May 10, 2004The Israeli Torture TemplateRape, Feces and...

May 10, 2004

The Israeli Torture Template
Rape, Feces and Urine-Dipped Cloth Sacks
By WAYNE MADSEN

With mounting evidence that a shadowy group of former Israeli Defense
Force and General Security Service (Shin Bet) Arabic-speaking
interrogators were hired by the Pentagon under a classified "carve
out" sub-contract to brutally interrogate Iraqi prisoners at
Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison, one only needs to examine the record of
abuse of Palestinian and Lebanese prisoners in Israel to understand
what Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld meant, when referring to
new, yet to be released photos and videos, he said, "if these images
are released to the public, obviously its going to make matters
worse."

According to a political appointee within the Bush administration and
U.S. intelligence sources, the interrogators at Abu Ghraib included a
number of Arabic-speaking Israelis who also helped U.S. interrogators
develop the "R2I" (Resistance to Interrogation) techniques. Many of
the torture methods were developed by the Israelis over many years of
interrogating Arab prisoners on the occupied West Bank and in Israel
itself.

Clues about worse photos and videos of abuse may be found in Israeli
files about similar abuse of Palestinian and other Arab prisoners. In
March 2000, a lawyer for a Lebanese prisoner kidnapped in 1994 by the
Israelis in Lebanon claimed that his client had been subjected to
torture, including rape. The type of compensation offered by Rumsfeld
in his testimony has its roots in cases of Israeli torture of Arabs.
In the case of the Lebanese man, said to have been raped by his
Israeli captors, his lawyer demanded compensation of $1.47 million.
The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel documented the types
of torture meted out on Arab prisoners. Many of the tactics coincide
with those contained in the Taguba report: beatings and prolonged
periods handcuffed to furniture. In an article in the December 1998
issue of The Progressive, Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb reported on the
treatment given to a 23-year old Palestinian held on "administrative
detention." The prisoner was "cuffed behind a chair 17 hours a day
for 120 days . . . [he] had his head covered with a sack, which was
often dipped in urine or feces. Guards played loud music right next
to his ears and frequently taunted him with threats of physical and
sexual violence." If additional photos and videos document such
practices, the Bush administration and the American people have,
indeed, "seen nothing yet."

Although it is still largely undocumented if any of the contractor
named in the report of General Antonio Taguba were associated with
the Israeli military or intelligence services, it is noteworthy that
one, John Israel, who was identified in the report as being employed
by both CACI International of Arlington, Virginia, and Titan, Inc.,
of San Diego, may not have even been a U.S. citizen. The Taguba
report states that Israel did not have a security clearance, a
requirement for employment as an interrogator for CACI. According to
CACI's web site, "a Top Secret Clearance (TS) that is current and US
citizenship" are required for CACI interrogators working in Iraq. In
addition, CACI requires that its interrogators "have at least two
years experience as a military policeman or similar type of law
enforcement/intelligence agency whereby the individual utilized
interviewing techniques."

Speculation that "John Israel" may be an intelligence cover name has
fueled speculation whether this individual could have been one of a
number of Israeli interrogators hired under a classified contract.
Because U.S. citizenship and documentation thereof are requirements
for a U.S. security clearance, Israeli citizens would not be
permitted to hold a Top Secret clearance. However, dual U.S.-Israeli
citizens could have satisfied Pentagon requirements that
interrogators hold U.S. citizenship and a Top Secret clearance.
Although the Taguba report refers twice to Israel as an employee of
Titan, the company claims he is one of their sub-contractors. CACI
stated that one of the men listed in the report "is not and never has
been a CACI employee" without providing more detail. A U.S.
intelligence source revealed that in the world of intelligence "carve
out" subcontracts such confusion is often the case with "plausible
deniability" being a foremost concern.

In fact, the Taguba report does reference the presence of non-U.S.
and non-Iraqi interrogators at Abu Ghraib. The report states, "In
general, US civilian contract personnel (Titan Corporation, CACI,
etc), third country nationals, and local contractors do not appear to
be properly supervised within the detention facility at Abu Ghraib."

The Pentagon is clearly concerned about the outing of the Taguba
report and its references to CACI, Titan, and third country
nationals, which could permanently damage U.S. relations with Arab
and Islamic nations. The Pentagon's angst may explain why the Taguba
report is classified Secret No Foreign Dissemination.

The leak of the Taguba report was so radioactive, Daniel R. Dunn, the
Information Assurance Officer for Douglas Feith's Office of the Under
Secretary of Defense, Policy (Policy Automation Services Security
Team), sent a May 6, 2004, For Official Use Only Urgent E-mail to
Pentagon staffers stating, "THE INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THIS REPORT
IS CLASSIFIED; DO NOT GO TO FOX NEWS TO READ OR OBTAIN A COPY."
Considering Feith's close ties to the Israelis, such a reaction by
his top computer security officer, a Certified Information System
Security Professional (CISSP), is understandable, although
considering the fact that CISSPs are to act on behalf of the public
good, it is also regrettable..

The reference to "third country nationals" in a report that restricts
its dissemination to U.S. coalition partners (Great Britain, Poland,
Italy, etc.) is another indication of the possible involvement of
Israelis in the interrogation of Iraqi prisoners. Knowledge that the
U.S. may have been using Israeli interrogators could have severely
fractured the Bush administration's tenuous "coalition of the
willing' in Iraq. General Taguba's findings were transmitted to the
Coalition Forces Land Component Command on March 9, 2004, just six
days before the Spanish general election, one that the opposition
anti-Iraq war Socialists won. The Spanish ultimately withdrew their
forces from Iraq.

