JAG Lawyers Say Political Appointees Ignored Their Warnings on Prisoners

[TacticalPeek]

Advice Rejected
JAG Lawyers Say Political Appointees Ignored Their Warnings on Prisoner Treatment

By Jake Tapper and Clayton Sandell
ABCNEWS.com

W A S H I N G T O N, May 16, 2004 - Lawyers from the military's Judge Advocate General's Corps, or JAG, had been urging Pentagon officials to ensure protection for prisoners for two years before the abuses at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison came to light, current and former JAG officers told ABCNEWS.

But, the JAG lawyers say, political appointees at the Pentagon ignored their warnings, setting the stage for the Abu Ghraib abuses, in which military police reservists photographed each other subjecting Iraqi prisoners to physical abuse and sexual humiliation.

snip

"If we - 'we' being the uniformed lawyers - had been listened to, and what we said put into practice, then these abuses would not have occurred," said Rear Admiral Don Guter (ret.), the Navy Judge Advocate General from 2000 to 2002.

Specifically, JAG officers say they have been marginalized by Douglas Feith, undersecretary of defense for policy, and William Haynes II, the Pentagon's general counsel, whom President Bush has nominated for a judgeship on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.


more
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/WNT/US/JAG_detainees_040515-1.html

[KittyWampus]

1. So A One-Two Punch... Hersch Is Corroborated

excellent. Off to read article.


Matters got so frustrating that in May and October 2003, eight senior JAG
officers took the rare step of going outside the chain of command to meet
secretly with the New York City Bar Association, warning of a "disaster
waiting to happen".

"They felt that there had been a conscious effort to create an atmosphere of
legal ambiguity surrounding these detention facilities, and that it had been done
to give interrogators the broadest possible latitude in their conduct of
operations," Scott Horton, former chair of the New York City Bar
Association's Committee on International Human Rights, told ABCNEWS.
Horton's meeting with the JAG officers was first reported by Salon.com.

[wryter2000]

2. Wow -- kick

Bush is toast!

[SharonAnn]

16. Sen. Lindsey Graham referred to this on TV this morning

he (a JAG himself in the Reserves) couldn't have been more supportive of finding out what's been going on, who's been giving orders, and having them face the consequences.

He really was awesome, and he's a Republican!

[Eloriel]

29. He has been awesome of this issue`

And I was so impressed with him during the hearing last week I called his office and said so, and made a point that I probably don't agree with him about much else 'cause I'm a Democrat, but I valued his contribution on this.

[Just Me]

3. OMG!!! These brave, honorable, fabulous people!!!

This is why I love my country. When you brush away the shadow that this administration has created over this land and the world,...there is so much hope and honor and decency that comes to light. These are true Americans who demonstrate real American values which include utmost respect for human rights.

[Nlighten1]

4. So this means that the General in charge of MI lied before congress.

And it means that all of the others lied before Congress.

[struggle4progress]

5. Great article! But infuriating ...

'Feith denied all of these charges. "There has not been, ever, any ambiguity about the strong support that the leadership of this department gives to the Geneva Conventions," he said.'

Feith must think nobody has paid any attention to the constant barrage of "Geneva Conventions do not apply" crap that the Administration has spewed for the last two or three years.

[Just Me]

9. Feith is a fraud,...and a liar. n/t

[Judi Lynn]

30. It's a shame when getting a job in an administration requires

a completely inactive sense of responsibility to others.

It's surprising just how long Feith has been knocking around in Washington before people heard his name:

Douglas J. Feith

Under Secretary of Defense for Policy


Mr. Douglas J. Feith is the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy. His responsibilities include the formulation of defense planning guidance and forces policy, Department of Defense relations with foreign countries and the Department's role in U.S. Government interagency policy making.

Before President George W. Bush appointed him in July 2001, Mr. Feith was for fifteen years the managing attorney of the Washington, D.C. law firm of Feith & Zell, P.C.

From March 1984 until September 1986, Mr. Feith served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Negotiations Policy.

