Diary of an interrogator: After a tough day's questioning

[seemslikeadream]

Diary of an interrogator: After a tough day's questioning, a relaxing evening of jail-roof golf

By Andrew Buncombe in Washington
09 May 2004



Among the golfers is a civilian accused by a US Army report of being "directly or indirectly responsible for the abuse" at the prison. The diary also reveals the pressure on interrogators and the extremely right-wing views of some.

Joe Ryan, a former Green Beret working in Abu Ghraib for CACI International, a defence IT contractor, had been keeping the diary for a conservative talk-show radio station in Minneapolis, KSTP 1500. The diary was posted on the station's website until, Mr Ryan said, military authorities requested its removal. On 25 April, Mr Ryan wrote: "We have foreign fighters from Morocco, Syria, Jordan, and other countries detained here. They are not sponsored by their respective countries to come here, but it is due to their individual choices, be it religious or stupidity ... I got to take the rest of the day off after our long booth time. This gave us a nice evening after dinner to head to the roof and play a round of golf.

"Scott Norman, Jeff Mouton, Steve Hattabaugh, Steve Stefanowicz, and I all took turns trying to hit balls over the back wall and on to the highway. Since the club is a left-handed 3 iron, I had an unfair advantage and missed a dump truck by only about 10 feet ... We do what we can to make it fun here."

Mr Stefanowicz, 35, a former naval reserve officer also employed by Arlington-based CACI International as an interrogator, became a reservist in the aftermath of the terror attacks of September 2001. A CACI official said last week that Mr Stefanowicz was "by all accounts doing a damn fine job". But Major General Antonio Taguba, who carried out an investigation into the abuses at Abu Ghraib, believed Mr Stefanowicz was one of the people "either directly or indirectly responsible for the abuses at Abu Ghraib".
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=519434

[fishnfla]

1. Right wing conservatives? No way.

"Just a few bad apples" is all.

[seemslikeadream]

2. Joe in his own words

Anyway, here's Joe in his own words:

For those of you who do not know my military and civilian background, let me give a little bio to maybe clarify how I look at things while I am here.
I was in Air Force Junior ROTC in high school and went to University of Colorado for two years on Air Force ROTC scholarship. I decided that Aerospace Engineering was not for me and left college.

I enlisted into the Army as a PFC for an interrogator position with an airborne slot. My language wish list consisted of Russian, German, or Spanish. In the army's omnipotence, they chose to send me to the Foreign Service Institute in Washington, DC to learn Swahili. My first assignment was with 3rd Special Forces Group where I was in-processed a whole 13 days prior to going on my first deployment with a team to Uganda. I have spent time in 10 African countries with the teams and earned my "S" identifier after completion of selection and qualifying course for weapons specialist (18B), but was never released by MI branch since I was one of two Swahili linguists in the army, so carried the 18B as a secondary specialty. I went through the DOD Strategic Debriefer Course, Israeli Interrogation Course, and the SCAN Course. In 1994, I went into Haiti with two SF teams into La Cayes on the southern peninsula. After securing our objective, we were informed the invasion was canceled. This meant no further reinforcements for 28 days and forever resentful to the philandering president. In Haiti I performed more than 80 interrogations and conducted the force protection assessments.

Since MI Branch would not release me, I reclassified to 98C (Signals Intelligence Analyst) so I could advance my career. So a Swahili linguist was sent to Korea for a year upon completion of the school. The blessing is that I met my wonderful wife in 98C school and spent the year in Korea with her. I was in charge of the two Trojan Spirit systems for the 2nd Infantry Division.

Needing a desk to try on for size, I went to work for the National Security Agency for the last 17 month of my active duty. As the only military person in the department and the only one to have spent time in Eastern Africa, I had four civilians making MUCH more money than I working for me during the height of the Sudanese civil war.
more
http://billmon.org/archives/001450.html



".....In order to avoid going back to active duty, I signed on with a defense contractor and am now over here as an interrogator."

LA Times:
http://www.latimes.com/services/site/premium/access-registered.interce...

[Octafish]

3. Right wing ideologue. Tortures for a living. Plays reckless golf.

The entire man's life is devoted to killing.

Plus, as a civilian contractor, he gives his boss "plausible deniability."

From the article:

Elsewhere he says: "'Wild' Bill Armstrong is one of our interrogators. Bill is married with five kids and a devout Christian, father, and husband ... Politically, Bill makes (the right wing radio host) Rush Limbaugh look like a flaming liberal."

