[Vision2020] Correction: Re: Off List: Re: US Navy Veteran Whistle Blower Imprisoned In IraqRecalls Torment

[Ted Moffett]

All-

The response to Saundra below was intentionally placed on the list... The
"Off List" in the subject heading I forgot to remove.

Ted Moffett


On 12/21/06, Ted Moffett <starbliss at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Saundra et. al.
>
> I grew up in a military family, so though I am appalled by a story such as
> this, I know the military mindset... Many would justify this sort of
> treatment as necessary in a war situation.  The weird thing is, this man was
> trying to do the right thing to expose misconduct, and then was accused of
> this very misconduct when he was jailed and interrogated.  No wonder people
> often keep their mouths shut when corruption is involved... The whistle
> blower often becomes a target for attacks from one side or the other.
>
> Ted Moffett
>
>
> On 12/21/06, Saundra Lund <sslund at roadrunner.com> wrote:
> >
> > Hi Ted,
> >
> > Thanks -- I guess -- for sharing this with us.  Further breaking of my
> > patriotic heart  :-(
> >
> > ""Even Saddam Hussein
> > <
> > http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/h/saddam_hussein
> > /index.html?inline=nyt-per>  had more legal counsel than I ever had,"
> > said
> > Mr. Vance, who said he planned to sue the former defense secretary,
> > Donald
> > H. Rumsfeld
> > <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/r/donald_h_rumsf
> >
> > eld/index.html?inline=nyt-per> , on grounds that his constitutional
> > rights
> > had been violated. "While we were detained, we wrote a letter to the
> > camp
> > commandant stating that the same democratic ideals we are trying to
> > instill
> > in the fledgling democratic country of Iraq, from simple due process to
> > the
> > Magna Carta, we are absolutely, positively refusing to follow
> > ourselves.""
> >
> > Call me disloyal or an enemy to my country, but I expect -- no, I DEMAND
> > --
> > better than that that for our own citizens from our OWN government.
> > Shameful, shameful, shameful . . . and in the name of the lie of WMD,
> > regardless of who -- precisely -- started the lie  :-(((
> >
> >
> > Saundra Lund
> > Moscow, ID
> >
> > The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to
> > do
> > nothing.
> > - Edmund Burke
> >
> > ***** Original material contained herein is Copyright 2006, Saundra
> > Lund.
> > Do not copy, forward, excerpt, or reproduce outside the Vision 2020
> > forum
> > without the express written permission of the author.*****
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: vision2020-bounces at moscow.com [mailto:vision2020-bounces at moscow.com
> > ]
> > On Behalf Of Ted Moffett
> > Sent: Wednesday, December 20, 2006 11:57 AM
> > To: Vision2020
> > Subject: [Vision2020] US Navy Veteran Whistle Blower Imprisoned In
> > IraqRecalls Torment
> >
> >
> > http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/18/world/middleeast/18justice.html?ex=1324098
> > 000&en=e8c9cab2d3af846b&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss
> >
> > December 18, 2006
> >
> > Former U.S. Detainee in Iraq Recalls Torment
> >
> > By MICHAEL MOSS
> > <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/m/michael_moss/i
> >
> > ndex.html?inline=nyt-per>
> >
> > One night in mid-April, the steel door clanked shut on detainee No.
> > 200343
> > at Camp Cropper, the United States military's maximum-security detention
> > site in Baghdad.
> >
> > American guards arrived at the man's cell periodically over the next
> > several
> > days, shackled his hands and feet, blindfolded him and took him to a
> > padded
> > room for interrogation, the detainee said. After an hour or two, he was
> > returned to his cell, fatigued but unable to sleep.
> >
> > The fluorescent lights in his cell were never turned off, he said. At
> > most
> > hours, heavy metal or country music blared in the corridor. He said he
> > was
> > rousted at random times without explanation and made to stand in his
> > cell.
