ABUSE CRISIS: Interrogators Hired For Iraq Despite Ban

Senior military officers of the US military have overriden a prohibition from private companies which prevents contractors using workers in intelligence actions such as prisoner interrogations.


Source: Yahoo News/AP News

A policy memo from December 2000 says letting private workers gather military intelligence would jeopardize national security.
An Army spokeswoman said senior commanders have the authority to override the contractor ban.
Army spokeswoman Lt. Col. Pamela Hart said Saturday that the contractor ban remains in effect. The policy allows for hiring private interrogators and interpreters if there are not enough of those specialists in the Army. "Commanders on the ground may use their discretion," Hart said.
An Army report on the abuses at Abu Ghraib says problems at the prison included confusion over who was in charge of contractors and a lack of supervision of the private workers.
The report from Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba says one contract interrogator, Steven Stefanowicz of CACI International, and a contract translator, John B. Israel of Titan Corp., were "either directly or indirectly responsible for the abuses at Abu Ghraib."

The continuing saga of prisoner abuses in the Iraq war goes, now with the military hiring private workers to perform their interrogations for them despite a ban, with senior officers exerting their right to override the principles of private companies. As the hypocrisy continues and forces continue to abuse the very people they were meant to be protecting from such actions, questions continue to be asked about what exactly is going on, and how far the levels of corruption in the prison system actually reach. If neither public nor private forces can be trusted, then who can?

Other references:
Previous story on encouragement of prisoner abuses
Outrage surrounding photos of prisoner abuse







[edit on 12-6-2004 by HobNob]

[edit on 6-12-2004 by Valhall]