Most of you have probably already seen this story, which was on the front page of the NY Times today:
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, acting at the request of George J. Tenet, the director of central intelligence, ordered military officials in Iraq last November to hold a man suspected of being a senior Iraqi terrorist at a high-level detention center there but not list him on the prison’s rolls, senior Pentagon and intelligence officials said Wednesday.
This prisoner and other “ghost detainees” were hidden largely to prevent the International Committee of the Red Cross from monitoring their treatment, and to avoid disclosing their location to an enemy, officials said.
Maj. Gen. Antonio M. Taguba, the Army officer who in February investigated abuses at the Abu Ghraib prison, criticized the practice of allowing ghost detainees there and at other detention centers as “deceptive, contrary to Army doctrine, and in violation of international law.”
This prisoner was apparently not abused. They just forgot about him, and forgot to question him–despite their belief that he was a high ranking Ansar-el-Islam officer actively planning attacks on U.S. forces.
Other “ghost detainees” (see correction/update below)have died in U.S. custody. From a May 25 NY Times story:
Accounts from intelligence officials seem to indicate that the practice of keeping detainees off official prison rosters was widespread.
In one of several cases in which an Iraqi prisoner died at Abu Ghraib in connection with interrogations, a hooded man identified only by his last name, Jamadi, slumped over dead on Nov. 20 as he was being questioned by a C.I.A. officer and translator, intelligence officials said. The incident is being investigated by the C.I.A.’s inspector general, and military officials have said that the man, whose body was later packed in ice and photographed at Abu Ghraib, had never been assigned a prisoner number, an indication that he had never been included on any official roster at the prison.
(I’m almost sure this next excerpt from the same story, a few paragraphs later, describes the same prisoner. The article doesn’t make it totally clear, though.)
An American military policeman said in sworn testimony early last month that the man had been brought to Abu Ghraib by “O.G.A.,” initials for other government agency, or the C.I.A., with a sandbag over his head. Military guards took the prisoner to a shower room at the prison, which was used as a temporary interrogation center, according to the account by Specialist Jason A. Kenner of the 372nd Military Police Company.
“He went into the shower for interrogation and about an hour later he died on them,” said Specialist Kenner, whose account left unclear whether the detainee was examined by a doctor or given any military treatment before he died.
“When we put on his orange jumpsuit to take him to the tier, we were told not to take the sandbag off at all,” Specialist Kenner said. “After he passed, the sandbag was removed, and I saw that he was severely beaten on his face. At the time, they would interrogate people in the shower rooms. He was shackled to the wall.”
“Later that day,” Specialist Kenner added, “they decided to put him on ice.”
Today’s Times article says the Ansar-al-Islam suspect in Camp Cutter, “is believed to be the first to have been kept off the books at the orders of Mr. Rumsfeld and Mr. Tenet.”
What I want to know is, are the key words in that sentence “first…off the books” or “at the orders of Mr. Rumsfeld and Mr. Tenet”? Were other detainees held off the books before, without Rumsfeld’s authorization? Was Rumsfeld’s authorization always required to hold a detainee without recording his name?
If so, was there a specific authorization for each individual “ghost detainee”? Or a more general order to hold detainees without listing them on the prisoner rolls if CIA officials requested it?
If not, why was Rumsfeld’s authorization required for the Camp Cropper prisoner and not for others? It might be that the chain of command utterly broke down at Abu Ghraib and no one even bothered asking Rumsfeld; they just did what intelligence told them. But Camp Cropper wasn’t a model of organization either, if they just forget to interrogate this prisoner. And Tenet seems to have been very careful about getting DoD and White House approval for the CIA’s actions.
A note on the timing: The “ghost detainee” whose body was photographed at Abu Ghraib died on November 20, according to the NY Times story
(see correction below). Rumsfeld’s order to hold the Ansar-al-Islam suspect without listing him was issued “in November”, according to today’s Times story. This CBS news story and this CNN story says Rumsfeld’s order was about a prisoner code- or nick-named “Triple X.” This U.S. News story, say that General Ricardo Sanchez’ ordered military guards to keep “Triple X” off the rosters and away from Red Cross inspectors on November 18, 2003. Rumsfeld’s authorization would have been issued before Sanchez’ directive; I don’t know how long before. According to Newsweek, “[o]n Nov. 19, Abu Ghraib was formally handed over to tactical control of military-intelligence units.” So it’s hard to tell much from the timing.
I could editorialize on all this, but what’s the point.
Read more