Thanks for finding this article, seemslikeadream! It wasn't in my Sunday paper today.

These fellows are the same as the NAZIs.

[seemslikeadream]

4. text from the memory hole - JCMach1

JCMach1 (1000+ posts) Sun May-09-04 03:19 AM
Response to Original message

5. Here is the text from the memory hole


http://www.thesyndrome.com/archives/00000856.htm

[Octafish]

8. The boy's a right-wing NUTJOB...

... raised on Reagan. The guy makes clear his hatreds, even when they're superior officers. He also blames the media for distorting the picture -- just like Ollie and 'Nam. "We'd a won if it weren't for the pictures in the living rooms." This stuff needs be archived. From the link -- one entry of MANY:

"Meanwhile, While We Were Torturing: Joe Ryan's Iraq Diary (from Abu Ghraib)"

EXCERPT...

I ask that everyone say a prayer or two over the next 48 hours for PFC Keith Maupin, KBR employee Thomas Hamill, and for the Marines in our area. God willing, all three will make the media and give a good story to report for a change. Enough said about that.

Work is fast and furious, but we are more productive right now than we have been since I have been here. Some intelligence things are really coming together and could shift a few things to our advantage, at least west and north of Baghdad. The Al Fallujah situation is being guided by results from the intelligence gleaned from here as well as at their division cage. We are making progress on rooting out foreign fighters as well as those individuals that are helping/hiding them.

Christine Chaney is another of our three CACI females here. She left the army last fall and was actually in the 202nd MI BN that we are working with here. Christine is tall like my sister-in-law, so my posture always improves like when I am around my sister-in-law. She also was in Afghanistan last year with the 202nd and is a fluent Farsi and Pashto linguist in addition to being an experienced interrogator. It is impressive because the three women we have here are all former army and hard chargers. They are more professional and tougher than most of the female soldiers here.

CONTINUED...

http://www.thesyndrome.com/archives/00000856.htm

[saigon68]

7. NO ------THEY ARE NAZIS AND WAR CRIMINALS

by the way "SUPPORT THE TER--ERR TROOPS"

[fishnfla]

12. Hey saigon, see # 10 please

What do you think?

[Octafish]

18. Bush and Nazi connection = Bush and JFK Assassination

Hi, saigon68!

Agree with you 100-percent. Here's a nice DU thread from not too long ago...

If Bush thinks NAZI thing is bad, wait till JFK stuff goes public!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=550847

[seemslikeadream]

9. Octafish look at the fish!

These are just like mine can't post my own pics right now.

[nolabels]

24. No need for stories we have some real ones

YOU GET EXCATLY WHAT IT SAYS IN THE BROCHURE !

INFACT YOU’LL LIKE IT SO MUCH

YOU WON’T WANT TO GO HOME

&imgrefurl=http://myspace.chez.tiscali.fr/New_Page_June2001.htm&h=492&w=641&sz=70&tbnid=VASNEcxqYDYJ:&tbnh=103&tbnw=134&start=2&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dlarge%2Bcarp%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26ie%3DUTF-8%26oe%3DUTF-8%26sa%3DG

[Octafish]

29. Cousin Ervin! Where in the heck you been?

The deep blue hasn't been the same...

[seemslikeadream]

32. Since we're telling fish stories I have to remind people to help save

The Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus
(Endangered)
Help Save The Tree Octopus From Extinction!









The history of the tree octopus trade is a sad one. Their voracious appetite for bird plumes having exhausted all the worthy species of that family, the fashionistas moved on to cephalopodic accoutrements during the early 20th Century. Tree octopuses became prized by the fashion industry as ornamental decorations for hats, leading greedy trappers to wipe out whole populations to feed the vanity of the fashionable rich. While fortunately this practice has been outlawed, its effects still reverberate today as these millinery deprivations brought tree octopus numbers below the critical point where even minor environmental change could cause disaster.

http://zapatopi.net/treeoctopus.html

[Waverley_Hills_Hiker]

27. i love it..devout christian w. five kids....sounds like a fanatic.

Our home-grown facists.....

[Octafish]

31. People just like you and me... just followin' orders.

Fight the monster. Fight!



Source: http://www.davidicke.com/

I don't know this cat, but what he says is spot-on.

Shanti, ya'll!

