Timeline: Prisoner Abuse in Iraq
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Timeline: Prisoner Abuse in Iraq
| Tue, 05-11-2004 - 8:24pm |
Here's a basic timeline of events.
MSNBC.com
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4855930/
timeline
Prisoner abuse in Iraq
Key dates in the Iraqi prisoner abuse scandal
Aug. 31-Sept. 9, 2003
Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller, who runs the military prison for terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, conducts an inquiry on interrogation and detention procedures in Iraq. He suggests that prison guards can help set conditions for the interrogation of prisoners.
October-December
Many of the alleged abuses at Abu Ghraib take place during this time period.
Oct. 13-Nov. 6
Maj. Gen. Donald Ryder, provost marshal of the Army, investigates conditions of U.S.-run prisons in Iraq, including Abu Ghraib. He finds problems throughout the prisons. Some units, including the 800th Military Police Brigade, did not receive adequate training to guard prisons, he notes. He also says military police (MPs) should not assist in making prisoners more pliable to interrogation, as their job is to keep prisoners safe.
Nov. 19
The 205th Military Intelligence Brigade is given responsibility for Abu Ghraib prison and authority over the 800th Military Police Brigade.
November
Two Iraqi detainees die in separate incidents that involved CIA interrogation officers.
Jan. 13, 2004
Army Spc. Joseph M. Darby, an MP with the 800th at Abu Ghraib, first reports cases of abuse at the prison.
Jan. 16
Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez orders a criminal investigation into reports of abuse at the prison by members of the brigade. The military also announces the investigation publicly.
Jan. 19
Sanchez orders a separate administrative investigation into the 800th MP Brigade. Maj. Gen. Antonio M. Taguba is appointed to conduct that inquiry on Jan. 31.
Late January - early February
President Bush becomes aware of the charges sometime in this time period, according to White House spokesman Scott McClellan, although the spokesman has not pinpointed a date. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld tells Bush of the charges, McClellan has said.
Feb. 23
Seventeen U.S. soldiers suspended from duties pending outcome of investigation.
Feb. 24
International Committee of the Red Cross provides the Coalition Authority with a confidential report on detention in Iraq. Portions of the report are published without ICRC consent by the Wall Street Journal on May 7.
March 3-9
Taguba presents his report to his commanders. He finds widespread abuse of prisoners by military police and military intelligence. He also agrees with Ryder that guards should not play any role in the interrogation of prisoners.
March 20
Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt tells reporters six military personnel have been charged with criminal offenses.
Mid April
Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, asks CBS-TV to delay airing photographs it has obtained of abuse at Abu Ghraib. Myers says the photos would exacerbate an intense period of violence under way in Iraq. CBS delays its program for two weeks.
April 28
Early May
CIA confirms that some of its officers hid Iraqi prisoners from watchdog groups like the Red Cross.
May 1
An article by Seymour Hersh, published on The New Yorker magazine's Web site, reveals contents of Taguba's report.
May 2
Myers admits on ABC’s "This Week" that he has not yet read the Taguba report issued in March.
May 3
Officials say the Army has reprimanded seven soldiers in the abuse of inmates at Abu Ghraib.
May 4
U.S. Army discloses that it is conducting criminal investigations of 10 prisoner deaths in U.S. custody in Afghanistan and Iraq - beyond two already ruled homicides - plus another 10 abuse cases. (The number grows by two on May 5, when the CIA says it is investigating more cases.)
May 5
President Bush appears on two Arab television channels to address the scandal but does not apologize for the abuse of iraqi prisoners by U.S. troops. The following day Bush does apologize.
May 6
May 7
Rumsfeld testifies before the Senate and House Armed Services Committees on the issue of prisoner abuse in Iraq. Separately, Army Pfc. Lynndie England, shown in photographs smiling and pointing at naked Iraqi prisoners, is charged with assaulting detainees and conspiring to mistreat them.
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More info: A Pattern of Abuse?
http://www.time.com/time/covers/1101040517/wgraphics.html
For two years reports have piled up about "stress and duress" techniques military and CIA officers are using on al-Qaeda and Iraqi captives.
While nothing compared to the horrors of Saddam Hussein's regime, the actions of U.S. soldiers at Abu Ghraib unquestionably violated international law. What's more, for two years reports have piled up about "stress and duress" techniques military and CIA officers are using on al-Qaeda and Iraqi captives. Those tactics—torture lite—also go against international rules; their practice may have encouraged the crimes at Abu Ghraib.