> > Even lying down, he said, he was kept from covering his face to block
> > out
> > the light, noise and cold. And when he was released after 97 days he was
> > exhausted, depressed and scared.
> >
> > Detainee 200343 was among thousands of people who have been held and
> > released by the American military in Iraq
> > <
> > http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/ir
> > aq/index.html?inline=nyt-geo> , and his account of his ordeal has
> > provided
> > one of the few detailed views of the Pentagon's detention operations
> > since
> > the abuse scandals at Abu Ghraib. Yet in many respects his case is
> > unusual.
> >
> > The detainee was Donald Vance, a 29-year-old Navy veteran from Chicago
> > who
> > went to Iraq as a security contractor. He wound up as a whistle-blower,
> > passing information to the F.B.I.
> > <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/f/federal
> > _bureau_of_investigation/index.html?inline=nyt-org>  about suspicious
> > activities at the Iraqi security firm where he worked, including what he
> >
> > said was possible illegal weapons trading.
> >
> > But when American soldiers raided the company at his urging, Mr. Vance
> > and
> > another American who worked there were detained as suspects by the
> > military,
> > which was unaware that Mr. Vance was an informer, according to officials
> > and
> > military documents.
> >
> > At Camp Cropper, he took notes on his imprisonment and smuggled them out
> > in
> > a Bible.
> >
> > "Sick, very. Vomited," he wrote July 3. The next day: "Told no more
> > phone
> > calls til leave."
> >
> > Nathan Ertel, the American held with Mr. Vance, brought away military
> > records that shed further light on the detention camp and its secretive
> > tribunals. Those records include a legal memorandum explicitly denying
> > detainees the right to a lawyer at detention hearings to determine
> > whether
> > they should be released or held indefinitely, perhaps for prosecution.
> >
> > The story told through those records and interviews illuminates the
> > haphazard system of detention and prosecution that has evolved in Iraq,
> > where detainees are often held for long periods without charges or legal
> > representation, and where the authorities struggle to sort through the
> > endless stream of detainees to identify those who pose real threats.
> >
> > "Even Saddam Hussein
> > <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/h/saddam_hussein
> >
> > /index.html?inline=nyt-per>  had more legal counsel than I ever had,"
> > said
> > Mr. Vance, who said he planned to sue the former defense secretary,
> > Donald
> > H. Rumsfeld
> > <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/r/donald_h_rumsf
> > eld/index.html?inline=nyt-per> , on grounds that his constitutional
> > rights
> > had been violated. "While we were detained, we wrote a letter to the
> > camp
> > commandant stating that the same democratic ideals we are trying to
> > instill
> > in the fledgling democratic country of Iraq, from simple due process to
> > the
> > Magna Carta, we are absolutely, positively refusing to follow
> > ourselves."
> >
> > A spokeswoman for the Pentagon's detention operations in Iraq, First Lt.
> > Lea
> > Ann Fracasso, said in written answers to questions that the men had been
> > "treated fair and humanely," and that there was no record of either man
> > complaining about their treatment.
> >
> > Held as 'a Threat'
> >
> > She said officials did not reach Mr. Vance's contact at the F.B.I. until
> > he
> > had been in custody for three weeks. Even so, she said, officials
> > determined
> > that he "posed a threat" and decided to continue holding him. He was
> > released two months later, Lieutenant Fracasso said, based on a
> > "subsequent
> > re-examination of his case," and his stated plans to leave Iraq.
> >
> > Mr. Ertel, 30, a contract manager who knew Mr. Vance from an earlier job
> > in
> > Iraq, was released more quickly.
> >
> > Mr. Vance went to Iraq in 2004, first to work for a Washington-based
> > company. He later joined a small Baghdad-based security company where,
> > he
> > said, "things started looking weird to me." He said that the company,
> > which
> > was protecting American reconstruction organizations, had hired guards
> > from
> > a sheik in Basra and that many of them turned out to be members of
> > militias
> > whom the clients did not want around.
