Justice Delayed, Denied?

While the most infamous acts of murder and torture at Abu Ghraib and Afghanistan's Bagram Air Base occured over four years ago-- a time when torture was officially sanctioned by top Department of Justice, White House and Pentagon officials-- investigations are still ongoing. This week the Washington Post reported that Lt. Col. Steven L. Jordan, the second highest ranking MI officer at Abu Ghraib at the time of the abuses, will soon stand trial for failing to supervise soldiers, misleading investigators, and for mistreating detainees. The last charge stems from events from 24 November 2003, when Iraqi Police were rounded up in search of contraband.

According to the Pentagon's Fay-Jones report:

The IP Roundup was, by all accounts chaotic. The Iraqi Police, hence the name “IP,” became detainees and were subjected to strip searching by the MPs in the hallway, with female Soldiers and at least one female interpreter present. The IP were kept in various stages of dress, including nakedness, for prolonged periods as they were interrogated. This constitutes humiliation, which is detainee abuse. Military working dogs were being used not only to search the cells, but also to intimidate the IPs during interrogation without authorization.

[...]

LTC Jordan is responsible for allowing the chaotic situation, the unauthorized nakedness and resultant humiliation, and the military working dog abuses that occurred that night.

Jordan is the first and only Army officer to face a court-martial for involvement in torture at Abu Ghraib. He remains defiant:

"I'm not guilty of anything to do with Abu Ghraib, and I'm tired of it," Jordan said in a lengthy interview last week. The interview was his first public comment since the abuse investigations began in early 2004. He said he is being scapegoated because, as a reservist, officials view him as expendable. "I'm saddened by the whole event, and I feel like I've been singled out for it."

Meanwhile, another abuse case is building steam. According to the Associated Press, "a civilian grand jury is investigating the deaths of two detainees at a U.S. jail in Afghanistan nearly 5 years ago, according to current and former service members who said they've testified."

The detainees in question are Habibullah and Dilawar-- two Afghans that were murdered at Bagram in 2002. Dilawar was the subject of the gripping Taxi To the Darkside, which I was lucky enough to see at this years Tribeca Film Fest. A 2005 NYT story by Tim Golden outlines the circumstances of the two deaths:

Habibullah

When Sgt. James P. Boland saw Mr. Habibullah on Dec. 3, he was in one of the isolation cells, tethered to the ceiling by two sets of handcuffs and a chain around his waist. His body was slumped forward, held up by the chains.

Sergeant Boland told the investigators he had entered the cell with two other guards, Specialists Anthony M. Morden and Brian E. Cammack. (All three have been charged with assault and other crimes.) One of them pulled off the prisoner's black hood. His head was slumped to one side, his tongue sticking out. Specialist Cammack said he had put some bread on Mr. Habibullah's tongue. Another soldier put an apple in the prisoner's hand; it fell to the floor.

When Specialist Cammack turned back toward the prisoner, he said in one statement, Mr. Habibullah's spit hit his chest. Later, Specialist Cammack acknowledged, "I'm not sure if he spit at me." But at the time, he exploded, yelling, "Don't ever spit on me again!" and kneeing the prisoner sharply in the thigh, "maybe a couple" of times. Mr. Habibullah's limp body swayed back and forth in the chains.

When Sergeant Boland returned to the cell some 20 minutes later, he said, Mr. Habibullah was not moving and had no pulse. Finally, the prisoner was unchained and laid out on the floor of his cell.

Dilawar

Mr. Dilawar was a frail man, standing only 5 feet 9 inches and weighing 122 pounds. But at Bagram, he was quickly labeled one of the "noncompliant" ones.

When one of the First Platoon M.P.'s, Specialist Corey E. Jones, was sent to Mr. Dilawar's cell to give him some water, he said the prisoner spit in his face and started kicking him. Specialist Jones responded, he said, with a couple of knee strikes to the leg of the shackled man.

"He screamed out, 'Allah! Allah! Allah!' and my first reaction was that he was crying out to his god," Specialist Jones said to investigators. "Everybody heard him cry out and thought it was funny."

Other Third Platoon M.P.'s later came by the detention center and stopped at the isolation cells to see for themselves, Specialist Jones said.

It became a kind of running joke, and people kept showing up to give this detainee a common peroneal strike just to hear him scream out 'Allah,' " he said. "It went on over a 24-hour period, and I would think that it was over 100 strikes."

[...]

One of the coroners later translated the assessment at a pre-trial hearing for Specialist Brand, saying the tissue in the young man's legs "had basically been pulpified."

"I've seen similar injuries in an individual run over by a bus," added Lt. Col. Elizabeth Rouse, the coroner, and a major at that time.

The military had already investigated these two deaths. While 15 soldiers were court martialed-- all avoided jail. Now civilian courts are looking into the murders. Perhaps they could deliver much delayed justice.