NYT:TestimonyTies Key Officer to Coverup of Iraqi Death(AbuG)

[DeepModem Mom]

ABUSE
Testimony Ties Key Officer to Cover-Up of Iraqi Death
By DEXTER FILKINS

Published: June 25, 2004


BAGHDAD, Iraq, June 24 — The company commander of the unit charged with abusing prisoners at Abu Ghraib testified Thursday that the top military intelligence officer at the prison was in the cellblock the night a prisoner died during interrogation.

His testimony suggested the officer, Col. Thomas M. Pappas, was aware of efforts to conceal the death.

Testifying at a hearing for one of the seven accused members of his unit, the 372nd Military Police Company, Capt. Donald Reese said that one night in November 2003, he saw the bloodied body of an Iraqi prisoner who had died during interrogation inside a shower stall in a prison cellblock. He said a number of officers were standing around it, discussing what to do.

One of them, he said, was Colonel Pappas, the head of the military intelligence at the prison. "I heard Colonel Pappas say, `I'm not going to go down alone for this,' " Captain Reese testified....

***

The testimony appears to be the first to suggest that a senior officer was aware of a suspicious death immediately after it happened, and that he was involved in or knew of attempts to hide it. The testimony also offered a wealth of details on the case, from a request for ice to preserve the detainee's body to an attempt to spirit it out of the prison, connected to an intravenous drip to make it appear the dead man was simply ill....

(More revealing testimony is included in the article.)


http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/25/international/middleeast/25ABUS.html

[bobthedrummer]

1. You were right, Col. Pappas. You won't be "going down alone for this"

NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW.

[jeff5]

4. But They Were Only Blowing Off Steam

Having a little fun. Nothing more than a fraternity initiation.

[Barrett808]

5. Yes, and Rumsfeld stands for 8 hours a day

Not at gunpoint, of course.

[jeff5]

7. Wearing Nothing but a Sandbag n/t

.

[AndyTiedye]

2. I Hope They Have Enough Room For Them All In the Hague

[Disturbed]

3. MIlitary investigates itself!

That a great idea,isn't it?

[DeepModem Mom]

6. posted early; interesting report

[Miss Authoritiva]

8. This does not ring true.

"The next day an intravenous drip was fitted to it and it was taken away. 'I was told the reason they did that was they didn't want the other inmates to get upset he had passed during the interrogation,' he said. He said he was told the body 'was taken to Baghdad somewhere.'"

Oh, yeah, I'm sure they didn't want to upset the inmates. Right. It seems to me that seeing detainees who died during interrogation being carted out would be a very effective technique for softening up other detainees.

How stupid do they think we are: The intravenous drip was a ruse to keep the death a secret from other US officials.