> >
> > Mr. Vance said the company had a growing cache of weapons it was selling
> > to
> > suspicious customers, including a steady flow of officials from the
> > Iraqi
> > Interior Ministry. The ministry had ties to violent militias and death
> > squads. He said he had also witnessed another employee giving American
> > soldiers liquor in exchange for bullets and weapon repairs.
> >
> > On a visit to Chicago in October 2005, Mr. Vance met twice with an F.B.I
> > .
> > agent who set up a reporting system. Weekly, Mr. Vance phoned the agent
> > from
> > Iraq and sent him e-mail messages. "It was like, 'Hey, I heard this and
> > I
> > saw this.' I wanted to help," Mr. Vance said. A government official
> > familiar
> > with the arrangement confirmed Mr. Vance's account.
> >
> > In April, Mr. Ertel and Mr. Vance said, they felt increasingly
> > uncomfortable
> > at the company. Mr. Ertel resigned and company officials seized the
> > identification cards that both men needed to move around Iraq or leave
> > the
> > country.
> >
> > On April 15, feeling threatened, Mr. Vance phoned the United States
> > Embassy
> > in Baghdad. A military rescue team rushed to the security company.
> > Again,
> > Mr. Vance described its operations, according to military records.
> >
> > "Internee Vance indicated a large weapons cache was in the compound in
> > the
> > house next door," Capt. Plymouth D. Nelson, a military detention
> > official,
> > wrote in a memorandum dated April 22, after the men were detained. "A
> > search
> > of the house and grounds revealed two large weapons caches."
> >
> > On the evening of April 15, they met with American officials at the
> > embassy
> > and stayed overnight. But just before dawn, they were awakened,
> > handcuffed
> > with zip ties and made to wear goggles with lenses covered by duct tape.
> > Put
> > into a Humvee, Mr. Vance said he asked for a vest and helmet, and was
> > refused.
> >
> > They were driven through dangerous Baghdad roads and eventually to Camp
> > Cropper. They were placed in cells at Compound 5, the high-security unit
> > where Saddam Hussein has been held.
> >
> > Only days later did they receive an explanation: They had become
> > suspects
> > for having associated with the people Mr. Vance tried to expose.
> >
> > "You have been detained for the following reasons: You work for a
> > business
> > entity that possessed one or more large weapons caches on its premises
> > and
> > may be involved in the possible distribution of these weapons to
> > insurgent/terrorist groups," Mr. Ertel's detention notice said.
> >
> > Mr. Vance said he began seeking help even before his cell door closed
> > for
> > the first time. "They took off my blindfold and earmuffs and told me to
> > stand in a corner, where they cut off the zip ties, and told me to
> > continue
> > looking straight forward and as I'm doing this, I'm asking for an
> > attorney,"
> > he said. " 'I want an attorney now,' I said, and they said, 'Someone
> > will be
> > here to see you.' "
> >
> > Instead, they were given six-digit ID numbers. The guards shortened Mr.
> > Vance's into something of a nickname: "343." And the routine began.
> >
> > Bread and powdered drink for breakfast and sometimes a piece of fruit.
> > Rice
> > and chicken for lunch and dinner. Their cells had no sinks. The showers
> > were
> > irregular. They got 60 minutes in the recreation yard at night, without
> > other detainees.
> >
> > Five times in the first week, guards shackled the prisoners' hands and
> > feet,
> > covered their eyes, placed towels over their heads and put them in
> > wheelchairs to be pushed to a room with a carpeted ceiling and walls.
> > There
> > they were questioned by an array of officials who, they said they were
> > told,
> > represented the F.B.I., the C.I.A.
> > <
> > http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/c/central
> > _intelligence_agency/index.html?inline=nyt-org> , the Naval Criminal
> > Investigative Service and the Defense Intelligence Agency
> > <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/d/defense
> >
> > _intelligence_agency/index.html?inline=nyt-org> .
