[OnyxCougar]

source: (pravda) http://english.pravda.ru/mailbox/22/...48_bagram.html

No Accountability for Bagram
05/27/2005 14:15
The U.S. Army staffed, operated, and condoned the sustained daily functions of a proverbial torture chamber at the Bagram Military Detention Center in Afghanistan in 2002. Now, 2½ years later, the officers responsible for that facility have yet to face the consequences for their leadership failures.

The dark history of this interrogation and detention facility is mired in denial, gross command irresponsibility at all levels, and soldiers gone wild with rage. Combined, all factors resulted in the injury and in several cases, the death of detainees.

During the course of interrogations, unlucky detainees were routinely abused by the assigned Military Intelligence interrogators from the 519th Military Intelligence Battalion from Fort Bragg, N.C. Augmenting the staff were Military Police soldiers from the Army Reserve's 377th MP Company from Cincinnati, Ohio.

Regarded as potential sources of human intelligence information, detainees being held for interrogation were routinely kicked, beaten, hung by irons from immovable objects to include detention cell ceilings. Their humiliation was constant as a matter of policy. This policy was set by Army Capt. Carolyn A. Wood, an experienced Army interrogator then assigned to the 519th MI Battalion.

Wood posted her own list of "interrogation rules of engagement" (ROE) at Bagram and later did the same when transferred to Abu Ghraib prison west of Baghdad. Wood's ROE were in effect until they were discovered to be inconsistent with interrogation rules published by the CJTF commander in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez.

Given the ghastly treatment that many detainees received at Abu Ghraib, some resulting in horrifying deaths, one may not be shocked with the revelations of abuse at the Bagram facility. Making the situation worse was the likelihood that a detainee in a field detention center may be completely innocent, and guilty of nothing more than being in the wrong place at the wrong time. This did not stop Army MI personnel, and MPs from exacting punishment on detained, injured, and shackled suspects that was no less than horrific.

Such crimes, we now discover, were not rare.

As reported by The New York Times last week, an Afghani named Habibullah was captured by an Afghan Warlord on Nov. 28, 2002. Two days later, he was delivered to the Bagram detention facility by CIA operatives who said that Habibullah was suspected of being a brother of a former Taliban commander from the southern Afghan province of Oruzgan.

Maj. Bobby R. Atwell, a military police officer now assigned to the 16th MP Brigade at Fort Bragg, who was then serving as the provost marshal at Bagram, offered, in an interview with the NY Times, that Habibullah "had a piercing gaze and was very confident." Perhaps it was this perceived arrogance on the part of the detainee that led to his ultimate fate.

When delivered to the Bagram facility, Habibullah was described as being in good health by the doctor who examined him.

However, the senior intelligence operations chief at Bagram, Lt. Col. John W. Loffert Jr., later told Army investigators, "He was already in bad condition when he arrived." Since Loffert is not a doctor, the reader must assume one of two things: Either Habibullah had visible symptoms of poor health, or the officer lied.

On his second day in the Bagram facility, interrogators declared Habibullah as being "uncooperative." According to MP Capt. Christopher M. Beiring, this following a day of being subject to the standard policy of "being hooded, shackled, and isolated for at least the first 24 hours."

Soldiers who were assigned to the facility readily admitted, in classified investigative reports later released and published in the news media, that the guards kept prisoners awake by yelling or poking at them or banging on their cell doors. This went on while Habibullah was shackled by the wrists to the wire ceiling over his cell door.

To which the question arises: Would you remain calm and cooperative at this juncture after a full day of this kind of welcome at a detention facility?

When it came time for a rectal exam, and more heavy-handed treatment meted out by the guards, it is not surprising that Habibullah became violent. The detainee struck Sgt. Alan J. Driver Jr. - is a reserve MP from the 377th MP Co. - with a knee. That act probably sealed Habibullah's fate.

Later that day, Spec. Willie V. Brand, a guard and not an interrogator with the 377th reported Habibullah as "uncooperative" and then saw fit to deliver a flurry of peroneal strikes in response. This involves kneeing the victim in the muscle group just above the victim"s knee. The next day, Brand found Habibullah uncooperative again, and assaulted the detainee a second time with more knee shots to the legs.

As an MI soldier for more than 30 years, I can attest that nowhere in any Army Training Manual, Army Regulation, or Field Manual does the U.S. Army prescribe numerous and repeated peroneal strikes to the legs or a detainee - for any reason.

It is interesting to note that Brand, a junior enlisted soldier, has been charged with assault and other crimes perpetrated against detainees. His civilian lawyer, John P. Galligan, is quick to point out that his client, Brand, was performing his duties consistently within the standard operating procedures that were in place at the Bagram facility.

Given the widespread proliferation of catastrophic abuse directed at detainees, and numerous other corroborative facts, Galligan"s assertion has great credibility.

The situation at Bagram continued to spiral out of control. By Dec. 3, 2002, Habibullah"s sustained defiance made him a open target for scores of peroneal strikes for being, again, "noncompliant."

One M.P., not named in the N.Y. Times, stated that he gave Habibullah five peroneal strikes and another gave him three or four more, again, for being, "combative and noncompliant." The piece in the N.Y. Times revealed that some guards later asserted that he, Habibullah, had been hurt trying to escape. Some guards later asserted that he had been hurt trying to escape.

How combative can a man be while shackled to the ceiling and chained to the floor by his feet and with a bag over his head? These were the conditions of Habibullah"s detention and restraint on Dec. 3, 2002, according to M.P. Sgt. James P. Boland.

Later that date, Boland found Habibullah, slumped forward and held up by the chains attaching him to the ceiling.

Sgt. Boland informed investigators of Habibullah"s condition. Boland returned and entered the cell with Specialists Anthony M. Morden and Brian E. Cammack, both members of the 377th MP Company. Habibullah"s hood was removed and, according to Cammack, Habibullah then spat on him.

After serving as a municipal police officer during 1972-80, I can attest that this is not an unusual event when dealing with detainees. I and most other police officers have been subjected to much worse.

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