AP: Army Reopens Probe Into Man's Death

[Career Prole]

NEW YORK - The U.S. Army says it has reopened an investigation into the suspected bludgeoning death of a key Iraqi government scientist in American custody, a chemist who allegedly experimented with poisons on prisoners in the days of Saddam Hussein.

Mohammad Munim al-Izmerly, 65, is the only known weapons scientist among at least 96 detainees who have died in U.S. custody in Iraq. Questions have surrounded the death ever since his body was dropped off at a Baghdad hospital in February 2004, two weeks after he died.

<snip>

The Pentagon would say nothing about the timetable or thrust of the inquiry. But Rod Barton, an Australian member of the CIA-led teams that questioned al-Izmerly and other weapons scientists, says such prisoners may have been beaten during the futile U.S. hunt for banned arms in Iraq.


When al-Izmerly's body was delivered to Al-Kharkh Hospital, the Americans enclosed a death certificate saying he died of "brainstem compression," without saying what caused it, Britain's Guardian newspaper reported after viewing the document last year. A subsequent Iraqi autopsy determined he was killed by a blunt trauma injury, a blow to the head, Iraqi doctors told Baghdad reporters.
More...
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&e=4&u=/ap/20050324/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_dead_chemist&sid=84439559

Outside the Schiavo bubble...

[Cocoa]

1. tortured to death because Bush needed to find WMDs

[Career Prole]

2. One has to wonder how much beating a 65 year-old can take.

Evidently the interrogators didn't personally know any seniors.
Rule of thumb for interrogators...the elderly tend to be somewhat more fragile.

[redqueen]

3. One of dozens of POWs murdered.

Not that it's new... but it's so out in the open now... and so few people seem to care.

*sigh*

[UpInArms]

4. 'I will always hate you people' - Family's fury at mystery death

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1223358,00.html

Monday May 24, 2004

The first Mohammed Munim al-Izmerly's family knew of his death was when his battered corpse turned up at Baghdad's morgue. Attached to the zipped-up black US body bag was a laconic note.

The US military claimed in the note that Dr Izmerly, a distinguished chemistry professor arrested after US tanks encircled his villa, had died of "brainstem compression".

Dr Izmerly's sudden death after 10 months in American custody left his family stunned, not least because three weeks earlier they had visited him in the US prison at Baghdad airport. His 23-year-old daughter, Rana, recalled that he had seemed in "good health".

The family commissioned an independent Iraqi autopsy. Its conclusion was unambiguous: Dr Izmerly had died because of a "sudden hit to the back of his head", Faik Amin Baker, the director of Baghdad hospital's forensic department, certified.

The cause of death was blunt trauma. It was uncertain exactly how he died, but someone had hit him from behind, possibly with a bar or a pistol, Dr Baker confirmed yesterday.

...more...

[Rose Siding]

5. Barton, who was on Duelfer's team suspected beatings too

snip>
Charles A. Duelfer, the CIA special adviser who led the arms-hunting Iraq Survey Group, didn't respond to AP queries about what he knew of al-Izmerly's death. But Barton, one of his former subordinates, has spoken out.

The Australian microbiologist says he was told in February 2004, while working with Duelfer's group in Baghdad, that al-Izmerly died of a brain tumor. But "I had suspicions that this person had actually been beaten to death in the prison," Barton said in an Australian Broadcasting Corp. interview last month.

He said he saw two other detainees, also weapons hunters' interrogation subjects, with face injuries he thought were the result of beatings.

Contacted by the AP, Barton wouldn't elaborate on his suspicions, citing the sensitivity of testimony on the weapons hunt he is to give to the Australian Senate next week.

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/nation/3101042

[Moderator]

6. kick to combine

[rainbow4321]

7. (Iraqi) Scientist's death now reopened by Army

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0325iraq-scientist25.html


NEW YORK - The U.S. Army says it has reopened an investigation into the suspected bludgeoning death of a key Iraqi government scientist in American custody, a chemist who reportedly experimented with poisons on prisoners in the days of Saddam Hussein.

Mohammed Munim al-Izmerly, 65, is the only known weapons scientist among at least 96 detainees who have died in U.S. custody in Iraq. Questions have surrounded the death ever since his body was dropped off at a Baghdad hospital in February 2004, two weeks after he died.

When it first came to light in press reports last May, the U.S. military, newly under fire for prisoner abuse in Iraq, refused to answer queries about the chemist's death.

"The case was initially closed, but after further investigative review a determination was made to reopen the investigation," Army spokesman Christopher Grey said.

