Abu Ghraib, Hamdi, and Rather
I’ve been meaning to go back to compare the chronology laid out by Dan Rather in his complaint as it pertains to Abu Ghraib with the chronology of the Taguba investigation and the Hamdi case. Two things stick out. First, Myers pretended to be ignorant of the details of the abuse on May 6, several weeks after he called Dan Rather personally to spike–or delay–the story. Second, it appears the news of the abuse leaked to 60 Minutes and others at about the time the military put Major General Geoffrey Miller in charge of responding to the abuse–suggesting the leak may well have been a response to the military’s attempt to cover up the abuse and investigation. And finally, as lysias noted, the attempts to postpone the story would have delayed the Abu Ghraib revelation after the time when Paul Clement assured SCOTUS there was no torture.
Scribe noted in his comment that Rummy probably also called CBS to get them to spike the story. If Rather gets Rummy under oath, he may well have to reveal who in the Administration knew of the torture–and either didn’t tell Ted Olson and Paul Clement. Or did.
August 31 to September 9, 2003: Major General Geoffrey Miller ordered to Abu Ghraib from Gitmo
October 1, 2003: Hamdi petition filed with SCOTUS
Fall 2003: General Sanchez visits Abu Ghraib regularly
January 9, 2004: SCOTUS agrees to hear Hamdi
January 13, 2004: Joseph Darby gives CID a CD of images of abuse
January 15, 2004: General Craddick receives email summary of story
January 19, 2004: General Sanchez requests investigation of allegations of abuse
January 20, 2004: Craddick and Admiral Keating receive another notice of abuse
January 2004: General Myers learns of abuse
January 31, 2004: Taguba appointed to conduct investigation
February 2 to 29, 2004: Taguba’s team in Iraq, conducting investigation
March 9, 2004: Taguba submits his report
Late March, 2004: 60 Minutes II starts on story
April 2004: General Miller ordered to Abu Ghraib to fix problems
April 7, 2004 (approximately): 60 Minutes II acquires photos authenticating Abu Ghraib story
Mid-April, 2004: General Myers calls Dan Rather to ask him to delay story
Mid-April, 2004: Taguba begins to brief officers on his report ("weeks" before his May 6 meeting with Rummy)
April 28, 2004: Hamdi v. Rumsfeld argued before SCOTUS; Paul Clement assures SCOTUS that the Administration doesn’t torture
QUESTION: May I ask just one other question, I think it’s just relevant. But do you
think there is anything in the law that curtails the method of interrogation that may be employed?MR. CLEMENT: Well, I think there is, Justice Stevens. I mean —
QUESTION: And what is that?
MR. CLEMENT: Well, just to give one example, I think that the United States is signatory
to conventions that prohibit torture and that sort of thing. And the United States is going to honor its treaty obligations. The other thing that’s worth mentioning of course —QUESTION: But you said something about self-executing. In connection with the Geneva
Convention, you said, well, it’s not self-executing. Would you say the same thing about the torture convention?MR. CLEMENT: Justice Ginsburg, I actually have the sense that the torture victims — you have the Torture Victim Protection Act, of course, which I think doesn’t actually apply to the United States. So I’m not sure that there would be any other basis for bringing a private cause of action against the United States. But as this Court noted in footnote 14 of the Eisentrager opinion, the idea that a treaty is going to be enforced through means other than a private cause of action doesn’t mean that it’s not a binding treaty, doesn’t mean that it’s not going to constrain the actions of the executive branch. Just to finish up my answer to Justice
Stevens’ question, I wouldn’t want there to be any misunderstanding about this. It’s also the judgment of those involved in this process that the last thing you want to do is torture somebody or try to do something along those lines.April 28, 2004: Abu Ghraib story airs on 60 Minutes II
May 6, 2004: Taguba meets with Rummy, Wolfowitz, Cambone, Myers, and others
In the meeting, the officials professed ignorance about Abu Ghraib. "Could you tell us what happened?" Wolfowitz asked.
[snip]
“Here I am,†Taguba recalled Rumsfeld saying, “just a Secretary ofDefense, and we have not seen a copy of your report. I have not seenthe photographs, and I have to testify to Congress tomorrow and talkabout this.â€
May 7, 2004: Rummy testifies before Congress
June 28, 2004: Hamdi decision
Jeepers. You did another timeline, earlier posting, AND the Blackwater liveblog?
Whatever you’re drinking, I’m buying. And I obviously need some of it myself. Kudos!
