Navy vet held by U.S. in Iraq for months for passing information to the FBI

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/world/4409150.html

One night in mid-April, the steel door clanked shut on detainee No.200343 at Camp Cropper, the U.S. military's maximum-security detention site in Baghdad, Iraq.

American guards arrived at the man's cell periodically over the next several days, shackled his hands and feet, blindfolded him and took him to a padded room for interrogation, the detainee said. After an hour or two, he was returned to his cell, fatigued but unable to sleep.

When he was released after 97 days he was exhausted, depressed and scared.

Detainee 200343 was among thousands of people who have been held and released by the American military in Iraq, and his account has provided one of the first detailed views of the Pentagon's detention operations since Abu Ghraib.

Passed information to FBI

The detainee was Donald Vance, a 29-year-old Navy veteran from Chicago who went to Iraq as a security contractor. He wound up as a whistle-blower, passing information to the FBI about suspicious activities at the Iraqi security firm where he worked, including possible illegal weapons trading.

[babylonsister]

1. So this is how the US treats it's citizens; it obviously doesn't pay to

be a whistleblower. The organization he passed info to locked him up?

[TechBear_Seattle]

5. I think he was locked up by the military, not the FBI n/t

[babylonsister]

6. I stand corrected but it seems he was locked up on advice from the FBI. nt

[NNN0LHI]

7. But how did the military know he was talking to the FBI?

The only logical thing is the FBI told the military so the two were working in tandem.

Don

[originalpckelly]

2. Shades of Iran-Contra?

"The detainee was Donald Vance, a 29-year-old Navy veteran from Chicago who went to Iraq as a security contractor. He wound up as a whistle-blower, passing information to the FBI about suspicious activities at the Iraqi security firm where he worked, including possible illegal weapons trading."

That's pretty fucked up.

[HuffleClaw]

3. officials did not reach Vance's contact at the FBI until...

...he had been in custody for three weeks. Even so, she said, officials determined that he "posed a threat" and decided to continue holding him."

he DID 'pose a threat', a POLITICAL threat. what a disgrace.

[annabanana]

4. Corpomedia will not cover this unless FORCED.

So no one will know, except "Times Person of the Year" the omniscient.

[Broadslidin]

8. Does The U.S. Imperial Empire Deserve The Hatred It Receives......?

Could Be.

[Oilwellian]

9. He should have known about Sibel Edmonds case

The FBI's not too fond of whistleblowers.

When U.S. troops raided the company at his urging, Vance and another American who worked there were detained as suspects by the military, which was unaware that Vance was an informer, according to officials and military documents.

Nathan Ertel, the American held with Vance, carried away military records that shed further light on the detention camp and its secretive tribunals. Those records include a legal memorandum explicitly denying detainees the right to a lawyer at detention hearings.

If troops raided the company at Vance's urging, how could they not know he was the informer? Something doesn't smell right. And I'd love to know who signed the legal memorandum denying Americans a right to a lawyer.

[The Backlash Cometh]

10. We need to commemorate these heros that stepped up during the

dark time we've had in this country these last six years. Someone needs to write a book to document these profiles in courage.

[YankeyMCC]

11. A chilling end to his ordeal

I read this story today in the NYT and this paragraph near the end really chilled me:

"On his way out, Mr. Vance said: “They asked me if I was intending to write a book, would I talk to the press, would I be thinking of getting an attorney. I took it as, ‘Shut up, don’t talk about this place,’ and I kept saying, ‘No sir, I want to go home.’ ”"

on edit: link to the NYT piece: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/18/world/middleeast/18justice.html?pagewanted=3&ei=5094&en=75f8d6f0ce303868&hp&ex=1166504400&partner=homepage

[peacetalksforall]

12. When I hear trading I think nuclear and Cheney. Guess I've read

too much. Weapons could be anything.

Welcome to the land of justice and freedom for the wealthy and those who do their bidding.