Further abuse at Abu Ghraib detailed - ACLU forces US to disclose records

Government documents made public Thursday provide fresh details about allegations of abuse by guards at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and other detention facilities in Afghanistan and Pakistan. They include incidents in which a female prisoner was sexually humiliated by US military intelligence officers and a male inmate was shot at to force cooperation. Meanwhile, a military judge has ordered two US Army reservists to stand trial in Baghdad for allegedly abusing Iraqi inmates at Abu Ghraib. Specialist Charles Graner Jr., 36, of Uniontown, Pa., will face a court-martial Jan. 7, while Sergeant Javal Davis, 26, of Maryland, is set to be tried Feb. 1. The US documents, obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union under court order, include an internal FBI memo from last May that shows bureau employees based at Abu Ghraib witnessed a number of troubling incidents, but ''did not believe [that what they saw] rose to the level of misconduct or mistreatment." The materials also describe the deaths of three Abu Ghraib prisoners, all reportedly of heart attacks, within days of each other in August 2003, weeks before the now-infamous episodes of photographed abuse began occurring at the prison. [more ]

• Abu Ghraib Guards Kept a Log Of Prison Conditions, Practices [more ]
• Senators Worry Over Detainees' Treatment [more ]
• GI Gets 8 Years for Prison Abuse  [more ]
  
• Michigan lawyer sues for Iraqi man over Abu Ghraib [more ]
  

• Justice Department  authorized illegal transfers of detainees out of Iraq for interrogation. The Washington Post reported Sunday that in response to a request by the CIA, the US Justice Department drafted a memo in March 2004 that authorized the transfer of detainees out of Iraq for interrogation. International law experts say this is an unconventional and disturbing circumvention and reinterpretation of the Geneva Convention, Article 49 of which prohibits "[i]ndividual or mass forcible transfers, as well as deportations of protected persons from occupied territory . . . regardless of their motive." [more ]