> >
> > "It's like boom, boom, boom," Mr. Ertel said. "They are drilling you.
> > 'We
> > know you did this, you are part of this gun smuggling thing.' And I'm
> > saying
> > you have it absolutely way off."
> >
> > The two men slept in their 9-by-9-foot cells on concrete slabs, with
> > worn
> > three-inch foam mats. With the fluorescent lights on and the temperature
> > in
> > the 50s, Mr. Vance said, "I paced myself to sleep, walking until I
> > couldn't
> > anymore. I broke the straps on two pair of flip-flops."
> >
> > Asked about the lights, the detainee operations spokeswoman said that
> > the
> > camp's policy was to turn off cell lights at night "to allow detainees
> > to
> > sleep."
> >
> > A Psychological Game
> >
> > One day, Mr. Vance met with a camp psychologist. "He realized I was
> > having
> > difficulties," Mr. Vance said. "He said to turn it into a game. He said:
> > 'I
> > want you to pretend you are a soldier who has been kidnapped, and that
> > you
> > still have a duty to do. Memorize everything you can about everything
> > that
> > happens to you. Make it like you are a spy on the inside.' I think he
> > called
> > it rational emotive behavioral therapy, and I started doing that."
> >
> > Camp Rule 31 barred detainees from writing on the white cell walls,
> > which
> > were bare except for a black crescent moon painted on one wall to
> > indicate
> > the direction of Mecca for prayers. But Mr. Vance began keeping track of
> > the
> > days by making hash marks on the wall, and he also began writing brief
> > notes
> > that he hid in the Bible given to him by guards.
> >
> > "Turned in request for dentist + phone + embassy letter + request for
> > clothes," he wrote one day.
> >
> > "Boards," he wrote April 24, the day he and Mr. Ertel went before Camp
> > Cropper's Detainee Status Board.
> >
> > Their legal rights, laid out in a letter from Lt. Col. Bradley J.
> > Huestis of
> > the Army, the president of the status board, allowed them to attend the
> > hearing and testify. However, under Rule 3, the letter said, "You do not
> > have the right to legal counsel, but you may have a personal
> > representative
> > assist you at the hearing if the personal representative is reasonably
> > available."
> >
> > Mr. Vance and Mr. Ertel were permitted at their hearings only because
> > they
> > were Americans, Lieutenant Fracasso said. The cases of all other
> > detainees
> > are reviewed without the detainees present, she said. In both types of
> > cases, defense lawyers are not allowed to attend because the hearings
> > are
> > not criminal proceedings, she said.
> >
> > Lieutenant Fracasso said that currently there were three Americans in
> > military custody in Iraq. The military does not identify detainees.
> >
> > Mr. Vance and Mr. Ertel had separate hearings. They said their requests
> > to
> > be each other's personal representative had been denied.
> >
> > At the hearings, a woman and two men wearing Army uniforms but no name
> > tags
> > or rank designations sat a table with two stacks of documents. One was
> > about
> > an inch thick, and the men were allowed to see some papers from that
> > stack.
> > The other pile was much thicker, but they were told that this pile was
> > evidence only the board could see.
> >
> > The men pleaded with the board. "I'm telling them there has been a major
> > mix-up," Mr. Ertel said. "Please, I'm out of my mind. I haven't slept.
> > I'm
> > not eating. I'm terrified."
> >
> > Mr. Vance said he implored the board to delve into his laptop computer
> > and
> > cellphone for his communications with the F.B.I. agent in Chicago.
> >
> > Each of the hearings lasted about two hours, and the men said they never
> > saw
> > the board again.
> >
> > "At the end, my first question was, 'Does my family know I'm alive?' and
> > the
> > lead man said, 'I don't know,' " Mr. Vance recounted. "And then I asked
> > when
> > will we have an answer, and they said on average it takes three to four
> > weeks."
