Fwd: [ NOLA_C3_Discussion] Army Captain Reports More Abuse

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Soldier Reports More Abuses to Senator

By Eric Schmitt

The New York Times

 

Wednesday 05 October 2005

 

 

Capt. Ian Fishback briefed Senator John McCain and Congressional aides on

Tuesday.

(Photo: Jamie Rose / The New York Times)

 

Washington - An Army captain who has reported new allegations of

detainee abuse in Iraq met Tuesday with Senator John McCain and staff aides

on the House Armed Services Committee and gave them additional accounts of

abuse in Iraq that other soldiers had sent him in recent days, Congressional

aides said.

 

The officer, Capt. Ian Fishback, in a brief interview after his

half-hour meeting with Mr. McCain declined to describe the new information

he gave the senator or, in a separate meeting, to the House aides. But

Captain Fishback said that since he and two other former members of the 82nd

Airborne Division last month accused soldiers in their battalion in Iraq of

routinely beating and abusing prisoners in 2003 and 2004, several other

soldiers had contacted him and asked him to relay to lawmakers their own

experiences.

 

Mr. McCain, an Arizona Republican on the Armed Services Committee, said

nothing in a statement about any new reports of abuse, saying only, " I'm

even more impressed by what a fine and honorable officer he is. "

 

But a senior House aide who met with Captain Fishback said the officer

had read a letter from a sergeant describing detainee abuse in Iraq and

allowed the aides to read the document before taking it back. The aide, who

spoke on condition of anonymity because Captain Fishback related the

information in confidence for use in a possible Congressional investigation,

declined to give details of the abuse.

 

In separate statements to Human Rights Watch, Captain Fishback and two

sergeants related their experiences as they recounted how members of the

First Battalion, 504th Parachute Infantry, had repeatedly beaten Iraqi

prisoners, exposed them to extremes of hot and cold, and stacked them in

human pyramids at Camp Mercury, a forward operating base near Falluja.

 

The abuses reportedly took place between September 2003 and April 2004,

before and during the abuses at the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad.

 

The Army has started a criminal inquiry into the allegations by Captain

Fishback and the two sergeants.

 

Captain Fishback is scheduled to meet Wednesday with Senator Carl Levin

of Michigan, the ranking Democrat on the Armed Services Committee.

 

 

 

Go to Original

 

Senate to Engage in Debate over Detainees

By Liz Sidoti

The Associated Press

 

Wednesday 05 October 2005

 

Washington - The Senate this week will engage in a politically volatile

debate over the U.S. military's treatment of terrorism suspects as fresh

allegations of prisoner abuse surface and support builds for legislation to

establish standards for handling detainees.

 

Led by Sen. John McCain of Arizona, a group of Republicans wants to have

amendments imposing restrictions on the detention, interrogation and

prosecution of prisoners tacked onto the $440 billion military spending bill

the Senate is to vote on by weeks' end.

 

Senators offered the same proposals in the summer as the Senate worked

on a bill setting Pentagon policy. But Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist,

R-Tenn., scuttled that bill in part because of White House opposition to the

detainee proposals.

 

Undeterred, McCain, who was a prisoner of war in Vietnam, resurrected

his legislation this week. His amendment would ban the use of " cruel,

inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment " against anyone in U.S. custody

and require all U.S. troops to follow procedures in the Army Field Manual

when they detain and interrogate suspects.

 

On Wednesday, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., was reintroducing his

proposal that would define " enemy combatant " and put into law procedures for

prosecuting detainees at Guantanamo Bay.

 

Eight Republicans support the proposals and Democrats also are on board.

Votes could come on the amendments as soon as Wednesday night.

 

As it did before, the White House last week threatened a veto over the

proposals, arguing they would tie the president's hands during wartime.

 

However, this time the administration did not send Vice President Dick

Cheney to Capitol Hill to personally lobby McCain, Graham and Sen. John

Warner, R-Va., the Senate Armed Services Committee chairman who supports the

amendments.

 

" I hope there is a realization that this is the right thing to do, "

McCain said Tuesday.

 

At the same time, Democrats plan to continue to push their own proposal

that would establish an independent commission to investigate allegations of

prisoner abuse. The Pentagon already has done several of its own

investigations and argues that another would be redundant.

 

But Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan, the top Democrat on the Armed Services

Committee, said those reviews weren't thorough enough. " This is a rich

target for a true investigation, " he said Wednesday. He accused the White

House of issuing a " false threat " to veto the bill over detainee amendments.

 

McCain, Graham and Warner decided that standards for handling detainees

were needed in light of allegations of mistreatment at the Navy's Guantanamo

Bay prison in Cuba and the abuse scandal at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

 

Since July, a list of retired generals and admirals backing the effort

has doubled from 14 to 28.

 

" It is now apparent that the abuse of prisoners in Abu Ghraib,

Guantanamo and elsewhere took place in part because our men and women in

uniform were given ambiguous instructions, " the retired officers said in a

letter dated last month. " Our service members were denied clear guidance,

and left to take the blame when things went wrong. They deserve better than

that. "

 

In recent weeks, new claims of abuse and reminders of Abu Ghraib have

been in the headlines.

 

Human Rights Watch, a U.S. rights organization, reported that soldiers

in the Army's elite 82nd Airborne Division systematically tortured Iraqi

detainees in 2003 and 2004. The Pentagon says it's investigating.

 

Army Capt. Ian Fishback of the 82nd Airborne disclosed to Senate

Republicans and Democrats that he had heard about widespread prisoner abuse

while serving in Iraq. Fishback was meeting with Levin on Wednesday, a day

after meeting with McCain.

 

Last week, a federal judge in New York ordered the release of dozens

more pictures of prisoners being abused at Abu Ghraib, rejecting government

arguments that the images would provoke terrorists and incite violence

against U.S. troops in Iraq.

 

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