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<DIV><FONT face=Verdana size=4>It is just not in the military that whistle
blowers are treated with a vengeance. Two local examples: the recent
lawsuit against the UI by a whistle blower treated badly and the insidious
vengeance aimed at apostates by the <STRONG><FONT size=6><FONT
face="Olde English">Wilson & Family's Christless Crackpot Cult & <FONT
color=#00bb88>Cash Machine</FONT></FONT></FONT></STRONG>. [If you haven't
noticed, a new apostate has recently emerged.]</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Verdana size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Verdana size=4>Punishing persons who report misdeeds or who
point out differences between creed and practice is standard fare for most
organizations, whose most primary goal once born, like that of most living
organisms, is to survive.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Verdana size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Verdana size=4>W.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Verdana size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Verdana size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message -----
<DIV style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A
title=starbliss@gmail.com href="mailto:starbliss@gmail.com">Ted Moffett</A>
</DIV>
<DIV><B>To:</B> <A title=sslund@roadrunner.com
href="mailto:sslund@roadrunner.com">Saundra Lund</A> ; <A
title=vision2020@moscow.com href="mailto:vision2020@moscow.com">Vision2020</A>
</DIV>
<DIV><B>Sent:</B> Thursday, December 21, 2006 9:00 PM</DIV>
<DIV><B>Subject:</B> [Vision2020] Off List: Re: US Navy Veteran Whistle
BlowerImprisoned In IraqRecalls Torment</DIV></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>Saundra et. al.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>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. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Ted Moffett<BR><BR> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=gmail_quote>On 12/21/06, <B class=gmail_sendername>Saundra
Lund</B> <<A
href="mailto:sslund@roadrunner.com">sslund@roadrunner.com</A>> wrote:</SPAN>
<BLOCKQUOTE class=gmail_quote
style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: #ccc 1px solid">Hi
Ted,<BR><BR>Thanks -- I guess -- for sharing this with us. Further
breaking of my<BR>patriotic heart :-( <BR><BR>""Even Saddam
Hussein<BR><<A
href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/h/saddam_hussein">http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/h/saddam_hussein</A><BR>/index.html?inline=nyt-per> had
more legal counsel than I ever had," said <BR>Mr. Vance, who said he planned
to sue the former defense secretary, Donald<BR>H. Rumsfeld<BR><<A
href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/r/donald_h_rumsf">http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/r/donald_h_rumsf
</A><BR>eld/index.html?inline=nyt-per> , on grounds that his constitutional
rights<BR>had been violated. "While we were detained, we wrote a letter to the
camp<BR>commandant stating that the same democratic ideals we are trying to
instill <BR>in the fledgling democratic country of Iraq, from simple due
process to the<BR>Magna Carta, we are absolutely, positively refusing to
follow ourselves.""<BR><BR>Call me disloyal or an enemy to my country, but I
expect -- no, I DEMAND -- <BR>better than that that for our own citizens from
our OWN government.<BR>Shameful, shameful, shameful . . . and in the name of
the lie of WMD,<BR>regardless of who -- precisely -- started the
lie :-(((<BR><BR><BR>Saundra Lund <BR>Moscow, ID<BR><BR>The only
thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to
do<BR>nothing.<BR>- Edmund Burke<BR><BR>***** Original material contained
herein is Copyright 2006, Saundra Lund.<BR>Do not copy, forward, excerpt, or
reproduce outside the Vision 2020 forum <BR>without the express written
permission of the author.*****<BR><BR>-----Original Message-----<BR>From: <A
href="mailto:vision2020-bounces@moscow.com">vision2020-bounces@moscow.com</A>
[mailto:<A href="mailto:vision2020-bounces@moscow.com">
vision2020-bounces@moscow.com</A>]<BR>On Behalf Of Ted Moffett<BR>Sent:
Wednesday, December 20, 2006 11:57 AM<BR>To: Vision2020<BR>Subject:
[Vision2020] US Navy Veteran Whistle Blower Imprisoned In<BR>IraqRecalls
Torment<BR><BR><A
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/18/world/middleeast/18justice.html?ex=1324098">http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/18/world/middleeast/18justice.html?ex=1324098</A><BR>000&en=e8c9cab2d3af846b&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss
<BR><BR>December 18, 2006<BR><BR>Former U.S. Detainee in Iraq Recalls
Torment<BR><BR>By MICHAEL MOSS<BR><<A
href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/m/michael_moss/i">http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/m/michael_moss/i
</A><BR>ndex.html?inline=nyt-per><BR><BR>One night in mid-April, the steel
door clanked shut on detainee No. 200343<BR>at Camp Cropper, the United States
military's maximum-security detention<BR>site in Baghdad.<BR><BR>American
guards arrived at the man's cell periodically over the next several<BR>days,
shackled his hands and feet, blindfolded him and took him to a padded<BR>room
for interrogation, the detainee said. After an hour or two, he was
<BR>returned to his cell, fatigued but unable to sleep.<BR><BR>The fluorescent
lights in his cell were never turned off, he said. At most<BR>hours, heavy
metal or country music blared in the corridor. He said he was<BR>rousted at
random times without explanation and made to stand in his cell. <BR>Even lying
down, he said, he was kept from covering his face to block out<BR>the light,
noise and cold. And when he was released after 97 days he was<BR>exhausted,
depressed and scared.<BR><BR>Detainee 200343 was among thousands of people who
have been held and <BR>released by the American military in Iraq<BR><<A
href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/ir">http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/ir</A><BR>aq/index.html?inline=nyt-geo>
, and his account of his ordeal has provided<BR>one of the few detailed views
of the Pentagon's detention operations since<BR>the abuse scandals at Abu
Ghraib. Yet in many respects his case is unusual. <BR><BR>The detainee was
Donald Vance, a 29-year-old Navy veteran from Chicago who<BR>went to Iraq as a
security contractor. He wound up as a whistle-blower,<BR>passing information
to the F.B.I.<BR><<A
href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/f/federal">
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/f/federal</A><BR>_bureau_of_investigation/index.html?inline=nyt-org> about
suspicious<BR>activities at the Iraqi security firm where he worked, including
what he <BR>said was possible illegal weapons trading.<BR><BR>But when
American soldiers raided the company at his urging, Mr. Vance and<BR>another
American who worked there were detained as suspects by the military,<BR>which
was unaware that Mr. Vance was an informer, according to officials and
<BR>military documents.<BR><BR>At Camp Cropper, he took notes on his
imprisonment and smuggled them out in<BR>a Bible.<BR><BR>"Sick, very.
Vomited," he wrote July 3. The next day: "Told no more phone<BR>calls til
leave." <BR><BR>Nathan Ertel, the American held with Mr. Vance, brought away
military<BR>records that shed further light on the detention camp and its
secretive<BR>tribunals. Those records include a legal memorandum explicitly
denying <BR>detainees the right to a lawyer at detention hearings to determine
whether<BR>they should be released or held indefinitely, perhaps for
prosecution.<BR><BR>The story told through those records and interviews
illuminates the <BR>haphazard system of detention and prosecution that has
evolved in Iraq,<BR>where detainees are often held for long periods without
charges or legal<BR>representation, and where the authorities struggle to sort
through the <BR>endless stream of detainees to identify those who pose real
threats.<BR><BR>"Even Saddam Hussein<BR><<A
href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/h/saddam_hussein">http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/h/saddam_hussein
</A><BR>/index.html?inline=nyt-per> had more legal counsel than
I ever had," said<BR>Mr. Vance, who said he planned to sue the former defense
secretary, Donald<BR>H. Rumsfeld<BR><<A
href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/r/donald_h_rumsf">
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/r/donald_h_rumsf</A><BR>eld/index.html?inline=nyt-per>
, on grounds that his constitutional rights<BR>had been violated. "While we
were detained, we wrote a letter to the camp <BR>commandant stating that the
same democratic ideals we are trying to instill<BR>in the fledgling democratic
country of Iraq, from simple due process to the<BR>Magna Carta, we are
absolutely, positively refusing to follow ourselves." <BR><BR>A spokeswoman
for the Pentagon's detention operations in Iraq, First Lt. Lea<BR>Ann
Fracasso, said in written answers to questions that the men had