Yeah, I’m squarely with Rayne on that. And I am very glad you came back to this. It occurred to me as I read Rather’s complaint and we discussed it here that it sure seemed to be at odds with what Rummy and others were admitting as to knowledge at the time, but with so much stuff happening so fast, I had completely forgotten about it. I cannot wait for CBS to file an answer to Rather’s complaint so that he can start noticing depositions and other discovery.
I just want to say Thank You to emptywheel and people like lysias who are still on the job searching out the truth. I’m just about fried by everything that’s gone on these past few years but it’s great posts (and the work behind them) like this that help put a second wind in all of us.
Keep going, Marcy, and we’ll follow your lead. You’re incredible.
All the worlds great comedians through time have yet to make lead turn into yellow gold . A single blue blood yankee though has made a timeless mockery of dignity that has sucked the life out of good will . Now comedians have two great challenges .
I’m with JoeJoeJoe. Many days I feel totally exhausted from following all of the corurption, lies and high crimes that this administration has committed over the past seven years…
Just when I think I can’t read anymore…or write any more letters, scream anymore…I come back to EW and she gets me all pissed-off again in a wonderful motivating way! Thank you, EW for another priceless timeline.
Thanks everyone here for your great comments too! I don’t have time to post much anymore, but I love reading when I can.
This Rather suit is going to be very interesting. I’m looking forward to more revelations here. Thank you, emptypockets — you’re the livewire!
ah,
you’re back and in good form, e’wheel.
thank god.
i had left the weblog world out of boredom with its tedious, conventional, though no doubt correct, sagacity.
Thanks folks
I’m traveling an obscene amount between now and November 14. So I’ll be in and out. (Tomorrow is Nashville; early next week mid-NC; the following week, NJ then Amhest, MA; and then a break until MN and MA.)
And then hopefully will have enough scratch to make it through the end of the year.
Current and former members of this Regime routinely lie under oath.
judyo: and why not? If no one will punish their perjury, and the alternative is admitting treason, why bother telling the truth?
Bush’s racism is so bad, its irrationality stunned the President of Spain:
Bush said that Europeans were insensitive to “the suffering that Saddam Hussein has inflicted on the Iraqis†and added: “Maybe it’s because he’s dark-skinned, far away and Muslim — a lot of Europeans think he’s okay.â€
http://www.harpers.org/archive…..c-90001303
—
Why was Aznar stunned? How often do you suppose he’s been asked to declare his Loyalty over Race? Bush is asking him, in effect – Are you riding this Night Ride with me, the Biggest Boss, to put down an Uppity Over-Watcher of my Oil Fields, or are you – the equivalent of – a too-easy and gutless European â€nigger lover?â€
That must have hit Mr. Aznar like an aluminum frisbee square on the forehead.
Our Country still seems to have ’some’ historical confusion on Race and equality, but most of the rest of the World doesn’t seem to have much trouble at all recognizing Racism and knowing it’s wrong.
Bush, in particular, seems blind-to/uncaring-for the dignities that are essential to living in close quarters with People you have to make an effort to get to know and accept, in order to share the neccessities of Life together in Peace.
Those who Share equally have no problem recognizing those who Take, especially Those who Take based on Race.
Bush’s Racist lens – â€dark-skinned, far away and Muslim†– rings like a hateful gong.
It’s just shocking to hear it…from the President of US.
emptywheel — truly one of the greatest national treasures to be revealed under the yoke of the last 6 years. i’m trying to imagine the emptywheel oeuvre in the â€next†civilization (if we make it!), but of course, we’ll get that far ONLY if we understand context & construction, and we can’t do that without emptywheel!
keep going, ew, OMG, are we ever grateful for your talent, resourcefulness, commitment, oh, and wit, too.
EW
As you know, Amherst MA is beautiful this time of year. I was back last weekend and I ran into some other old timers – that’s us or atleast, that’s me. I met a man from ’80 who practices law in Atlanta. He has two daughters. They are twins, sophomores and pre-med. One is at Amherst and one is at Williams.
I watched men and women’s soccer and field hockey on the new fieldturf Gooding Field, which was dedicated last weekend. It is built on the old football practice field.
Also last weekend, football played its home opener against Bowdoin. They won: they are 2-0. Next Saturday, they play 2-0 Middlebury at home. It’ll be a good test. They’ve improved since the preseason scrimmage. They must continue to improve to beat the best teams in the league. Williams is the best 0-2 team in Nescac. They lost in triple overtime at Trinity 40-46, and 14-28 the week before at Bowdoin. For sure, Coach Whelan will have the Ephs ready for Amherst by week eight.