During his testimony before the Senate Armed Service Committee,
Rumsfeld was pressed upon by Senator John McCain about the role of
the private contractors in the interrogations and abuse. McCain asked
Rumsfeld four pertinent questions, ". . . who was in charge? What
agency or private contractor was in charge of the interrogations? Did
they have authority over the guards? And what were the instructions
that they gave to the guards?"

When Rumsfeld had problems answering McCain's question, Lt. Gen.
Lance Smith, the Deputy Commander of the U.S. Central Command, said
there were 37 contract interrogators used in Abu Ghraib. The two
named contractors, CACI and Titan, have close ties to the Israeli
military and technology communities. Last January 14, after Provost
Marshal General of the Army, Major General Donald Ryder, had already
uncovered abuse at Abu Ghraib, CACI's President and CEO, Dr. J.P.
(Jack) London was receiving the Jerusalem Fund of Aish HaTorah's
Albert Einstein Technology award at the Jerusalem City Hall, with
right-wing Likud politician Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz and
ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party Jerusalem Mayor Uri
Lupolianski in attendance. Oddly, CACI waited until February 2 to
publicly announce the award in a press release. CACI has also
received grants from U.S.-Israeli bi-national foundations.

Titan also has had close connections to Israeli interests. After his
stint as CIA Director, James Woolsey served as a Titan director.
Woolsey is an architect of America's Iraq policy and the chief
proponent of and lobbyist for Ahmad Chalabi of the Iraqi National
Congress. An adviser to the neo-conservative Foundation for the
Defense of Democracies, Jewish Institute of National Security
Affairs, Project for the New American Century, Center for Security
Policy, Freedom House, and Committee for the Liberation of Iraq,
Woolsey is close to Stephen Cambone, the Undersecretary of Defense
for Intelligence, a key person in the chain of command who would have
not only known about the torture tactics used by U.S. and Israeli
interrogators in Iraq but who would have also approved them. Cambone
was associated with the Project for the New American Century and is
viewed as a member of Rumsfeld's neo-conservative "cabal" within the
Pentagon.

Another person considered by Pentagon insiders to have been
knowledgeable about the treatment of Iraqi prisoners is U.S. Army
Col. Steven Bucci, a Green Beret and Rumsfeld's military assistant
and chief traffic cop for the information flow to the Defense
Secretary. According to Pentagon insiders, Bucci was involved in the
direction of a special covert operations unit composed of former U.S.
special operations personnel who answered to the Pentagon rather than
the CIA's Special Activities Division, the agency's own paramilitary
group. The Pentagon group included Arabic linguists and former
members of the Green Berets and Delta Force who operated covertly in
Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, and Uzbekistan. Titan also uses
linguists trained in the languages (Arabic, Dari, Farsi, Pashto,
Urdu, and Tajik) of those same countries. It is not known if a link
exists between Rumsfeld's covert operations unit and Titan's covert
operations linguists.

Another Titan employee named in the Taguba report is Adel L. Nakhla.
Nakhla is a name common among Egypt's Coptic Christian community,
however, it is not known if Adel Nakhla is either an Egyptian-
American or a national of Egypt. A CACI employee identified in the
report, Steven Stephanowicz, is referred to as "Stefanowicz" in a
number of articles on the prison abuse. Stefanowicz is the spelling
used by Joe Ryan, another CACI employee assigned with Stefanowicz to
Abu Ghraib. Ryan is a radio personality on KSTP, a conservative radio
station in Minneapolis, who maintained a daily log of his activities
in Iraq on the radio's web site before it was taken down. Ryan
indicated that Stefanowicz (or Stephanowicz) continued to hold his
interrogation job in Iraq even though General Taguba recommended he
lose his security clearance and be terminated for the abuses at Abu
Ghraib.

In an even more bizarre twist, the Philadelphia Daily News identified
a former expatriate public relations specialist for the government of
South Australia in Adelaide named Steve Stefanowicz as possibly being
the same person identified in the Taguba report. In 2000,
Stefanowicz, who grew up in the Philadelphia and Allentown areas,
left for Australia. On September 16, 2001, he was quoted by the
Sunday Mail of Adelaide on the 911 attacks. He said of the
attacks, "It was one of the most incredible and most devastating
things I have ever seen. I have been in constant contact with my
family and friends in the US and the mood was very solemn and quiet.
But this is progressing into anger." Stefanowicz returned to the
United States and volunteered for the Navy in a reserve status. His
mother told the Allentown Morning Call in April 2002 that Stefanowicz
was stationed somewhere in the Middle East but did not know where
because of what Stefanowicz said was "security concerns." His mother
told the Philadelphia Daily News that her son was in Iraq but she
knew nothing about his current status.

Wayne Madsen is a Washington, DC-based investigative journalist and
columnist. He served in the National Security Agency (NSA) during the
Reagan administration and wrote the introduction to Forbidden Truth.
He is the co-author, with John Stanton, of "America's Nightmare: The
Presidency of George Bush II." His forthcoming book is titled: "Jaded
Tasks: Big Oil, Black Ops, and Brass Plates."

Madsen can be reached at: [email protected]


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