse report

[JCMach1]

Dubai: The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), hinted strongly that their leaked report on Iraq prison abuses (which we publish today) was the result of a power play in Baghdad.

An official of the International Committee of the Red Cross expressed deep discomfort about the leaking of the prison abuse report, and pointed the finger of suspicion at the American administration in Iraq.

"Only two reports were ever made. These were handed over to Paul Bremer and General Sanchez in Baghdad in February," Lette Sorensen, chief media officer (Middle East region) of the ICRC said in Geneva.

"We never release reports to anyone except the authorities who are responsible for the detention. We never give it to the press or any other organisation. That is how we do our work."...

http://www.gulf-news.com/Articles/Region2.asp?ArticleID=120965

[SquireJons]

1. Wow!

I thought the ICRC had made their report available to the WSJ. I didn't know it was leaked by an administration insider. That's HUGE! What we have here is another Elsberg/Deep Throat my friends. Someone deep within the bowels of the monster who has access to the most sensitive information there is. (I can't stop grinning)

I think it's Bremmer or someone on his staff. He was forced out of governorship in less than a month because he opposed some of First Consulate Rumsfelds assertions about the tribesmen of the Ottoman Empire; or something like that. If the 'sultan of swagger' doesn't get him first, Deep Throat II could be a really killer arrow in our quiver.

[JCMach1]

2. Precisely, someone is LEAKING like a sieve...

[maddezmom]

3. and who leaked Tagubu's reprort?

Did Paul Bremer get a copy of the report...or maybe that was Sanchez? :crazy: Surprised the State Dept didn't rec. a copy of the report. :shrug:

[remfan]

4. TPM suggests it's the State Dept

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2004_05_09.php#002952

The Baltimore Sun quotes Colin Powell as saying that "we kept the president informed of the concerns that were raised by the ICRC and other international organizations as part of my regular briefings of the president, and advised him that we had to follow these issues, and when we got notes sent to us or reports sent to us ... we had to respond to them, and the president certainly made it clear that that’s what he expected us to do."

...snip...

I've been hearing for days that the State Department at the highest levels (i.e., not a few lefty FSOs in the bureaucracy, but authorized at the highest levels) has been leaking like crazy against the civilian leadership of the Pentagon on this story.

more....

[maddezmom]

5. that was my first thought...

and one of the reasons behind Powell's interview to GQ....he's trying to distance himself.

[Miss Authoritiva]

6. Someone's really cleaning out his file cabinets before June 30th

n/t

[CWebster]

7. Finally--

Ellsberg has been pleading for someone to come forward.

My guess is that it is a deliberate orchestration behind the scenes.


But here is what bothers me---The Red Cross "expressed deep discomfort" about the leaking. Perhaps they had to officially declare that, but what good are reports, finding, investigations, if no action is ever taken or no one ever knows or says anything to set off the alarms?

[reprobate]

10. It's the way the ICRC must work due to their agreements with.....

....the various governments they work with. It's intended to let the gov'ts take care of the problems in a nonconfrontational manner. If the problems are not addressed that's when they may go public.

[Just Me]

8. Certainly, that report had passed into many hands,...

,...beyond just Bremer and Sanchez. It only takes one set of hands to leak it. Whomever it was, I must say I am grateful for his/her courage.

[yellowcanine]

9. "Deep Throat" or "Daniel Ellsberg" in the Pentagon?

Is there a "Deep Throat" or "Daniel Ellsburg" in the Pentagon who is pissed off by the abuses of the * administration and is making sure this stuff gets out?