Amherst looked good against Bowdoin. Their defense yielded 24 rushing yards only. The defense is solid. On offense, Amherst’s starting sophomore QB is improving week by week. They have two excellent running backs, NeSmith and Rauh. On special teams, Amherst has an excellent kicker for kick-off, PAT and punts. The return guy is the starting wide receiver. He has good hands and speed.
Best wishes and godspeed with your itinerary. Don’t be surprised if Mom introduces herself to you on campus. She’s an EW fan… as am I.
EW, I thought you might enjoy seeing this.
Well, I left a comment up in the Trust post, but I’ll cover a bit of the same, but differently, here for timeline purposes. In the discussions of Clement as a possible AG, this was the incident and issue that I said it would be nice to ask him about in a nomination process.
In any event, here are some things that it would be helpful to drop in that timeline. sailmaker has a comment about Goldsmith’s book and a Sept 26th junket and who was involved, what they may or may not have seen and it would be interesting to see to what extent that was shared with the Sol Gen office. Remember that Clement as Dep at the time.
A very important element that you might want to put on the timeline give this exchange some real world and not just hypothetical impact:
Justice Ginsburg, I actually have the sense that the torture victims — you have the Torture Victim Protection Act, of course, which I think doesn’t actually apply to the United States. So I’m not sure that there would be any other basis for bringing a private cause of action against the United States.
In January [looks like maybe the 22nd but this is only a story and not the pleading so give or take a few days http://www.notinourname.net/de…..jan04.htm] Maher Arar had filed his Torture Victims Act lawsuit against, among others, Ashcroft and Thompson for their actions in shipping him into Syrian torture – that’s the suit that Comey cratered with his state secrets filing before he left DOJ for that nice slot at Lockheed.
In May, 2004, stories came out about soldiers taking women and family members as hostages to try to put pressure on to get others to surrender.
Also in May I’m pretty sure (I can’t find a link so I’ll look around some more) the Pentagon report on the So. Carolina brig was prepared that raised concerns over Geneva Convention violations re: some specified, and some kept dark, procedures and processes being applied to the two â€detainees†still there (Padilla being only one of two).
Ok – there were three, not two. Hamdi as still there in May 2004.
Here’s the report
http://www.washingtonpost.com/…..99_pf.html
A previously undisclosed Pentagon report concluded that the three terrorism suspects held at a brig in South Carolina were subjected to months of isolation, and it warned that their â€unique†solitary confinement could be viewed as violating U.S. detention standards.
Carol Leonig seems to get some of the best stories, but they pass into the night with no fanfare. IIRC, she’s the one who had the story on FISC threatening Ashcroft directly re: filings in that court.
In any event:
The report by the Navy’s inspector general was presented to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld in May 2004 and was declassified in 2005. It was the first to raise the question of mistreatment of alleged enemy combatants inside the United States.
The things it mentions specifically are pretty bad, which only leave you to wonder about the things they leave â€unspecified.â€
Interrogators also prevented the International Committee of the Red Cross from visiting at least one detainee, according to the report, which noted evidence of other unspecified, unauthorized interrogation techniques.
And if those were not authorized – who was doing them, what was done, and what happened as far as discipline?
So after that May report(and isn’t it nice that we now have Padilla as precedent for a right in the DOJ to have the Executive branch use military torture on US citizens for a few years before anyone gets around to things like charges – and also for that Executive branch torture to be used for the issuance of arrest warrants to pick US citizens up on US soil and send them into military torture too – – all with no lawyer, no hope, no law) you had the June Comey presser on Padilla that might find a place on the timeline.
Or Scott Turrow’s very good op ed where he points out just how shocking that Presser was and how it seemed expressly timed and titred to impact on the opinions about to be released by the Court.
Ok – there were three, not two. Hamdi as still there in May 2004.
Here’s the report
http://www.washingtonpost.com/…..99_pf.html
A previously undisclosed Pentagon report concluded that the three terrorism suspects held at a brig in South Carolina were subjected to months of isolation, and it warned that their â€unique†solitary confinement could be viewed as violating U.S. detention standards.
Carol Leonig seems to get some of the best stories, but they pass into the night with no fanfare. IIRC, she’s the one who had the story on FISC threatening Ashcroft directly re: filings in that court.