Before becoming Deputy Assistant Secretary, Mr. Feith served as Special Counsel to Assistant Secretary of Defense Richard Perle.

Mr. Feith transferred to the Pentagon from the National Security Council at the White House, where he worked in 1981-82 as a Middle East specialist.

Mr. Feith's writings on international law and on foreign and defense policy have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Commentary, The New Republic and elsewhere. He has contributed chapters to a number of books, including James W. Muller, ed., Churchill as Peacemaker; Douglas J. Feith, et al., Israel's Legitimacy in Law and History; and Uri Ra'anan, et al., eds., Hydra of Carnage: International Linkages of Terrorism.
(snip)

http://events.ispec.com/dsca/presenters_feith.htm

If you can tell much from faces, you might be led to believe he's short on important (meaning good qualities), and close to being completely out of touch with reality. Fits right in there.

[berry]

35. I'm pretty sure that Feith's law firm was also reported as being

deeply involved in helping private companies get Iraq contracts. I don't know how Feith insulates himself from the firm while he's in office, but the connection IS there, and it looks mighty corrupt.

But why am I harking back to mere corruption when we're talking WAR CRIMES here? Still, maybe it's worth mentioning/remembering.

[roguevalley]

33. Feith is the one Powell refers to as a nazi- woodward's book.

[TahitiNut]

6. Another hero: Rear Admiral Don Guter

We need people courageous enough to blow the whistle like this!

[krkaufman]

7. Wow. Thanks for highlighting this article. HUGE. n/t

[Judi Lynn]

8. Thanks for the article. It's a shock to see it's possible Steve Buyer

may have actually been on the right side of this problem:

Rep. Steve Buyer, (R-Ind.), a JAG in the Army Reserves, wanted to offer his services in Iraq. But even though the Army wanted him there, Pentagon political appointees vetoed him going. Buyer told ABCNEWS' John Cochran that he tried to convey to his Pentagon civilian contact how important it was to ensure against the abuse of Iraqi prisoners and detainees, telling him: "You have to get somebody that's qualified in international law and the Geneva Conventions to serve in that brigade … I'm pretty shocked that this never happened."

Buyer was referring to the 800th Military Police Brigade, seven of whose reservists are now facing charges in the Abu Ghraib abuse scandal.

Buyer isn't the only one to question why there didn't seem to be a significant JAG presence for interrogations at detention centers like Abu Ghraib.
(snip)

You may remember how much damage he did the American election process when he butted in in the vote recount in 2000. It'll take a LOT of heroism on his part before he can atone for that.



Does this ring any bells?

NATIONAL DESK | July 15, 2001, Sunday
EXAMINING THE VOTE; House Republicans Pressed Pentagon for E-Mail Addresses of Sailors

By C. J. CHIVERS (NYT) 1020 words
Late Edition - Final , Section 1 , Page 19 , Column 1
ABSTRACT - Rep Steve Buyer successfully obtained from armed services in Nov phone numbers or e-mail addresses of servicemen and women, without revealing that their absentee ballots had been disqualified in Florida; e-mail messages and interviews show data was used to put service members in touch with Florida Republicans who were organizing public relations drive to press counties to reconsider rejected ballots; moves conflict with military rules that bar service members from political activities and with House ethics rules and federal law that bar Congressional officials from performing political work with government resources or on government time;
(snip) (Didn't buy the archived article, so this is all that's available at this link)

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F20A17FF385F0C768DDDAE0894D9404482

Abuse of Congressional office for partisan politics; politicization of active-duty military (Rep. Steve Buyer, Rep. Tillie Fowler, Michael Higgins, Rob Carter)
On 11/22, Rep. Buyer gave the Pentagon a list of active duty sailors whose ballots had been rejected as invalid, which was provided by Florida Republican operative Rob Carter. Buyer demanded their e-mail addresses immediately. Buyer's aide Michael Higgins then contacted the sailors and put them in touch with Carter, who enlisted these sailors in a propaganda campaign to attack Vice President Al Gore as anti-military, and to pressure county officials to count invalid ballots. Carter also supplied Rep. Tillie Fowler with stories from service members, which she used to denounce Gore at a rally.
(snip/...)

http://www.democrats.com/display.cfm?id=239

Sweeney and Indiana Rep. Steve Buyer argued that federal law trumped state law governing military ballots, and did not require a postmark.