been<BR>"treated fair and humanely," and that there was no record of either
man <BR>complaining about their treatment.<BR><BR>Held as 'a
Threat'<BR><BR>She said officials did not reach Mr. Vance's contact at the
F.B.I. until he<BR>had been in custody for three weeks. Even so, she said,
officials determined <BR>that he "posed a threat" and decided to continue
holding him. He was<BR>released two months later, Lieutenant Fracasso said,
based on a "subsequent<BR>re-examination of his case," and his stated plans to
leave Iraq. <BR><BR>Mr. Ertel, 30, a contract manager who knew Mr. Vance from
an earlier job in<BR>Iraq, was released more quickly.<BR><BR>Mr. Vance went to
Iraq in 2004, first to work for a Washington-based<BR>company. He later joined
a small Baghdad-based security company where, he <BR>said, "things started
looking weird to me." He said that the company, which<BR>was protecting
American reconstruction organizations, had hired guards from<BR>a sheik in
Basra and that many of them turned out to be members of militias <BR>whom the
clients did not want around.<BR><BR>Mr. Vance said the company had a growing
cache of weapons it was selling to<BR>suspicious customers, including a steady
flow of officials from the Iraqi<BR>Interior Ministry. The ministry had ties
to violent militias and death <BR>squads. He said he had also witnessed
another employee giving American<BR>soldiers liquor in exchange for bullets
and weapon repairs.<BR><BR>On a visit to Chicago in October 2005, Mr. Vance
met twice with an F.B.I.<BR>agent who set up a reporting system. Weekly, Mr.
Vance phoned the agent from<BR>Iraq and sent him e-mail messages. "It was
like, 'Hey, I heard this and I<BR>saw this.' I wanted to help," Mr. Vance
said. A government official familiar <BR>with the arrangement confirmed Mr.
Vance's account.<BR><BR>In April, Mr. Ertel and Mr. Vance said, they felt
increasingly uncomfortable<BR>at the company. Mr. Ertel resigned and company
officials seized the<BR>identification cards that both men needed to move
around Iraq or leave the <BR>country.<BR><BR>On April 15, feeling threatened,
Mr. Vance phoned the United States Embassy<BR>in Baghdad. A military rescue
team rushed to the security company. Again,<BR>Mr. Vance described its
operations, according to military records. <BR><BR>"Internee Vance indicated a
large weapons cache was in the compound in the<BR>house next door," Capt.
Plymouth D. Nelson, a military detention official,<BR>wrote in a memorandum
dated April 22, after the men were detained. "A search <BR>of the house and
grounds revealed two large weapons caches."<BR><BR>On the evening of April 15,
they met with American officials at the embassy<BR>and stayed overnight. But
just before dawn, they were awakened, handcuffed <BR>with zip ties and made to
wear goggles with lenses covered by duct tape. Put<BR>into a Humvee, Mr. Vance
said he asked for a vest and helmet, and was<BR>refused.<BR><BR>They were
driven through dangerous Baghdad roads and eventually to Camp <BR>Cropper.
They were placed in cells at Compound 5, the high-security unit<BR>where
Saddam Hussein has been held.<BR><BR>Only days later did they receive an
explanation: They had become suspects<BR>for having associated with the people
Mr. Vance tried to expose. <BR><BR>"You have been detained for the following
reasons: You work for a business<BR>entity that possessed one or more large
weapons caches on its premises and<BR>may be involved in the possible
distribution of these weapons to <BR>insurgent/terrorist groups," Mr. Ertel's
detention notice said.<BR><BR>Mr. Vance said he began seeking help even before
his cell door closed for<BR>the first time. "They took off my blindfold and
earmuffs and told me to <BR>stand in a corner, where they cut off the zip
ties, and told me to continue<BR>looking straight forward and as I'm doing
this, I'm asking for an attorney,"<BR>he said. " 'I want an attorney now,' I
said, and they said, 'Someone will be <BR>here to see you.' "<BR><BR>Instead,
they were given six-digit ID numbers. The guards shortened Mr.<BR>Vance's into
something of a nickname: "343." And the routine began.<BR><BR>Bread and
powdered drink for breakfast and sometimes a piece of fruit. Rice <BR>and
chicken for lunch and dinner. Their cells had no sinks. The showers
were<BR>irregular. They got 60 minutes in the recreation yard at night,
without<BR>other detainees.<BR><BR>Five times in the first week, guards
shackled the prisoners' hands and feet, <BR>covered their eyes, placed towels
over their heads and put them in<BR>wheelchairs to be pushed to a room with a
