This article describes the Justice Department's investigation into the deaths of three detainees in U.S. custody, two in Iraq and one in Afghanistan. The investigation focused on the role of CIA officers and contract employers in the deaths. As the article indicates this was a noteworthy because, "The Justice Department inquiry...means CIA employees or contractors may be prosecuted in civilian courts. Until now, only the military was known to be investigating the deaths and degrading treatment of detainees in Iraq and Afghanistan."
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UNCLASSIFIED
5. U.S. Examines Role of :04411 and Employees in Iraq Deaths
David Johnston and Neil A. Lewis, New York Times, 6 May 2004, Page A13
oWpASmHINfgGTaOrNg,Moay 5 -- The Justice Department is examining the involvement of 0-a officers and contract employees in three suspicious deaths of detainees, two in
Iraq and one in Afghanistan, federal law enforcement officials said Wednesday. •
One of the victims of suspected abuse was an Iraqi major general in the Republican Guard, who died
in November 2003, several days after he was questioned at an interrogation center in western Iraq by %I* officers, according to a senior law enforcement official. The official said the Pentagon had
identified the Iraqi officer as Abid Hamid Mohush.
On Wednesday, a 0-Ifiv official outlined the cases in which oniN employees or contractors are
involved but declined to identify any of the, agency employees. The official would not name the victims
or provide details on grounds that the cases were under investigation by the WA:1's inspector
general, who has shared investigative findings.with the Justice . Department.
In November 2003, the official said, a detainee at Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad died, apparently as
he was being questioned by a PM officer and a linguist who was hired by the agency as a
contractor. In that case, the detainee had been turned over to intelligence authorities by Navy Seals,
whose spokesman on Wednesday denied mistreatment of the prisoner. TheAtr,A1 official said the
detainee was not touched, but "slumped over" during the interrogation. The eitrofficers who
interviewed General Mohush also denied mistreating him,
In a third case, in June 2003, a detainee in Afghanistan died during questioning by an independent
contractor working for the gift, a case in which the 0-,Tal official did not rule out mistreatment.
OatAi officials briefed the Senate Intelligence Committee in closed session on Wednesday about the
prisoner abuse issue. Senator WPM a Kansas Republican and the committee chairman, said
in a statement to reporters: "So far there appears to be no evidence of intelligence personnel that
directed any of the abuses, but the investigation does continue."
The Justice Department inquiry, which has focUsed first on what laws may have been violated, means CIA! employees or contractors may be prosecuted in civilian courts. Until now only the military was
known to be investigating the deaths and degrading treatment of detainees in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Another area ofpossible wrongdoing by the GTE disclosed Wednesday relates to requests by PM
personnel to military authorities at Abu Ghraib prison to hold suspects without listing them on the
prison's rolls, .according to newly available passages of an internal military report on abuses in Iraqi
prisons.
The practice was routine, according to a passage in the report by an Army officer, Maj. Gen. Antonio
M. Taguba. The passage was included in an unedited version of the report that circulated widely on
Wednesday on several Web sites; previous edited versions of the report omitted any reference to
withholding names from prison rolls.
Detainees kept off the prisoner roster at Abu Ghraib were referred to as "ghost detainees,' the report
said. In one instance, the report found, a group of six to eight prisoners "was moved around within the
facility to hide them from a visiting International Committee of the Red Cross survey team."
A glyq official said that the agency had discontinued such practices but said that the Geneva
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, Media IJighlights - U.S. Examines Role of C.I.A. and Employees in Iraq Iligatlisv
Conventions allowed a delay in the identification of prisoners to avoid disclosing their whereabouts to
an enemy.
The Justice Department's jurisdiction over g.A,I employees stems from federal statutes, like one
cited by law enforcement officials, which make it a crime for Americans acting under government
authority to "inflict severe physical or mental pain or suffering upon another person under his custody
or control."
Under the torture statute, a person convicted of killing someone by torture could face a sentence of
death or life in prison. Federal civil rights law might also be applied, the officials said.
The Justice Department's jurisdiction over independent contractors stems from the Military
Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act, a four-year-old law, untested in court, that gives federal courts
jurisdiction over any crimes that may be committed by civilian contractors working with the military
abroad.
Contractors are hired under an arrangement that assures them they will not be prosecuted under Iraqi
law, he said, They are also, because of Supreme Court rulings, not held accountable to the Uniform
Code of Military Justice.
Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company
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