- WASHINGTON -- America will
again be forced to confront the torture of Iraqi prisoners this week when
preliminary proceedings begin against four US soldiers at the centre of
the Abu Ghraib abuse scandal.
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- Hearings against Charles Graner, Ivan "Chip"
Frederick and Javal Davis will take place at the heavily guarded Green
Zone in Baghdad, headquarters of the US authority in Iraq. A fourth case
will open at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, against Lynndie England, the army
reservist pictured in some of the most notorious abuse photographs.
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- The so-called Section 32 hearings - instigated by the
commanding officer of a soldier's unit to determine whether to recommend
a full court martial - come amid a growing weight of evidence suggesting
that the coercive interrogation of prisoners in US custody was approved
at senior levels of the Bush administration.
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- Recently leaked memos suggest that rather than being
isolated episodes, the abuse at Abu Ghraib may be the result of a deliberate
"gloves-off" approach in the aftermath of the September 2001
attacks when pressure increased to obtain "actionable" intelligence
against suspected extremists.
-
- Among those internal documents is a January 2002 Justice
Department memo arguing that US officials could not be charged with war
crimes for the abuse of prisoners because the Geneva Conventions did not
apply to detainees held in the war in Afghanistan. The same department's
Office of Legal Counsel wrote a memo in August 2002 which concluded that
certain acts may be cruel, inhuman or degrading, yet not produce suffering
of the requisite intensity to constitute torture as defined by international
treaties and US law.
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- Another document, written in March 2003 by the Department
of Defense, argued that President Bush was not bound by international or
US laws banning torture. It said individuals could not be prosecuted for
carrying out such activities if they had been ordered by the President.
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- This weekend it was revealed that the officer who oversaw
interrogation at Abu Ghraib believed he was under "intense pressure"
to get intelligence from Iraqi prisoners. Sworn testimony from Lieutenant
Colonel Steven Jordan, obtained by USA Today newspaper, details how he
was told White House officials wanted to "pull the intelligence"
out of detainees.
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- "[There were] instances where I felt there was additional
pressure to get information," he said. He was urged to improve the
intelligence output "many, many, many times". On one occasion,
an official working for the National Security Adviser, Condoleezza Rice,
discussed the detainees issue with him.
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- The Bush administration is refusing to release thememos
- making it more difficult to assess precisely how far up the chain of
command responsibility for the abuse may lie.
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- © 2004 Independent Digital (UK) Ltd http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=533358
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