[Nordic65]

5. Here is the diary...

http://216.239.41.104/search?q=cache:XYYOCOWnu_8J:www.am1500.com/personalities/joeryan.htm+KSTP+%22Joe+Ryan%22&hl=en

[seemslikeadream]

6. A few revealing entries from his diary - daleo

daleo (1000+ posts) Sun May-09-04 04:52 AM
Response to Reply #5

8. A few revealing entries from his diary - hard to read this stuff


Here he is advocating genocide and murdering journalists:

"We watched the Al Jazeera footage of the two American soldiers that are being held hostage. CW3 Dan Adkins said to the television, "kill 1,000 for every hostage killed. No need to discriminate either." We know they were captured right down the road from our location. We also know they are still in the general area. The first thing that needs to happen is to stake every Al Jazeera reporter in the middle of the desert and let the buzzards have them. "

Here he describes a "contractor" who forgets she is not in charge of the soldiers she works with:

"Berryl Jackson is one of the three females we have here. She is a retired Chief Warrant Officer 3. To show you what a small world it is, she was my interrogation instructor when I went through the school 13 years ago. BJ is from Costa Rica originally and is a real character. She sometimes forgets that she is no longer in the military and is not in charge of the soldiers that she works with, but she is a wealth of knowledge and one heck of an interrogator."

Here he is, keeping the Iraqi Governing Council in the dark:

Today was a short day. There were six of us that had to come in early and conduct long interrogations to ensure that certain detainees were only able to be seen, but not talked to. The Iraqi Governing Council came and looked through our mirrors into the booths to see some of the foreign fighters we have detained. They wanted to talk to them and film to show the international media, but we refused, due to not being able to interrupt interrogations. They were much more patient than we thought they would be so they tried to wait us out. Five and a half hours in the booth was a long time, but we finally outlasted them. The IGC left with only the satisfaction that we have foreign fighters from Morocco, Syria, Jordan, and other countries detained here.

Here is a pretty chilling comment given what we now know:

"Christine Chaney is another of our three CACI females here. She left the army last fall and was actually in the 202nd MI BN that we are working with here. Christine is tall like my sister-in-law, so my posture always improves like when I am around my sister-in-law. She also was in Afghanistan last year with the 202nd and is a fluent Farsi and Pashto linguist in addition to being an experienced interrogator. It is impressive because the three women we have here are all former army and hard chargers. They are more professional and tougher than most of the female soldiers here."

http://www.thesyndrome.com/archives/00000856.htm

[fishnfla]

10. This stuff was being published? He seems to be giving out intell.

I haven't read the whole thing, but if a newspaper, or another media source, put some of this info out, they'd be censored.

[seemslikeadream]

11. I think that's why the diary was pulled

n/t

[saigon68]

15. What was the purpose of letting us know?

Why was this let out?

[seemslikeadream]

16. More on Steven Stefanowicz

starroute (1000+ posts) Sun May-09-04 09:36 AM
Response to Reply #39

42. More on Steven Stefanowicz


He comes from the next town down the road from me, and the local papers have been full of the story. Here are a couple of links:

http://www.pottstownmercury.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=11614603&BRD=1674...

http://www.mcall.com/news/local/all-a1_2abusemay08,0,2804243.story?col...

[seemslikeadream]

17. Telford abuzz about man ID'd in abuse report

Telford abuzz about man ID'd in abuse report

By Pervaiz Shallwani
Of The Morning Call
May 9, 2004


Steven Stefanowicz played volleyball and basketball and belonged to student government groups at Souderton Area High School in the late 1980s. Four years ago he joined the Naval Reserve, and after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, he volunteered for active duty and served in the Middle East.

Now, the 34-year-old from Franconia Township, near Telford, has been named as one of four men who might be responsible for the humiliation and attempted murder of Iraqi prisoners inside the


Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad.

The allegations are outlined in an Army report that details soldier abuse at the prison between October and December. It lists near-death beatings, electric torture and threats to rape male Iraqi detainees, and mentions a photo of a woman soldier holding a dog chain or strap that's tied around a naked detainee's neck.
http://www.mcall.com/news/local/all-a1_2abusemay08,0,2804243.story?col

[seemslikeadream]

28. Lt. Col. Jerry Phillabaum Steven Stephanowicz

Under suspicion

BETH COHEN , Staff Writer 05/08/2004

Lt. Col. Jerry Phillabaum of Snyder Road in Towamencin was suspended from his duties as commander of the 320th Military Battalion on Jan. 17‚ 2004‚ according to a U.S. Army report on the investigation of the 800th Military Police Brigade by Maj. Gen. Antonio M. Taguba.
Also named is civilian intelligence contractor Steven Stefanowicz‚ who has been cited in various published reports although there is a discrepancy in the spelling of his last name‚ with it also listed as Stephanowicz.


