Up in the cellblocks (Pentagon memo restricts IRC access to Abu Ghraib)

[floda]

Nation & World
Up in the cellblocks
A Pentagon memo defines just who gets to see some inmates at Abu Ghraib--and when
By Edward T. Pound

Just days before the Abu Ghraib abuse scandal was disclosed to criminal investigators in mid-January, Army lawyers and intelligence officers executed a plan to restrict Red Cross access to the facility west of Baghdad. The new rules were developed by the office of Army Col. Marc Warren, the top legal adviser to Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, who heads coalition forces in Iraq, and officers of the 205th Military Intelligence Brigade, which controlled the prison.


According to a memo obtained by U.S.News , military police and intelligence personnel at Abu Ghraib were told on January 2 about the new plans. Two days later, a Sunday, inspectors from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) visited Abu Ghraib. The Red Cross team was told that its access to cellblocks 1A and 1B, where most of the abuses had occurred, along with nearby interrogation booths located outside the facility, would be restricted.

After the Red Cross objected, the Army gave the inspectors access to 1A and 1B but kept them from interviewing nine "security internees" being interrogated at the time, the memo said. The Army also maintained a requirement that the Red Cross schedule future visits and be escorted by military personnel.

The restrictions were put in place despite the Army's avowed commitment to "free and unfettered access" to Abu Ghraib and other detention facilities in Iraq, in compliance with the Geneva Conventions. The new policy was drafted after the Red Cross, in visits to Abu Ghraib last October and November, uncovered abusive treatment. "They were not happy that the Red Cross had unfettered access in Abu Ghraib," says an Army officer familiar with the prison's procedures. "They did not want Red Cross people walking around in there where they were not supposed to be." After the ICRC complained to military commanders, the Army informed the agency that it was necessary to isolate some prisoners for interrogation to develop intelligence. The military was seeking the whereabouts of former high Iraqi officials

more...

http://www.usnews.com/usnews/issue/040607/usnews/7prison.htm

[maddezmom]

1. drip, drip, drip....

Sanchez is going to take some folks with him on his way to GITMO.

[maddezmom]

2. couple of tie in links

~snip~
Karpinski told CNN the U.S. Army was aware of prisoner abuses well before January when a soldier made a direct report of misconduct, prompting the U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, to order a criminal investigation.

Karpinski said she saw an International Committee for the Red Cross report detailing human rights abuses at Abu Ghraib at an "impromptu meeting" at Combined Joint Task Force-7 ( CJTF-7) headquarters in late November 2003.

"The people that were there at this meeting -- it was very informal -- they were all aware of the report," she said. "As a matter of fact when I asked a question about the report, the SJA to the CJTF-7 -- the lead lawyer -- responded very quickly and said I have a copy of the report right here, you can see it.

"So clearly they had already seen the report, maybe it had been intercepted or routed to them in this particular case, and they were already working on a response for my review."

~snip~

http://edition.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/05/26/iraq.abuse/
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WASHINGTON (AFP) - The US military sent a confidential letter to a Red Cross official last December asserting that many Iraqi prisoners were not entitled to the full protections of the Geneva Conventions.


The New York Times reported that the letter, drafted by military lawyers and signed by Brigadier General Janis Karpinski, emphasized the "military necessity" of isolating some inmates at Abu Ghraib prison for interrogation because of their "significant intelligence value."


It also said prisoners held as security risks could legally be treated differently from prisoners of war or ordinary criminals, according to the report.


The letter contradicts recent public statements by Bush administration officials, including those of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who have said that the Geneva Conventions were fully applicable in Iraq (news - web sites).

more

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/us_iraq_prisoners_g...

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Army officials in Iraq responded late last year to a Red Cross report of abuses at Abu Ghraib prison by trying to curtail the international agency's spot inspections of the prison, a senior Army officer who served in Iraq said Monday.

After the International Committee of the Red Cross observed abuses in one cellblock on two unannounced inspections in October and complained in writing on Nov. 6, the military responded that inspectors should make appointments before visiting the cellblock. That area was the site of the worst abuses.

The Red Cross report in November was the earliest formal evidence known to have been presented to the military's headquarters in Baghdad before January, when photographs of the abuses came to the attention of criminal investigators and prompted a broad investigation. But the senior Army officer said the military did not start any criminal investigation before it replied to the Red Cross on Dec. 24.

The Red Cross report was made after its inspectors witnessed or heard about such practices as holding Iraqi prisoners naked in dark concrete cells for several days at a time and forcing them to wear women's underwear on their heads while being paraded and photographed.

more…
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/19/politics/19ABUS.html?hp
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[UpInArms]

3. don't you just admire the gall of the

denial that Sanchez had anything to do with this (made by Army Col. Marc Warren, the top legal adviser to Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez)

According to Army officers, detainees were kept isolated in cellblock 1A, often stripped, and then interrogated. In an E-mail to U.S.News, Colonel Warren defended the decision to control Red Cross visits. He said General Sanchez "had no role in this decision, which was temporary and did not deny accessThe Red Cross, Warren said, was "temporarily denied the opportunity to conduct private interviews" of "specifically identified individuals who were undergoing active interrogation." He said they numbered eight. He added that the inspectors were allowed to view the conditions of those captives and to interview them during a later visit. "The legal authority for this exceptional and temporary denial of access," Warren said, was Article 143 of the Fourth Geneva Convention. It allows restrictions "for reasons of imperative military necessity."

and you have to wonder what they were doing to the "currently interrogated" individuals.

After negotiations with the 205th MI Brigade, O'Kane said, the Red Cross was denied "free access" only to the "security internees" then being interrogated. The inspectors, he added, were given immediate access to prisoners in 1A and 1B.

(edited for html)