carpeted ceiling and walls. There<BR>they were questioned by an array of
officials who, they said they were told, <BR>represented the F.B.I., the
C.I.A.<BR><<A
href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/c/central">http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/c/central</A><BR>_intelligence_agency/index.html?inline=nyt-org>
, the Naval Criminal <BR>Investigative Service and the Defense Intelligence
Agency<BR><<A
href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/d/defense">http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/d/defense
</A><BR>_intelligence_agency/index.html?inline=nyt-org> .<BR><BR>"It's like
boom, boom, boom," Mr. Ertel said. "They are drilling you. 'We<BR>know you did
this, you are part of this gun smuggling thing.' And I'm saying <BR>you have
it absolutely way off."<BR><BR>The two men slept in their 9-by-9-foot cells on
concrete slabs, with worn<BR>three-inch foam mats. With the fluorescent lights
on and the temperature in<BR>the 50s, Mr. Vance said, "I paced myself to
sleep, walking until I couldn't <BR>anymore. I broke the straps on two pair of
flip-flops."<BR><BR>Asked about the lights, the detainee operations
spokeswoman said that the<BR>camp's policy was to turn off cell lights at
night "to allow detainees to <BR>sleep."<BR><BR>A Psychological
Game<BR><BR>One day, Mr. Vance met with a camp psychologist. "He realized I
was having<BR>difficulties," Mr. Vance said. "He said to turn it into a game.
He said: 'I <BR>want you to pretend you are a soldier who has been kidnapped,
and that you<BR>still have a duty to do. Memorize everything you can about
everything that<BR>happens to you. Make it like you are a spy on the inside.'
I think he called <BR>it rational emotive behavioral therapy, and I started
doing that."<BR><BR>Camp Rule 31 barred detainees from writing on the white
cell walls, which<BR>were bare except for a black crescent moon painted on one
wall to indicate <BR>the direction of Mecca for prayers. But Mr. Vance began
keeping track of the<BR>days by making hash marks on the wall, and he also
began writing brief notes<BR>that he hid in the Bible given to him by
guards.<BR><BR>"Turned in request for dentist + phone + embassy letter +
request for <BR>clothes," he wrote one day.<BR><BR>"Boards," he wrote April
24, the day he and Mr. Ertel went before Camp<BR>Cropper's Detainee Status
Board.<BR><BR>Their legal rights, laid out in a letter from Lt. Col. Bradley
J. Huestis of <BR>the Army, the president of the status board, allowed them to
attend the<BR>hearing and testify. However, under Rule 3, the letter said,
"You do not<BR>have the right to legal counsel, but you may have a personal
representative <BR>assist you at the hearing if the personal representative is
reasonably<BR>available."<BR><BR>Mr. Vance and Mr. Ertel were permitted at
their hearings only because they<BR>were Americans, Lieutenant Fracasso said.
The cases of all other detainees <BR>are reviewed without the detainees
present, she said. In both types of<BR>cases, defense lawyers are not allowed
to attend because the hearings are<BR>not criminal proceedings, she
said.<BR><BR>Lieutenant Fracasso said that currently there were three
Americans in <BR>military custody in Iraq. The military does not identify
detainees.<BR><BR>Mr. Vance and Mr. Ertel had separate hearings. They said
their requests to<BR>be each other's personal representative had been
denied.<BR><BR>At the hearings, a woman and two men wearing Army uniforms but
no name tags<BR>or rank designations sat a table with two stacks of documents.
One was about<BR>an inch thick, and the men were allowed to see some papers
from that stack. <BR>The other pile was much thicker, but they were told that
this pile was<BR>evidence only the board could see.<BR><BR>The men pleaded
with the board. "I'm telling them there has been a major<BR>mix-up," Mr. Ertel
said. "Please, I'm out of my mind. I haven't slept. I'm <BR>not eating. I'm
terrified."<BR><BR>Mr. Vance said he implored the board to delve into his
laptop computer and<BR>cellphone for his communications with the F.B.I. agent
in Chicago.<BR><BR>Each of the hearings lasted about two hours, and the men
said they never saw <BR>the board again.<BR><BR>"At the end, my first question
was, 'Does my family know I'm alive?' and the<BR>lead man said, 'I don't
know,' " Mr. Vance recounted. "And then I asked when <BR>will we have an
answer, and they said on average it takes three to four<BR>weeks."<BR><BR>Help
From the Outside<BR><BR>About a week later, two weeks into his detention, Mr.