The U.S. Navy’s Chief of Naval Information Office at the Pentagon in Arlington‚ Va.‚ on Thursday said they had no record of a Steven Stephanowicz‚ but did have records showing that a Steven Anthony Stefanowicz enlisted in the U.S. Navy on Feb. 20‚ 1998.

He became an Intelligence Specialist 3rd Class‚ U.S. Naval Reserve‚ on Feb. 8‚ 2002‚ according to information supplied by Lt. Mike Kafka‚ Navy spokesman. Stefanowicz also received numerous awards‚ ribbons and medals during his service.


Page 29 of Taguba’s 34-page report‚ available at on the Internet at www.politrix.org/foia/iraq/taguba/html‚ states that Steven Stephanowicz‚ contract U.S. civilian interrogator‚ CACI‚ 205th Military Intelligence Brigade‚ should be officially reprimanded‚ terminated from his Army job‚ and that his his security clearance be revoked based on the following allegations:

“Made a false statement to the investigating team regarding the locations of his interrogations‚ the activities during his interrogations‚ and his knowledge of abuses.”

“Allowed/and or instructed MPs‚ who were not trained in interrogation techniques‚ to facilitate interrogations by ‘setting conditions’ which were neither authorized and in accordance with applicable regulations/policy. He clearly knew his instructions equated to physical abuse.”

http://www.thereporteronline.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=11615058&BRD=2275&PAG=461&dept_id=466404&rfi=6

[saltara]

23. propaganda and/or...

PR literature touting the money to be made "playing golf" and working as an interrogator for the likes of CACI?

"I got to take the rest of the day off after our long booth time. This gave us a nice evening after dinner to head to the roof and play golf." (quote from Whiskey Bar blog - link below)

"Like his military masters, Ryan is also obsessed with the idea that 'foreign fighters' are responsible for the insurgency in Iraq.... In Joe's world, Fallujah is a city held hostage by foreign terrorists - even though the aftermath of the Marines' withdrawal brought jubilant victory celebrations in the streets.... All this raises the unsettling idea that the prisoners at Abu Ghraib were abused and tortured simply so the idiots at the top of this lunatic enterprise could have their own pet theories falsely confirmed."

http://billmon.org/archives/001457.html

Also, here's an interesting quote to ponder from a right-wing source whose name came up in an article written by Justin Raimondo ("The S&M War" on his site antiwar.com). In an article from October 24, 2003, David Leo Gutmann, a professor of Psychology and Behavioral Sciences at "North-Western university Medical School, in Chicago" writes:

"If we are to defeat terror, a kind of regime change is required: on our campuses, in our press, and in Hollywood. And responses to that need, previously silenced voices are being heard. Organizations like Students for Academic Freedom, FIRE, Campus Watch, ACTA and the National Association of Scholars are fighting the good fight for free speech on our thought-policed campuses; and networks like Fox News are providing pulpits for informed conservative opinion on TV. Perhaps most hopeful of all, a lively and uninhibited blogger's Samizdat offers new internet outlets, unmonitored by the Thought Police, for a new generation of gifted commentators who gleefully and intelligently refute the pious orthodoxies of the pro-jihad Left."

"Shame, Honor and Terror in the Middle East"
by David Leo Gutmann
http://frontpagemag.com/articles/Printable.asp?ID=10489

Would Joe's blog do the trick? When did Joe's blog first appear and how widely was it read, quoted, anyone know?

(For more on Gutmann's pet theories and their appearance in a study published by the military, see "The S&M War" on antiwar.com)

[daleo]

26. Thanks for keeping that one alive

n/t

[DulceDecorum]

13. When A Felon's Not Engaged In His Employment

When the enterprising burglar's not a-burgling
When the cutthroat isn't occupied in crime
He loves to hear the little brook a-gurgling
And listen to the merry village chime
-- The Pirates of Penzance
-- Song No. 24 -- Act II

[seemslikeadream]

14. Steve Stefanowicz

25 April 2004

I got to take the rest of the day off after our long booth time. This gave us a nice evening after dinner to head to the roof and play a round of golf. Scott Norman, Jeff Mouton, Steve Hattabaugh, Steve Stefanowicz, and I all took turns trying to hit balls over the back wall and onto the highway. Since the club is a left handed 3 iron, I had an unfair advantage and missed a dump truck by only about ten feet. Not bad since the highway is about 220 yards. We do what we can to make it fun here.

http://www.thesyndrome.com/archives/00000856.htm

This guy should have been gone by 25, supposed to be fired

[seemslikeadream]

19. Telltale Signs of Torture Lead Family to Demand Answers

Telltale Signs of Torture Lead Family to Demand Answers


Wife, Daughters Tell of Iraqi Man Discharged from U.S. Custody in Coma
by Dahr Jamail (bio)
Brian Dominick (bio) contributed to this item.

