http://www.worldrevolution.org/article/716March 7, 2003
Afghan prisoners beaten to death at US military interrogation base
The Guardian (UK)
Two prisoners who died while being held for interrogation at the US military base in Afghanistan had apparently been beaten, according to a military pathologist's report. A criminal investigation is now under way into the deaths which have both been classified as homicides.
'Blunt force injuries' cited in murder ruling
Duncan Campbell in Los Angeles
Friday March 7, 2003
The Guardian
Two prisoners who died while being held for interrogation at the US military base in Afghanistan had apparently been beaten, according to a military pathologist's report. A criminal investigation is now under way into the deaths which have both been classified as homicides.
The deaths have led to calls for an inquiry into what interrogation techniques are being used at the base where it is believed the al-Qaida leader, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, is now also being held. Former prisoners at the base claim that detainees are chained to the ceiling, shackled so tightly that the blood flow stops, kept naked and hooded and kicked to keep them awake for days on end.
The two men, both Afghans, died last December at the US forces base in Bagram, north of Kabul, where prisoners have been held for questioning. The autopsies found they had suffered "blunt force injuries" and classified both deaths as homicides.
A spokesman for the Pentagon said yesterday it was not possible to discuss the details of the case because of the proceeding investigation. If the investigation finds that the prisoners had been unlawfully killed during interrogation, it could lead to both civil and military prosecutions. He added that it was not clear whether only US personnel had had access to the men.
One of the dead prisoners, known only as Dilawar, died as a result of "blunt force injuries to lower extremities complicating coronary artery disease", according to the death certificate signed by Major Elizabeth Rouse, a pathologist with the Washington-based Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, which operates under the auspices of the defence department. The dead man was aged 22 and was a farmer and part-time taxi-driver. He was said to have had an advanced heart condition and blocked arteries.
Chris Kelly, a spokesman for the institute, said yesterday that their pathologists were involved in all cases on military bases where there were unusual or suspicious deaths. He was not aware of any other homicides of prisoners held since September 11. He said that the definition of homicide was "death resulting from the intentional or grossly reckless behaviour of another person or persons" but could also encompass "self-defence or justifiable killings".
The death certificates for the men have four boxes on them giving choices of "natural, accident, suicide, homicide". The Pentagon said yesterday that the choice of "homicide" did not necessarily mean that the dead person had been unlawfully killed. There was no box which would indicate that a pathologist was uncertain how a person had died.
It is believed that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, described as the number three in al-Qaida, is being interrogated at Bagram. He is said to have started providing information about the possible whereabouts of Osama bin Laden whom he is said to have met in Pakistan last month. Most al-Qaida suspects are being held outside the US which means that they are not entitled to access to the US judicial system.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/174902_fisk26.html]Wednesday, May 26, 2004
Follow torture trail at Abu Ghraib
By ROBERT FISK
BRITISH COLUMNIST
I can't wait to see Abu Ghraib prison reduced to rubble by the Americans -- at the request of the new Iraqi government, of course. It will be turned to dust in order to destroy a symbol of Saddam Hussein's brutality. That's what President Bush tells us. So the rewriting of history still goes on.
Last August, I was invited to Abu Ghraib -- by my favorite U.S. Gen. Janis Karpinski, no less -- to see the million-dollar U.S. refurbishment of this vile place. Squeaky clean cells and toothpaste tubes and fresh pairs of pants for the "terrorist" inmates. But now, suddenly, the whole kit and caboodle is no longer an American torture center. It's still an Iraqi torture center and thus worthy of demolition.
The rewriting of Iraqi history is now going on at supersonic speed.
Weapons of mass destruction? Forget it. Links between Saddam and al-Qaida? Forget it. Liberating the Iraqis from Saddam's Abu Ghraib life of torture? Forget it. Wedding party slaughtered? Forget it. Clear the decks for both "full (sic) sovereignty" and "chaotic events." This is, at any rate, according to Bush. When I heard his hesitant pronunciation of Abu Ghraib as "Abu Grub" on Monday night, I could only profoundly agree.
But we're in danger again of missing the detail. Just as the unsupervised armed mercenaries being killed in Iraq are being described by the occupation authorities as "contractors" or, more mendaciously, "civilians" -- so the responsibility for the porno interrogations at Abu Ghraib is being allowed to slide into the summer mists over the Tigris River.
So let's go back, for a moment, to the long weeks in which the Department of Bad Apples allowed its jerks to put leashes around Iraqi necks, forced prisoners to have sex with each other and raped some Iraqi lasses in the jail.
http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/05/22/iraq.abuse/Pentagon details prison deaths
Four cases 'justified homicide'
Saturday, May 22, 2004 Posted: 4:39 AM EDT (0839 GMT)
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Pentagon has revealed that 37 people have died in detention in Iraq and Afghanistan, with one official saying at least some deaths "may be suspicious."
Four cases have been listed as "justified homicide" involving eight deaths of inmates trying to escape.
Of those deaths, seven took place at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison where U.S. soldiers have been accused of abusing inmates.
Death certificates released by the Pentagon indicate one Iraqi detainee died from "strangulation" and two Iraqi detainees died because of "asphyxia."
The certificate also noted "blunt force trauma" as contributing to one of those deaths. One Iraqi detainee was listed as having died from "closed head injury."
Fifteen other cases were declared to be death by natural or undetermined causes, according to Pentagon officials.
The deaths occurred between August 2002 and the present, according to Pentagon officials.
Details of the fatalities were revealed as the Pentagon announced eight new investigations into detainee deaths, bringing the total number of investigations to 33, officials said on Friday.
Thirty of the cases were said to have taken place inside U.S. detention facilities.
Nine other investigations are still pending, Pentagon officials said.
U.S. Army Major General George Fay conducted the key investigation into interrogation procedures. CNN has learned that, as a result of that investigation, a civilian contractor has been referred to the Justice Department for possible criminal prosecution.
The details of the death certificates that are part of the investigation are as follows:
IRAQ
Dilar Dababa died on June 13, 2003 in Iraq as a result of a closed head injury with a cortical brain contusion and subdural hemotoma. Death is listed as a homicide.
Maj. Gen. Abid Mowhosh died on Nov. 26, 2003 at Al Qaim, from asphyxia due to smothering and chest compression. Death is listed as a homicide.
Naem Sadoon Hatab died on June 6, 2003 in Nasiriyah from strangulation. He was found unresponsive outside his isolation quarters at the Whitehorse Detainment Facility. Death is listed as a homicide.
An unnamed 47-year-old detainee died on Jan. 9, 2004 in al-Asad from blunt force injuries and asphyxia. Death is listed as a homicide.
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