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Ex-National Security Agency Head Calls For U.S. Troop Withdrawal
From Iraq
Pentagon Denies Military Leadership Ordered Abuse in Iraqi
Prisons
Private Contractors and Torture at Abu Ghraib, Iraq
Ex-National Security Agency Head Calls For U.S. Troop
Withdrawal From Iraq
Lt. Gen. William Odom has become the highest ranking retired
general calling for U.S. troops to completely withdraw. He
served as director of the National Security Agency under President
Reagan.
An independent communications contractor missing in Iraq
since early April was shown being decapitated by five masked
Islamic militants in a fuzzy video posted on the Internet
yesterday.
The murder appears to be the first retaliation against the
U.S. for the abuses suffered by Iraqi prisoners in the Abu
Ghraib prison. An Islamist Web site that posted the video
attributed the killing to Musab al-Zarqawi, a jihadist that
the U.S. has long said is behind attacks in Iraq.
In other news, U.S. forces attacked a mosque in the holy
Shiite city of Karbala Tuesday in the largest assault to date
against the forces of rebel Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.
13 Mehdi Army militiamen were killed in overnight clashes
on the outskirts of two other southern cities - Najaf and
Kufa. Until now, American forces had kept out of Karbala and
nearby Najaf for fear of provoking further Iraqi resentment
against the occupation.
The U.S. assault came as the first signs emerged of a peaceful
resolution to the five-week-long standoff with Sadr. A statement
issued by Muqtada's office in Najaf suggested that he would
end his insurgency on condition that the Americans agree to
direct negotiations with him. The US has so far rejected that
demand.
Meanwhile, hundreds of people marched in Najaf on Tuesday
calling on Sadr to pull his militia out. Some of his supporters
fired in the air over the crowd after the majority of marchers
had dispersed.
We are joined by Gen. William Odom who is considered to be
the highest ranking retired general calling for U.S. withdrawal.
- Gen. William Odom, served as director of the National
Security Agency under President Reagan from 1985 to 1988.
From 1981 to 1985, he served as Assistant Chief of Staff
for Intelligence, the Army's senior intelligence officer.
He is now a Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute in Washington.
He is the author of several books including "America’s
Inadvertent Empire."
Pentagon Denies Military Leadership Ordered Abuse
in Iraqi Prisons
As the Senate Armed Forces Committee holds hearings with
Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba on Iraq prison abuse, Cliff Kindy
from the Christian Peacemaker Team reviews the abuse his organization
chronicled months ago.
The Army general who first investigated abuses of Iraqi prisoners
at Abu Ghraib, Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba, testified yesterday
before the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Taguba’s critical report on the mistreatment of Iraqi
detainees was first reported by Seymour Hersh last week in
The New Yorker amid the release of photos depicting the abuse
and humiliation of prisoners by US military. The report and
the photos have caused international outrage and a political
firestorm at home - forcing President Bush to publicly apologize
and prompting calls for the resignation of Defense Secratery
Donald Rumsfeld.
- Sen. John Warner (R-VA) and Carl Levin (D-MI) questioning
Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba
- Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) questioning Taguba
- Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK)
That was Oklahoma Senator James Inhofe speaking at yesterday
Senate Armed Services Committee hearing. His comments come
despite a report from the International Committee of the Red
Cross in which military intelligence officers estimated that
70 to 90 percent of the 43,000 Iraqis detained over the past
year were innocent. According to CNN, Senator John McCain
walked out during Inhofe's statement.
We are joined now by Cliff Kindy who is mentioned in Seymour
Hersh's expose in the New Yorker on the prison abuse scandal.
- Cliff Kindy, member of the Christian Peacemaker Team
who has spent extensive time in Iraq over the past 2 years.
Before the current prisoner abuse scandal became a major
story, the CPT was documenting these types of human rights
violations by US forces. In January, the group released
a report called "Report and Recommendations on Iraqi
Detainees." Kindy has had substantial contact with
Iraqi detainees and their families and with U.S. soldiers
and higher-ups.
Private Contractors and Torture at Abu Ghraib, Iraq
Pratap Chatterjee of CorpWatch reveals the role of the private
firms CACI and Titan in the prison abuse scandal.
Pratap Chatterjee recently returned from Iraq and co-wrote
a piece titled "Private Contractors and Torture at Abu
Ghraib, Iraq":
Two private military contractors are being investigated
for their role in torture allegations at the Abu Ghraib
prison, Iraq: CACI International, Inc. from Arlington, Virginia,
and Titan of San Diego, California. CACI supplied at least
one interrogator while Titan supplied at least two translators
named in a 53-page classified internal Army report written
by Major General Antonio Taguba that have dominated news
coverage all over the world.
A total of four men -- Steven Stephanowicz, John Israel,
Torin Nelson and Adel Nakhla -- are named in the report.
All of them were assigned to work with the 205th Military
Intelligence Brigade, a unit that is currently stationed
in Germany and Italy in support of V Corps, under the command
of Colonel Thomas Pappas....
CACI is currently advertising for interrogators to be
dispatched to Afghanistan, Iraq, and Kosovo -- on its website.
Would-be interrogators must be comfortable working under
"moderate supervision" providing "intelligence
support for interviewing local nationals and determining
there [sic] threat to coalition forces. Must be able to
work with interpreters to gather intelligence information
from multiple sources."
The job requires "a Top Secret Clearance (TS) that
is current and US citizenship," according to CACIs
site, and candidates must "have at least two years
experience as a military policeman or similar type of law
enforcement/intelligence agency whereby the individual utilized
interviewing techniques."
These private-sector positions exist because the military
has downsized its interrogation units in recent years, several
military analysts told CorpWatch. The cutbacks came as part
of longtime Pentagon plans to trim its personnel levels
while expanding spending on tech and weapsons systems, said
David Isenberg, an analyst who follows private military
companies for the British American Security Information
Council. In earlier days, before the ongoing privatization
of war, interrogators would typically be trained at intelligence
schools, located at posts like the Armys Ft. Huachuca in
southern Arizona.
Meanwhile, CACI continues to downplay its role in the
toture controversy. In a canned statement issued, May 5,
President and CEO J.P. "Jack" London said, "CACI
does not condone or tolerate or endorse in any fashion any
illegal, inappropriate behavior on the part of any of its
employees in any circumstance at any time anywhere. If,
regrettably, any CACI employee was involved in any way at
any time in any of the alleged behavior that occurred in
Iraq and has been reported in the media and elsewhere, for
those employees I will certainly personally take immediate,
appropriate action."
The issue of private contractors came up briedly on Tuesday
during the Senate Armed Forces Committee hearing when Sen.
Daniel Akaka (D-HI) questioned Maj. Gen Antonio Taguba and
Stephen Cambone, Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence.
- Pratap Chatterjee, Program Director/ Managing Editor
of CorpWatch
For a copy of today’s program, call 1 (800) 881 2359.
Our website is www.democracynow.org.
Our email address is mail@democracynow.org.
Democracy Now! is produced by Mike Burke, Sharif Abdel Kouddous,
Ana Nogueira, Elizabeth Press, Jeremy Scahill and Parvez Sharma.
Mike Di Filippo is our engineer.
Thanks also to Uri Galed, Angela Alston, Orlando Richards,
Simba Russeau, Johnny Sender, Rich Kim, Joe Murgio, John Randolph,
Chris Zucker, Karen Ranucci, Denis Moynihan, Eric Rweyemamu,
Jenny Filipazzo and Isis Phillips.
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