[UpInArms]

8. related: NYTs Pentagon Will Not Try 17 G.I.'s Implicated in Prisoners' Dea

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/26/politics/26abuse.html

Pentagon Will Not Try 17 G.I.'s Implicated in Prisoners' Deaths

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/26/politics/26abuse.html

excerpt:

The Army said one of the three deaths for which soldiers would not be prosecuted was that of a former Iraqi lieutenant colonel determined by investigators to have died of "blunt force injuries and asphyxia" at an American Forward Operating Base in Al Asad, Iraq, in January 2004.

In that case, Army investigators had recommended that 11 soldiers from the Fifth Special Forces Group and the Third Armored Cavalry Regiment face charges. The decision not to prosecute in that case, as well as one other, was made by the Army Special Forces Command at Fort Bragg, N.C., the Army said.

A senior Army legal official acknowledged that the Iraqi colonel had at one point been lifted to his feet by a baton held to his throat, and that that action had caused a throat injury that contributed to his death.

The Army accounting said the Special Forces Command had determined that the use of force had been lawful "in response to repeated aggression and misconduct by the detainee."

...more...

[Moderator]

9. kick to combine

[NNN0LHI]

10. 'God Wants the Truth' in Death of U.S.-Held Iraqi Scientist, Says Family

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBJJT45R6E.html

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - The family of an Iraqi government scientist whose battered body turned up at a Baghdad hospital more than a year ago welcomed the news Friday that the U.S. Army has reopened an investigation into how he died while in U.S. detention.

Mohammad Munim al-Izmerly, who died Jan. 31, 2004, at age 65, is the only known weapons scientist among at least 96 detainees who have died in U.S. custody in Iraq. The CIA says al-Izmerly tested poisons on prisoners for Saddam Hussein's intelligence service.

The U.S. military last year supplied only a sketchy death certificate for al-Izmerly. The family then commissioned an Iraqi autopsy, which found he died of a blow to the head, and they tried unsuccessfully to get Iraqi legal intervention. The Army, meanwhile, refused to answer press queries about the death. snip

The Americans had enclosed a death certificate saying he died of "brainstem compression," without saying what caused it. The dated certificate indicated they had held the body for 17 days.

The family arranged for the Iraqi autopsy, which found he died of blunt trauma injury, a blow to the head. Both the death certificate and autopsy report were reviewed by AP.

more

[Beguine]

11. good this is being exposed...but perhaps unfortunate timing

I wish this wasn't breaking while the dog is still being so expertly wagged, I fear it will get less attention now.

[NNN0LHI]

12. Unfortunately this is only the tip of the ice berg

Wait until you begin hearing the reports of the mass graves in Iraq that have been dug since the US invasion and occupation. Coming soon to a theater near you.

Here is a preview of coming attrations:

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/content/news/epaper/2005/03/10/a3a_iraq_0310.html

40 bodies found in Iraq mass graves

Thursday, March 10, 2005

BAGHDAD — The bodies of at least 40 Iraqi men, women and children, some of them shot and others beheaded, have been discovered in mass graves near the Syrian border and south of Baghdad, Iraqi officials said Wednesday. snip

They smelled something foul coming from the area where the bodies were later found," said Alla Saloom, 50, a merchant. snip

The U.S. military has been trying to stem illegal border crossings for more than a year and has had several violent confrontations with insurgents and smugglers in the area.

The city is on the western border of Anbar province, a Sunni-dominated region where U.S. Marines have been unable to maintain order despite a massive assault on the former rebel bastion of Fallujah in November. Many of the routed foreign fighters and insurgents loyal to former President Saddam Hussein are believed to have fled to outlying areas of the province.

Bullet-strewn bodies of women and children were among the dead found at the Euphrates gravesite. All had been shot in the head or chest, according to local doctors.

more

[chlamor]

13. Kick-Take a break from Schiavo Nation and read the news

Thanks for your posts. It's cluttered out there.

[NNN0LHI]

14. I have been giving it hell. It hasn't been easy though. Been a real battle

And you are welcome too. Take care.

Don

[leveymg]

15. NYT: Pentagon Won't Prosecute Iraqi Prisoner Deaths

But, they take it "very seriously."

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/26/politics/26abuse.html
March 26, 2005

Pentagon Will Not Try 17 G.I.'s Implicated in Prisoners' Deaths

By DOUGLAS JEHL

WASHINGTON, March 25 - 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. <snip>

"U.S. Army Special Forces Command takes all allegations of detainee abuse and homicide very seriously," Major Gowan said in an e-mail statement in response to an inquiry. "As with any case, U.S. Army Special Forces Command will consider all relevant evidence and facts. This command will make appropriate disposition of such cases as warranted by the facts and evidence derived from the investigations."