Editor's Note: Part of the following feature story was first reported by Baghdad correspondent Dahr Jamail back in January, when almost no one was paying attention to stories of the horrifying treatment dealt to Iraqi prisoners by their Western captors. Now that the world has deemed the topic newsworthy, Jamail has returned to the story for more thorough coverage. As part of our mission to The NewStandard will continue to pursue this and other stories like it in the near future. As any Iraq correspondent who speaks with Iraqis can attest, there is no shortage of them.


Baghdad , May 4 - Not all evidence of military personnel mistreating Iraqis held in US custody come from leaks within the American- and British-run detention facilities. In many cases, such as that of Sadiq Zoman, 57, who last year entered US custody healthy but left in a vegetative state, the story originates with family members desperate to share their loved one’s story with anyone willing to listen.

American soldiers detained Zoman at his residence in Kirkuk on July 21, 2003 when they raided the Zoman family home in search of weapons and, apparently, to arrest Zoman himself.

More than a month later, on August 23, US soldiers dropped Zoman off, already comatose, at a hospital in Tikrit. Although he was unable to recount his story, his body bore telltale signs of torture: what appear to be point burns on his skin, bludgeon marks on the back of his head, a badly broken thumb, electrical burns on the soles of his feet. Additionally, family members say they found whip marks across his back and more electrical burns on his genitalia.









Daughter Rheem stated, "My father is a good man who helped so many people in our community. Why have they done this to him? Can you tell me? Everyone who knows him can say that he did so many good things to help people."

With tears in her eyes, Hashima Zoman added, "Is it fair for any man's family to be made to suffer like this? Is it right that his daughters must see him like this? Our lives will never be the same again, no matter what happens."


http://newstandardnews.net/content/?action=show_item&itemid=275.

[seemslikeadream]

20. CHAIN OF COMMAND (Sy Hersh New Yorker 5/17)

CHAIN OF COMMAND (Sy Hersh New Yorker 5/17)


by SEYMOUR M. HERSH
How the Department of Defense mishandled the disaster at Abu Ghraib.
Issue of 2004-05-17
Posted 2004-05-09
In his devastating report on conditions at Abu Ghraib prison, in Iraq, Major General Antonio M. Taguba singled out only three military men for praise. One of them, Master-at-Arms William J. Kimbro, a Navy dog handler, should be commended, Taguba wrote, because he “knew his duties and refused to participate in improper interrogations despite significant pressure from the MI”—military intelligence—“personnel at Abu Ghraib.” Elsewhere in the report it became clear what Kimbro would not do: American soldiers, Taguba said, used “military working dogs to frighten and intimidate detainees with threats of attack, and in one instance actually biting a detainee.”

Taguba’s report was triggered by a soldier’s decision to give Army investigators photographs of the sexual humiliation and abuse of prisoners. These images were first broadcast on “60 Minutes II” on April 28th. Seven enlisted members of the 372nd Military Police Company of the 320th Military Police Battalion, an Army reserve unit, are now facing prosecution, and six officers have been reprimanded. Last week, I was given another set of digital photographs, which had been in the possession of a member of the 320th. According to a time sequence embedded in the digital files, the photographs were taken by two different cameras over a twelve-minute period on the evening of December 12, 2003, two months after the military-police unit was assigned to Abu Ghraib.

more at
http://newyorker.com/fact/content/?040517fa_fact2

[seemslikeadream]

30. Photos from the NewYorker

An American soldier surveys a group of bound Iraqi prisoners.


The body of an Iraqi prisoner, wrapped in cellophane and packed in ice.



Hooded and naked Iraqi prisoners photographed by an American soldier.



Two hooded and naked Iraqi prisoners made to simulate oral sex.

http://newyorker.com/online/slideshows/pop/?040510onslpo_prison_02?false

[donsu]

21. racism

alive and well in america

[seemslikeadream]

22. Joe Ryan is likely a witness to

maybe an accomplice to multiple felonies. He should be arrested and taken into custody as soon as he enters the U.S

[JCMach1]

25. Link to the almost complete WEBLOG

http://www.thesyndrome.com/archives/00000856.htm

[seemslikeadream]

33. kick