General says Abu Ghraib abusers unfairly judged

Low-ranking soldiers convicted of abusing Iraqis in the Abu Ghraib scandal have beenunfairly singled out and punished, the U.S. general who oversaw prisons in occupied Iraq has said. Brigadier General Janis Karpinski, who oversaw 17 Iraqi prisons including Abu Ghraib when the photographed November2003 abuses occurred, said the reservists jailed to date did not devise techniques such as stacking up naked prisoners orforcing them to masturbate. "I don't think that any of them had a fair opportunity. I will never change my position on that," she said after addressing theCommonwealth Club public affairs forum on Friday. "I guarantee you that none of those soldiers knew enough about the Arab culture to be able to say this is the right thing thatwe should do," she said. "Somebody who was very familiar with what would work told them how to do those things." [more]

• An appeals court in Afghanistan has reduced the sentences of three US citizens who had been convicted of torturing Afghans and running a private jail in Kabul. [more]
• Beating of Iraqi General Alleged in Army Hearing. Previously secret court testimony indicates that an Iraqi general imprisoned by U.S. forces was badly bruised and may have been severely beaten two days before he died of suffocation during interrogation.[more]
• Army Officer Convicted in Iraqi's Death Is Freed. A United States Army tank company commander convicted of fatally shooting a wounded Iraqi was freed Friday after a court-martial, although he was dismissed from the Army for what he called a "mercy killing." The officer, Capt. Rogelio Maynulet, had faced 10 years in prison after a court-martial at an Army base in Wiesbaden, Germany, found him guilty of assault with intent to commit voluntary manslaughter."He was sentenced with dismissal from the United States Army," a military spokesman said, but, "there will be no confinement time." [more]
• Army captain found guilty of Iraq "mercy killing" [more]
• Man Grabbed at airport by US & Taken to Syria for Torture -Plane Log Confirms Maher Arar, a 35-year-old Canadian engineer, is suing the United States, saying American officials grabbed him in 2002 as he changed planes in New York and transported him to Syria where, he says, he was held for 10 months in a dank, tiny cell and brutally beaten with a metal cable. Now federal aviation records examined by The New York Times appear to corroborate Mr. Arar's account of his flight, during which, he says, he sat chained on the leather seats of a luxury executive jet as his American guards watched movies and ignored his protests. The tale of Mr. Arar, the subject of a yearlong inquiry by the Canadian government, is perhaps the best documented of a number of cases since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in which suspects have accused the United States of secretly delivering them to other countries for interrogation under torture. Deportation for interrogation abroad is known as rendition. [more]
• Businessman Snatched in Cairo and Held Incommunicado by US.  Sometime in September 2002, a Yemeni businessman and intelligence officer was abducted on a Cairo street, then kept incommunicado for more than a year by United States authorities, and is now among those imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, according to an examination of his case by Human Rights Watch. The case of Abdul Salam Ali al-Hila is an example of what human rights groups call ''reverse renditions,'' in which a foreign government assists or cooperates in seizing someone who is then transferred to United States custody. John Sifton, the researcher at Human Rights Watch, the advocacy group -- who compiled information on the Hila case from interviews with the man's family, his letters from Guantanamo and government statements published in news reports in Arab countries -- said it was ''another example of the United States stretching the laws of war and human rights principles to the breaking point. ''You can't just hold people incommunicado indefinitely just by declaring them enemy combatants,'' he added. Mr. Sifton and officials from other human rights groups say there are dozens of such people, defined as those who are picked up far from the battlefield of the Afghanistan war and then wind up at the detention center at Guantanamo. Once there, they are considered unlawful combatants. [more]
• Army Documents Shed Light on CIA 'Ghosting' Systematic Concealment Of Detainees Is Found Senior defense officials have described the CIA practice of hiding unregistered detainees at Abu Ghraib prison as ad hoc and unauthorized, but a review of Army documents shows that the agency's "ghosting" program was systematic and known to three senior intelligence officials in Iraq. [more]
• Pentagon Will Not Try 17 G.I.'s Implicated in Prisoners' Deaths. Despite recommendations by Army investigators, commanders have decided not to prosecute 17 American soldiers implicated in the deaths of three prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2003 and 2004, according to a new accounting released Friday by the Army. Investigators had recommended that all 17 soldiers be charged in the cases, according to the accounting by the Army Criminal Investigation Command. The charges included murder, conspiracy and negligent homicide. While none of the 17 will face any prosecution, one received a letter of reprimand and another was discharged after the investigations. [more]
• Former POWs tortured in Iraq battle U.S. to collect awards [more]