Ashcroft handpicked prison warden in DOJ probe to remake Abu Ghraib

[BurtWorm]

From the NY Times

PRISONERS
Mistreatment of Prisoners Is Called Routine in U.S.
By FOX BUTTERFIELD

Published: May 8, 2004

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/08/national/08PRIS.html?ex=1085803200&en=d77b5f025adda5fb&ei=5070

The experts also point out that the man who directed the reopening of the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq last year and trained the guards there resigned under pressure as director of the Utah Department of Corrections in 1997 after an inmate died while shackled to a restraining chair for 16 hours. The inmate, who suffered from schizophrenia, was kept naked the whole time.

The Utah official, Lane McCotter, later became an executive of a private prison company, one of whose jails was under investigation by the Justice Department when he was sent to Iraq as part of a team of prison officials, judges, prosecutors and police chiefs picked by Attorney General John Ashcroft to rebuild the country's criminal justice system.

[BurtWorm]

1. Wolfowitz toured Abu Ghraib last June with Karpinski, McCotter

From Phillip Carter's Intel Dump




http://www.intel-dump.com/


A picture that's worth a thousand words

One of my readers forwarded me a link to the March edition of The Utah Sheriff, a quarterly newsletter for the Utah Sheriffs' Association. On page 6 of the newsletter, this photograph appears depicting Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz touring the Abu Ghraib prison with Lane McCotter, Gary DeLand and BG Janis Karpinski. (The fifth guy in the back looks to me like NYT reporter Eric Schmitt, but it could also be a security guy; I've only met Mr. Schmitt once at a Toyota dealership in Alexandria two years ago.) The caption from the photo reads ""Lane McCotter briefing Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, on a tour of the death house at Abu Ghraib Prison, south of Baghdad."
<>

The exact date on the picture is unknown, however the New York Times
reports that Mr. McCotter left Iraq on October 1, 2003, to return to the states. The newsletter implies that it was taken during the summer of 2003.

I'm not sure what to make of this photo, or what it says about the Deputy Defense Secretary's involvement at Abu Ghraib. It's certainly possible this is simply what it shows -- a senior Pentagon official touring a detention facility. Additionally, Abu Ghraib was where the Hussein regime committed many of its worst human rights abuses, so it does make sense as a stop for the DepSecDef. But it sure raises some questions, doesn't it? Here are a few I'd like to see answered:

- What exactly was Deputy Defense Secretary Wolfowitz doing at Abu Ghraib in summer 2003? Was he involved with the prison at all, or was this just tourism like the photo caption says?

- Does this picture help corroborate the latest Sy Hersh story, namely, that the chain of command for the special-access program "Copper Green" ran straight from Abu Ghraib's personnel to the Pentagon?

- What was BG Karpinski's role in all of this, and why hasn't she been prosecuted yet? This photo may undercut her assertion that she was cut out of the loop.

More to follow.

[BurtWorm]

2. Am I the only person who finds this interesting?

:shrug:

[BurtWorm]

3. kick: ASHCROFT tied to Abu Ghraib!

[bobthedrummer]

4. Utah, LDS, J. Edgar Hoover had his "Mormon Mafia" in key FBI positions

Ashcroft has his Baptist witchburners allied with LDS???
Extremists of all types uniting in evil, failed PNAC imho