The Techniques
Prisoners and human rights groups have described various coercive methods used by the U.S. on captives held overseas. U.S. officials admit to some of them.
Sleep Deprivation
Interrogators keep captives awake for days with bright lights and loud music.
Uncomfortable Positions
Prisoners are forced to stand or squat in positions for hours or are held in cramped spaces where they cannot sit, stand or lie down.
Shock Therapy
Soldiers "soften" captives before handing them over to interrogators. Prisoners are beaten, stripped, doused with water and subjected to drastic swings in temperature. They are often made to remain naked even while watched by female guards.
Sensory Deprivation
To disorient captives, interrogators place hoods, duct tape or darkened goggles over their eyes for hours at a time. Mind Games Interrogators cajole, scare or confuse prisoners. They threaten to send captives to countries with a known history of torture, like Egypt or Morocco. Occasionally the U.S. has carried out that threat.
The Law
The Third Geneva Convention forbids subjecting POWs to "cruel treatment and torture, outrages upon personal dignity and humiliating treatment." U.S. officials say Iraqi and Taliban captives are covered by the convention but al-Qaeda members are unlawful combatants and thus not covered. The convention says tribunals must decide a prisoner's status.
The Convention Against Torture defines torture as any act that inflicts severe pain or suffering, physical or mental. When the U.S. ratified the convention in 1990, it defined torture as anything cruel and unusual under the Eighth Amendment. The convention prohibits countries from handing over captives to another state known to employ torture.
The Challenges
Lawyers for Guantanamo detainees argued before the U.S. Supreme Court last month that their clients deserve access to courts to challenge their imprisonment.
The Center for Constitutional Rights filed suit against the Justice Department in January on behalf of Maher Arar, a Canadian arrested during a layover in New York City because of suspected al-Qaeda ties. He was deported to Syria, where the C.C.R. alleges he was tortured for months before winning release.
Justice Department and Pentagon Investigators are examining multiple prisoner deaths in Afghanistan and Iraq. Three of those captives died while under interrogation by the CIA.
Fascinating, thank you!
A person not wearing a uniform.
Another timeline, a few differences (sorry couldn't edit pictures out)..............
That's the definition of a civilian. So civilians are unlawful combatants?
http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Third%20Geneva%20Convention
Geneva Convention
http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Geneva%20Convention
Is this a Bushism? Another example of using his power to avoid laws?
What is bothering me is the way some are blaming a few "bad" soldiers. This is not true it is the circumstances in which these soldiers are placed. I am really afraid that this administration will punish a few good men/women and let the perpetrators of this situation go free to create similar circumstances in other prisons. I believe there is evidence of a systemic humuliation. Note Lefton's quote, "It depends entirely on the situation around us."
Quotes from NewsHour at http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/middle_east/jan-june04/prisoners_5-11.html
"PHILIP G. ZIMBARDO: Well I agree with everything my colleague, Robert Jay Lifton, said. Human nature has the potential to be good or evil. It depends entirely on the situation around us. These young men and women who are being scapegoated, being rushed to trial, rushed to judgment, were embedded in an evil barrel.
"What happened is, in my study, we took good young then... men, put the them in an evil barrel of a simulated prison and out came corrupted young men who did sadistic acts very similar to what you see in Abu Ghraib, chaining them, making them naked, putting bags over their heads, making them clean out toilet bowls with their hands and at the end simulating sodomy, having the prisoners simulate sodomy. And these were college students to other college students."
"PHILIP G. ZIMBARDO: ....I was a superintendent of the prison who said no physical violence but they waited until I went to sleep because for a variety reasons. First of all, prison situations are one of enormous power differentials. Guards have total power over prisoners who have no power. Unless there's strict leadership, unless there's clear leadership that prevents the abuse of power, that power will seep out. That power, that sadistic impulse will dominate. That's what we saw in our prison. That's what you see in Abu Ghraib.
"My sense is that these young men and women are certainly not... certainly didn't go in as bad apples -- just as in our prison they went in as good American soldiers. They've
come out shamed. Their future is destroyed. What happens is what the system is doing is taking the blame away from those who created the barrel.
All of those who should have been in command, all of those who should have been in charge, the military intelligence that clearly, clearly influence, suggested, push, enhanced the use of these terrible tactics. But all of... the system wants to be preserved. That's why we're rushing to judgment to these young men and women."
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