Vance was allowed to<BR>make his first call, to Chicago. He called his
fianc�e, Diane Schwarz, who <BR>told him she had thought he might have
died.<BR><BR>"It was very overwhelming," Ms. Schwarz recalls of the
12-minute<BR>conversation. "He wasn't quite sure what was going on, and was
kind of<BR>turning to me for answers and I was turning to him for the same."
<BR><BR>She had already been calling members of Congress, alarmed by
his<BR>disappearance. So was Mr. Ertel's mother, and some officials began
pressing<BR>for answers. "I would appreciate your looking into this matter,"
Senator <BR>Richard J. Durbin of Illinois wrote to a State Department official
in early<BR>May.<BR><BR>On May 7, the Camp Cropper detention board met again,
without either man<BR>present, and determined that Mr. Ertel was "an innocent
civilian," according <BR>to the spokeswoman for detention operations. It took
authorities 18 more<BR>days to release him.<BR><BR>Mr. Vance's situation was
more complicated. On June 17, Lt. Col. Keir-Kevin<BR>Curry, a spokesman for
the American military's detention unit, Task Force <BR>134, wrote to tell Ms.
Schwarz that Mr. Vance was still being held. "The<BR>detainee board reviewed
his case and recommended he remain interned," he<BR>wrote. "Multi-National
Force-Iraq approved the board's recommendation to <BR>continue internment.
Therefore, Mr. Vance continues to be a security<BR>detainee. We are not
processing him for release. His case remains under<BR>investigation and there
is no set timetable for completion." Over the <BR>following weeks, Mr. Vance
said he made numerous written requests � for a<BR>lawyer, for blankets, for
paper to write letters home. Mr. Vance said that<BR>he wrote 10 letters to Ms.
Schwarz, but that only one made it to Chicago. <BR>Dated July 17, it was
delivered late last month by the Red Cross.<BR><BR>"Diana, start talking,
sending e-mail and letters and faxes to the alderman,<BR>mayor, governor,
congressman, senators, Red Cross, Amnesty International <BR><<A
href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/a/amnesty">http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/a/amnesty</A><BR>_international/index.html?inline=nyt-org>
, A.C.L.U., Vatican<BR><<A
href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/r/roman_c">http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/r/roman_c</A><BR>atholic_church/index.html?inline=nyt-org>
, and other Christian-based <BR>organizations. Everyone!" he wrote. "I am
missing you so much, and am so<BR>depressed it's a daily struggle here. My
life is in your hands. Please don't<BR>get discouraged. Don't take 'No' for
answers. Keep working. I have to tell <BR>myself these things every day, but I
can't do anything from a cell."<BR><BR>The military has never explained why it
continued to consider Mr. Vance a<BR>security threat, except to say that
officials decided to release him after <BR>further review of his
case.<BR><BR>"Treating an American citizen in this fashion would have been
unimaginable<BR>before 9/11," said Mike Kanovitz, a Chicago lawyer
representing Mr. Vance.<BR><BR>On July 20, Mr. Vance wrote in his notes: "Told
'Leaving Today.' Took shower <BR>and shaved, saw doctor, got civ clothes back
and passport."<BR><BR>On his way out, Mr. Vance said: "They asked me if I was
intending to write a<BR>book, would I talk to the press, would I be thinking
of getting an attorney. <BR>I took it as, 'Shut up, don't talk about this
place,' and I kept saying, 'No<BR>sir, I want to go home.' "<BR><BR>Mr. Ertel
has returned to Baghdad, again working as a contracts manager. Mr.<BR>Vance is
back in Chicago, still feeling the effects of having been a<BR>prisoner of the
war in Iraq.<BR><BR>"It's really hard," he says. "I don't really talk about
this stuff with my<BR>family. I feel ashamed, depressed, still have
nightmares, and I'd even say I <BR>suffer from some
paranoia."<BR><BR>----------------------<BR><BR>Vision2020 Post: Ted
Moffett<BR><BR><BR><BR></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV><BR>
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