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Update [2005-2-17 20:57:37 by SusanHu]:: Photo at end of diary.
BREAKING: In what's known, hideously, as a "Palestinian hanging," one of the CIA's ghost detainees -- captured by Navy SEALs -- was killed last year:
An Iraqi whose corpse was photographed with grinning U.S. soldiers at Abu Ghraib died under CIA interrogation while in a position condemned by human rights groups as torture -- suspended by his wrists, with his hands cuffed behind his back. ...
Al-Jamadi died in a prison shower room during about a half-hour of questioning, before interrogators could extract any information, ...
One Army guard ... said the prisoner's arms were stretched behind him in a way he had never before seen Frost told investigators he was surprised al-Jamadi's arms "didn't pop out of their sockets,' ...
Frost and other guards had been summoned to reposition al-Jamadi... as the guards released the shackles and lowered al-Jamadi, blood gushed from his mouth "as if a faucet had been turned on," ...
AP
::: more below :::
According to court documents and testimony, the SEALs punched, kicked and struck al-Jamadi with their rifles before handing him over to the CIA early on Nov. 4. By 7 a.m., al-Jamadi was dead. ...
[MORE OF THE FULL STATEMENT -- provided surreptitiously by an attorney to the AP -- IS BELOW.]
The military pathologist who ruled the case a homicide found several broken ribs and concluded al-Jamadi died from pressure to the chest and difficulty breathing.
Dr. Michael Baden, a distinguished civilian pathologist who reviewed the autopsy for a defense attorney in the case, agreed in an interview that the position in which al-Jamadi was suspended could have contributed to his death.
Dr. Vincent Iacopino, director of research for Physicians for Human Rights, called the hyper-extension of the arms behind the back "clear and simple torture." The European Court of Human Rights found Turkey guilty of torture in 1996 in a case of Palestinian hanging -- a technique Iacopino said is used worldwide but named for its alleged use by Israel in the Palestinian territories.
I've been researching other cases of gross mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners -- in Iraqi prisons run by U.S. military and intelligence, but this headline stopped me dead in my tracks and I thought I'd better share it with you. I'll share one more case below.
More from the AP report based on documents "which consist of statements from Army prison guards to investigators with the military and the CIA's Inspector General's office":
The death of the prisoner, Manadel al-Jamadi, became known last year when the Abu Ghraib prison scandal broke. The U.S. military said back then that the death had been ruled a homicide. But the exact circumstances under which the man died were not disclosed at the time.
The prisoner died in a position known as "Palestinian hanging," the documents reviewed by The AP show. It is unclear whether that position was approved by the Bush administration for use in CIA interrogations.
The spy agency, which faces congressional scrutiny over its detention and interrogation of terror suspects at the Baghdad prison and elsewhere, declined to comment for this story, as did the Justice Department. ... AP: Iraqi Died While Hung From Wrists
Prosecution:
Navy prosecutors in San Diego have charged nine SEALs and one sailor with abusing al-Jamadi and others. All but two lieutenants have received nonjudicial punishment; one lieutenant is scheduled for court-martial in March, the other is awaiting a hearing before the Navy's top SEAL.
According to the statements by five Army guards -- provided by an attorney for one of the SEALs becuse he says "they offered a more balanced picture of what happened":
Al-Jamadi was brought naked below the waist to the prison with a CIA interrogator and translator. A green plastic bag covered his head, and plastic cuffs tightly bound his wrists. Guards dressed al-Jamadi in an orange jumpsuit, slapped on metal handcuffs and escorted him to the shower room, a common CIA interrogation spot.
There, the interrogator instructed guards to attach shackles from the prisoner's handcuffs to a barred window. That would let al-Jamadi stand without pain, but if he tried to lower himself, his arms would be stretched above and behind him.
The documents do not make clear what happened after guards left. After about a half-hour, the interrogator called for the guards to reposition the prisoner, who was slouching with his arms stretched behind him.
The interrogator told guards that al-Jamadi was "playing possum" -- faking it -- and then watched as guards struggled to get him on his feet. But the guards realized it was useless.
"After we found out he was dead, they were nervous," Spc. Dennis E. Stevanus said of the CIA interrogator and translator. "They didn't know what the hell to do."
Now this story from Dahr Jamail -- of a family man who was detained erroneously and who now is in a vegetative state:
Telltale Signs of Torture Lead Family to Demand Answers
Wife, Daughters Tell of Iraqi Man Discharged from U.S. Custody in Coma
US troops captured an Iraqi family man on July 21, 2003 only to drop him off at a civilian hospital more than a month later, beaten and in a vegetative state. ...
More than a month later, on August 23, US soldiers dropped Zoman off, already comatose, at a hospital in Tikrit. Although he was unable to recount his story, his body bore telltale signs of torture: what appear to be point burns on his skin, bludgeon marks on the back of his head, a badly broken thumb, electrical burns on the soles of his feet. Additionally, family members say they found whip marks across his back and more electrical burns on his genitalia. newstandardnews.net
You can see photos of Zoman, and his injuries.
What's left to say.
During the Reformation, "Europeans were prepared to burn and torture each other because they disagreed on whether, or how, bread and wine were transformed into God." We may no longer burn and torture each other over this matter, but the passions of American evangelical fundamentalism increasingly dictate national and international policy, and the "culture wars" may anticipate events large and profound.
from the Christian Science Monitor's review of The Reformation, a National Book Critics Circle finalist, by Diarmaid MacCulloch
Update [2005-2-17 20:57:37 by SusanHu]: The Canadian Broadcasting Corp. dug up the photo:
Undated file photo obtained by ABC news and allegedly taken by Sgt. Charles Frederick, Army Spc. Sabrina Harman, of the 372nd Military Police Company, poses with the body of Iraqi detainee Manadel al-Jamadi who is packed in ice at the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad, Iraq.(AP Photo/ABC News, File)
CBC