> >
> > Help From the Outside
> >
> > About a week later, two weeks into his detention, Mr. Vance was allowed
> > to
> > make his first call, to Chicago. He called his fianc�e, Diane Schwarz,
> > who
> > told him she had thought he might have died.
> >
> > "It was very overwhelming," Ms. Schwarz recalls of the 12-minute
> > conversation. "He wasn't quite sure what was going on, and was kind of
> > turning to me for answers and I was turning to him for the same."
> >
> > She had already been calling members of Congress, alarmed by his
> > disappearance. So was Mr. Ertel's mother, and some officials began
> > pressing
> > for answers. "I would appreciate your looking into this matter," Senator
> >
> > Richard J. Durbin of Illinois wrote to a State Department official in
> > early
> > May.
> >
> > On May 7, the Camp Cropper detention board met again, without either man
> > present, and determined that Mr. Ertel was "an innocent civilian,"
> > according
> > to the spokeswoman for detention operations. It took authorities 18 more
> > days to release him.
> >
> > Mr. Vance's situation was more complicated. On June 17, Lt. Col.
> > Keir-Kevin
> > Curry, a spokesman for the American military's detention unit, Task
> > Force
> > 134, wrote to tell Ms. Schwarz that Mr. Vance was still being held. "The
> > detainee board reviewed his case and recommended he remain interned," he
> > wrote. "Multi-National Force-Iraq approved the board's recommendation to
> >
> > continue internment. Therefore, Mr. Vance continues to be a security
> > detainee. We are not processing him for release. His case remains under
> > investigation and there is no set timetable for completion." Over the
> > following weeks, Mr. Vance said he made numerous written requests � for
> > a
> > lawyer, for blankets, for paper to write letters home. Mr. Vance said
> > that
> > he wrote 10 letters to Ms. Schwarz, but that only one made it to
> > Chicago.
> > Dated July 17, it was delivered late last month by the Red Cross.
> >
> > "Diana, start talking, sending e-mail and letters and faxes to the
> > alderman,
> > mayor, governor, congressman, senators, Red Cross, Amnesty International
> >
> > <
> > http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/a/amnesty
> > _international/index.html?inline=nyt-org> , A.C.L.U., Vatican
> > <
> > http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/r/roman_c
> > atholic_church/index.html?inline=nyt-org> , and other Christian-based
> > organizations. Everyone!" he wrote. "I am missing you so much, and am so
> > depressed it's a daily struggle here. My life is in your hands. Please
> > don't
> > get discouraged. Don't take 'No' for answers. Keep working. I have to
> > tell
> > myself these things every day, but I can't do anything from a cell."
> >
> > The military has never explained why it continued to consider Mr. Vance
> > a
> > security threat, except to say that officials decided to release him
> > after
> > further review of his case.
> >
> > "Treating an American citizen in this fashion would have been
> > unimaginable
> > before 9/11," said Mike Kanovitz, a Chicago lawyer representing Mr.
> > Vance.
> >
> > On July 20, Mr. Vance wrote in his notes: "Told 'Leaving Today.' Took
> > shower
> > and shaved, saw doctor, got civ clothes back and passport."
> >
> > On his way out, Mr. Vance said: "They asked me if I was intending to
> > write a
> > book, would I talk to the press, would I be thinking of getting an
> > attorney.
> > I took it as, 'Shut up, don't talk about this place,' and I kept saying,
> > 'No
> > sir, I want to go home.' "
> >
> > Mr. Ertel has returned to Baghdad, again working as a contracts manager.
> > Mr.
> > Vance is back in Chicago, still feeling the effects of having been a
> > prisoner of the war in Iraq.
> >
> > "It's really hard," he says. "I don't really talk about this stuff with
> > my
> > family. I feel ashamed, depressed, still have nightmares, and I'd even
> > say I
> > suffer from some paranoia."
> >
> > ----------------------
> >
> > Vision2020 Post: Ted Moffett
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
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