Thursday, June 17, 2004

Ghost detainee update

Following my posts on Rumsfiend's admission to hiding a prisoner from the Red Cross, I just watched the Lehrer News Hour, interviewing Edward Pound of U.S. News & World Report on the issue. There was a video clip of The Fiend making the admission, where he also admitted that the "high value" detainee in question ("XXX" as he is called), "wasn't lost in the system". The Fiend says they always knew where he was. Which of course, as I suggested in earlier posts, is certainly true, contrary to what "a senior intelligence official" allegedly told the press. It wasn't on the clip, but Pound said that when asked whether there were other 'ghost detainees', The Fiend lied and said he didn't know. (Although Pound didn't call him The Fiend, and he didn't say "he lied.")

Apparently the prisoner was taken to another country (sorry I missed the particulars) and then brought back to Iraq at which time Rumsfiend ordered him taken into custody at Camp Cropper, the "high value detention center". There was something about deciding he was an Iraqi national and so he should be in Iraq. Maybe they had him at Gitmo - maybe they had him in one of those countries where torture isn't illegal - but that's just speculative on my part, and so not helpful, is it? In fact, it's possible Pound said he was captured in another country, but I'm thinking he said he was taken to another country. I'll try to remember to clear that up as soon as I can find out. I was writing something when he was talking about that, and didn't get it all. Mea culpa.

And another thing, this business about, oh isn't it shocking that it wasn't really January when officials found out about this Abu Ghraib "abuse" but in November! Well, it was a long time before that. They've known about it since the beginning of course, but there were even numerous publicized reports out about torturing prisoners and detainees before November. I've had links to them on my website for quite a long time. Here's one from July '03. Here's one of a man bludgeoned and electrocuted into a coma in January '03. Here's a March '03 Nation article quoting a December '02 Washington Post article. And here's a whole boatload of articles about torture at Guantanamo.

So, let's knock off the crap about how nobody knew anything about U.S. military torturing prisoners until November of '03, and that it was hidden from the public until January '04. Okay?

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