C.I.A. Bid to Keep Some Detainees Off Abu Ghraib Roll Worries Officials

[Spazito]

WASHINGTON, May 24 — The Central Intelligence Agency's practice of keeping some detainees in Abu Ghraib prison off the official rosters so concerned a top Army officer and a civilian official there that they reached a written agreement early this year to stop.

An undated copy of the memorandum was obtained by The New York Times. It was described as an agreement between the Army intelligence unit assigned to the prison and "external agencies," a euphemism for the C.I.A., to halt practices that bypassed both military rules and international standards.

snip

The memorandum provides the clearest indication to date that military officials were troubled by the practice even before General Taguba wrote his report.

snip

In an e-mail message on Monday, Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, the top military spokesman in Iraq, declined to comment on the undated memorandum. To do so, he said, "might compromise the fairness, integrity and impartiality of ongoing investigations."

more, lots more!

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/25/politics/25ABUS.html?...

[Cronus Protagonist]

1. Abu Ghraib is Bush's Watergate

Criminals caught doing illegal shit for the Executive Branch, and this time it's not just a burglary, it's torture and murder.

Click here for stunning, insulting, shocking, funny buttons, magnets and stickers

[DoYouEverWonder]

2. Well if this is W's Watergate

then he better hurry up and at least learn how to pronounce it.

[Robbien]

3. This story is very confusing

Does this mean the CIA were grabbing individuals, not arresting them but just torturing them for information? Why would they bring these people to a jail which is not under their control?

[mitchtv]

5. also families of fugitives whae been grabbed

don't want any lawyers near them.

[Spazito]

8. I read it as the CIA sent a memo stopping actions that

bypassed both military rules and international standards.

"An undated copy of the memorandum was obtained by The New York Times. It was described as an agreement between the Army intelligence unit assigned to the prison and "external agencies," a euphemism for the C.I.A., to halt practices that bypassed both military rules and international standards."

This raises the very key question, who gave the orders to bypass both military rules and international standards because if there was an "agreement between the Army intelligence and external agencies", CIA, there had to have been an original order okaying the practices.

That's how I read it, anyway.

[Robbien]

9. So the intelligence agencies wanted to stop the practice

That leaves regular military and those privatized agencies, right?

[Spazito]

10. I think it leaves the question who, in the chain of command, ...

authorized the practices in the first place. This memo takes the CIA out of the equation most assuredly and brings in the Pentagon.

[Just Me]

15. eeeYUP!!! Remember,....the CIA "dropped out" in late 2003. n/t

[Media_Lies_Daily]

16. It leaves the OSP and certain elements of military intelligence...

...but not the DIA. The OSP cut the DIA out of the loop quite some time ago...the DIA got even with the Chalabi-Iran spy story.

[keithyboy]

4. I can't put all the pieces together yet, but this seems to MAJOR!!!

I think this might be the real 'smoking gun.'

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

6. Was Berg on a roster?

[Just Me]

7. OMFG!!! Hit the dirt!!! Major infighting!!!

NOBODY is in charge,...EVERYBODY is a chief.

Whew!!!

[madrchsod]

11. ok..the cia is not a bunch of nice guys

the guys the cia has are not a bunch of nice guys..what the cia was pissed about is that the army and rummies special unit were screwing up the interrigations so bad all info was useless. also the cia realized early that the people that were in prison were innocent or were low level operatives who knew nothing. now the whitehouse is further blaming the cia to deflect their role in this disaster of historical porportions, i mean in the history of all warfare..
the plame affair has made the cia realize the true enemy are the guys who run the whitehouse...besides the iranian disaster, just how much information has been shared with israel? how far has the idf and mossad gotten into our security agencies???

[glitch]

12. "external agencies" probably not limited to CIA

lots of "external agencies" involved in Abu Ghraib.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

14. But not the CIA...remember, they backed out when the OSP and some...

...military leaders wanted to greatly expand the use of torture on the Iraqi detainees.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

13. Sorry, but it wasn't the CIA that was trying to "hide" detainees...

...it was the OSP. That's the group that they're referring to as an "external agency" in the memo.

Remember, the CIA wasn't involved in the torture in Iraq because the OSP and some of the military leadership wanted to include quite a few more people than just high-value targets.

Even the DIA has been blowing the whistle on the OSP.

[Just Me]

17. OSP and "SAP",...

,...someone posted that these "special" elite whatevers were separate,...but,...I don't think so.

[Spazito]

18. Do we know what civilian policy makers at the Pentagon...

are also in the OSP? Rumsfeld and Feith for sure, I wonder who else?

I found this interesting article on the OSP:

http://www.forward.com/issues/2003/03.06.06/news6.html

[Robbien]

19. Josh Marshall is talking about this article

He believes it could be Feith.

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2004_05_...

[glitch]

20. Feith is James Bond in the field? - amazing egos

absolutely delusional. Just when you think they can't get any more pathetic or ugly. I really do believe the whole lot of them are all strung out on prescription meds.

I am not kidding.

[Spazito]

21. Unbelievable!

They are playing sick games with this: "... and a James Bond, who is identified as "SOS, Agent in Charge."

This is SO sick!