"This is a federal election, and the federal statute is what rules here," said Buyer, chairman of a House subcommittee on military personnel and a Gulf war veteran.
(snip)

http://www.cnn.com/2000/ALLPOLITICS/stories/11/21/overseas.ballots/

[Trillo]

10. Rumsfeld and his minions

It appears that Rumsfeld and his minions didn't use any existing departments or systems, instead creating new ones. More and more it appears like a coup.

If any group was an expert on military law, wouldn't JAG qualify as one of the best?

[Dhalgren]

20. Dead right!

One of the classic moves of the successful coup is to by-pass established organs of government. The usurpers create "shadow" departments or new departments and groups with misleading names to do the jobs that were formerly done by traditional governmental departments. The old guard cannot be trusted to act in the best interests of the coup, so they are side-stepped. Classic...

[Just Me]

25. That's what Lt. Col. Kwiatkowski called it: a neocon coup of the Pentagon.

She is an all-American hero, too!!!!

[AP]

11. Apparently retirement is the institution that gets the truth out in...

...America.

[TacticalPeek]

13. LOL!

The burden of leadership.

Nevertheless, all hands are needed and welcome.

[AP]

14. When reporters no longer do their job, we now need old people with guilty

consciences to do all the "investigative reporting" in America.

It's a disgrace.

[KittyWampus]

12. kick

[keithyboy]

15. Keep this story in front of the media. Don't let them ignore it!

First person on my list is Hannity, next Rush.

[KittyWampus]

17. Can't Believe DU'er Are Letting This Slip By

:(

[LizW]

18. Has Feith testified under oath yet? It's time.

Will this jerk sit there and lie to Congress?

[Dhalgren]

21. I hope he does lie under oath.

And I hope it comes to light clearly, and the sone of a bitch goes to prison for perjury! I hope they put the M-F in gen-pop where he becomes the "ass-bitch" for Big Abduhla.

[The Stranger]

19. Douglas Feith needs to be investigated immediately.

[struggle4progress]

22. kick

:kick:

[nolabels]

23. And people want the cabal to pick judges for appointment

So this is how the Cabal intends to do their version of RE-inventing government?

[Beetwasher]

24. Where Were the JAGS?!?! Why Were They Ignored???

This is such a huge element to this story....

[berry]

36. It's pretty clear that the JAGs got nowhere inside the Pentagon

because the civilian neo-cons were bulldozing all opposition.

What tantalizes me is the visit to the NY ABA office. Twice. In May and October 2003. As far as I know, the ABA did nothing. But maybe the visit was just to register protest so the JAGs could prove they didn't go along (but still keep their jobs?). I wonder what the ABA could have done?

And is there any significance to the dates? May and October. Anybody have any ideas?

[Timefortruth]

26. Since this wasn't in the New Yorker article, it will

be very difficult for the press to connect this to that story.

It is pretty complicated stuff.

[Just Me]

27. Are you saying our press ain't too bright? *smile* n/t

[Beetwasher]

28. Actually, I Think It Was in Hersh's Story Too

He definitely discussed JAG's in his piece...

[Just Me]

31. Yes. This news backs up what was already in Hersh's story. n/t

[ze_dscherman]

32. Kick

I hope these people will make their stand when it comes to testifying before an international court

[Hekate]

34. Kick for a "Feith based" project! n/t

[Gloria]

37. KICK! I'm hoping a prominent Democrat will clearly restate what has

happened here and call it what it is...a coup. This is no time for mincing words....the neocons have to be called out!!!

Why doesn't Joe Biden stop fawning over McCain long enough to opine on all this??