MILITARY -- GHOSTS IN THE MACHINE

progressreport.org
3/15/05

MILITARY -- GHOSTS IN THE MACHINE
Senators yesterday expressed dismay and outrage
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A25203-2005Mar10.html)
over the fact that no senior Pentagon officials have been held
accountable in the rampant cases of abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. Now
there's a new wrinkle. New, secret documents obtained by the Washington
Post show "top military intelligence officers at the Abu Ghraib prison
came to an agreement
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A25239-2005Mar10.html)
with the CIA to hide certain detainees at the facility without
officially registering them." Keeping prisoners hidden, off the books, is in
direct violation of international law. There have been reports of at least
100 "ghost" detainees held in prisons in Iraq, but the Pentagon
previously said they must have just fallen through the cracks and weren't part
of any official arrangement. Now, however, Army Lt. Col. Steven L.
Jordan, second in command of intelligence gathering at Abu Ghraib, told
investigators that his superior, Col. Thomas M. Pappas, put in motion a
secret procedure in November 2003 to keep detainees off the books for the
CIA. Pappas told investigators that Jordan was the one who facilitated
the arrangement with the CIA in the first place.