In any event:
The report by the Navy’s inspector general was presented to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld in May 2004 and was declassified in 2005. It was the first to raise the question of mistreatment of alleged enemy combatants inside the United States.
The things it mentions specifically are pretty bad, which only leave you to wonder about the things they leave â€unspecified.â€
Interrogators also prevented the International Committee of the Red Cross from visiting at least one detainee, according to the report, which noted evidence of other unspecified, unauthorized interrogation techniques.
And if those were not authorized – who was doing them, what was done, and what happened as far as discipline?
So after that May report(and isn’t it nice that we now have Padilla as precedent for a right in the DOJ to have the Executive branch use military torture on US citizens for a few years before anyone gets around to things like charges – and also for that Executive branch torture to be used for the issuance of arrest warrants to pick US citizens up on US soil and send them into military torture too – – all with no lawyer, no hope, no law) you had the June Comey presser on Padilla that might find a place on the timeline.
Or Scott Turrow’s very good op ed where he points out just how shocking that Presser was and how it seemed expressly timed and titred to impact on the opinions about to be released by the Court.
â€â€¦ JUST a Sec. of Def.†— Rumsfeld
The man DOES have a sense of humor.
For the time line – 9/26/03 Padilla was in Charleston, Hamdi was in Norfolk. Both are American citizens, Hamdi holding dual citizenship (Saudi Arabia).
Whenever someone says that the Military Commissions Act does not apply to American citizens: that no American can be held, tortured with the ’evidence’ gathered under torture accepted into court, denied habeas corpus, denied knowledge of their accusors or the evidence against them, I point to Padilla, and Hamdi, and that Professors Bruce Ackerman, Marty Lederman, and Jonathan Turley agree that American citizenship does not exempt one from unconstitutional treatment.
http://www.jonesreport.com/art….._does.html
And didn’t the â€American Taliban†have to waive rights under the torture act as part of his plea?
M’y, I wonder if your transcript from Hamdi Scotus argument April 2004 is from a nonstandard source. The version available at Scotus’ website uses all unattributed speaking by Justices. Yet the Hamdan transcript downloaded March 2006 identifies each Justice in the repartee with Clement and throughout. I had thought the speaker you cite was Ginsburg (Hamdi 03-6696 ibid. p.49, l.17ff), but Justice Ginsburg’s questions are interjected during Breyer questioning of Clement; it would be nice to find the attributed version.
Mary –
both John Walker Linde and David Hicks had to withdraw their accusations of ’mistreatment while in prison’ as part of their pleas.
Thanks sailmaker. I believe everyone leaving GITMO is having to sign pretty much that same statement and even the detention camps IIRC. I wonder what Vance had to sign in Iraq to get released?
I think he had to sign away his first and fourth amendment rights – no books, no lawyers – maybe I’m assuming too much. See what you think.
http://www.iht.com/articles/20…..php?page=4
Sailmaker – Interestingly, there has long been caselaw standing for the proposition that when the government demands provisions in plea agreements where the defendant is compelled to waive civil rights claims for malicious prosecution and police misconduct, said provisions are considered severable and unenforceable adhesion clauses contrary to the public interest. I have not litigated this question in some time now, maybe ten years, but it was pretty solid before.
Sentencing guidelines figure in one mix; but several articles by ethics counsel in that case remain available online from a few years ago, though they are less explicit than Dalglish’s site’s coverage now in 2007, linked.
From tomorrow’s NYT:
Mr. Gonzales approved the legal memorandum on “combined effects†over the objections of James B. Comey, the deputy attorney general, who was leaving his job after bruising clashes with the White House. Disagreeing with what he viewed as the opinion’s overreaching legal reasoning, Mr. Comey told colleagues at the department that they would all be “ashamed†when the world eventually learned of it.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10…..gate.html?
hp=&pagewanted=print
Would there be any way to invalidate those waivers of Torture Act claims retroactively by making new statute? Or has that horse already sailed?
Hmmm – Complicated, but I assume so. As I said above, there certainly used to be a way to judicially invitiate those type of provisions even without any retroactive legislation. I am not certain where that line of law stands today, and how it would play in EDVA, where I think both the pleas were entered. Bottom line, is there some way to accomplish reinstating Hamdi’s, and more importantly in some ways, Walker Lindh’s, ability to file civil suit reinstated? Sure, but there is no political nor public momentum for it, nor will there be; not to mention states secrets, CIPA/CIFA concerns and about a ton of other problems would stand in the way of the suit even if you could.