Judge Orders U.S. to Release Files on Abu Ghraib

[struggle4progress]

By JULIA PRESTON
Published: September 16, 2004

A federal judge in New York, complaining that the Bush administration "shows an indifference" to the freedom of information laws, has ordered the Pentagon and other agencies to produce a list of all their documents on the detentions at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq by Oct. 15.

The ruling, issued yesterday by Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein in Federal District Court in Manhattan, came in a suit filed July 2 by the American Civil Liberties Union. The group sued after the federal government failed to provide any relevant documents in response to a Freedom of Information Act request it made on Oct. 7, 2003.

The request was for documents about the treatment and deaths of detainees while in United States custody in Iraq, among other subjects. The group provided a list of 70 priority documents, all of which were mentioned in public reports or press accounts.

In his ruling, Judge Hellerstein wrote that the "glacial pace" of the government's response "fails to afford the accountability of government" that the freedom of information laws require. On Aug. 17 the judge had ordered the government to start producing the 70 documents, but none have been released. <snip>

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/16/politics/16aclu.html

[nolabels]

1. Maybe the judge is reading .............

61 of 74 people found the following review helpful:

5 out of 5 stars Investigative journalism at its best - like it or not, September 14, 2004

Reviewer: Jane Cosentino - See all my reviews
Seymour Hersh is a fabulous writer - smart, succinct and utterly devoted to his job of exposing the horrific mess that our government has gotten us into. He has exhaustively researched the topic and his book should be read by anyone, Republican or Democrat, who wants to understand how soldiers in our army could have stooped to such unthinkable acts as they did in Abu Ghraib and elsewhere.

CHAIN OF COMMAND can be added to the pile of books published in the past two years offering damning evidence and insight into the Bush administration's utterly failed policies in Afghanistan, Iraq and the war on "terror".

Our quagmire in Iraq deteriorates daily, while the Taliban is back on the rise in Afghanistan (Not surprising, really, when there are a third less US troops in that country then there were New York City policemen in New York during the RNC. Probably not the greatest strategy for hunting down Osama bin Ladin.).

What blows my mind is that half the country (even after presented with irrefutable evidence as is readily available in this book, in addition to many others)is still planning on installing Bush in the White House this year.

As for the thoughts of the reviewer, Maskirovka: photographs of our soldiers abusing prisoners, innocent or not, is not propaganda. It is, unfortunately, the truth. And as you yourself say, the truth is what we need to know and not things 'we find pleasant to believe'. Can you imagine, for a moment, how we would have felt even more betrayed by our government (if such a thing is possible) when other countries had broken this story while the Bush administration worked as hard as they could to make sure our politicians, our journalists, and our citizens knew nothing about what is surely one of the greatest catastrophes of our foreign policy?
(snip)
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0060195916/ref%3Dpd%5Fsl%5Faw%5Falx-jeb-9-1%5Fbook%5F5944672%5F23/103-4265719-0080606

[sattahipdeep]

5. CACI International Inc. — Titan Corp.

Posted on Tue, Sep. 14, 2004


In Iraq, outsourced abusers out of
control


More than 20,000 private contractors are working for the U.S. government in Iraq, performing a
wide range of military functions. Employees from CACI International Inc. — whose motto is “Ever
Vigilant” — made up more than half of all the analysts and interrogators at Abu Ghraib, while all
the translators who made it possible for the interrogators and guards to communicate with the
prisoners were employees from the Titan Corp.

While Pentagon officials previously testified to Congress that contractors were never in
supervisory roles, Army investigators documented numerous instances in which contractors
“supervised” military officers (as specified in the job advertisements they answered) and other
instances in which contractors demonstrated disdain for their uniformed clients. One CACI
contractor (who, the Fay report said, tossed about and dragged a handcuffed prisoner)
allegedly drank alcohol at the prison and refused to take orders from a military officer, saying, “I
have been doing my job for 20 years and do not need a 20-year-old to tell me how to do my
job.”

http://www.thestate.com/mld/state/news/opinion/9657270.htm

Contracts

CACI International Inc., Arlington: $103 million prime contract with three base years
and two two-year options from the U.S. Navy. Contract will support Navy Enterprise
Maintenance Automated Information System Data Center operations at the Navy Sea
Systems Command site in Norfolk. (PR Newswire)

http://www.virginiabusiness.com/magazine/yr2003/apr03/record.shtml

[DrWeird]

2. Do these include the photos?

nt

[Roland99]

4. Or the videos that Hersh has?

[wurzel]

3. I was damn sure that judge didn't come from Texas.

[Cocoa]

6. court orders don't mean anything to the Bushes

no more than direct orders from superior officers.

[nolabels]

7. They have only acknowledged the SCOTUS

But something tells me there will come a time when they too will be ignored.