country music monday
Why is the USA military making mistakes like this?
Navy veteran accuses U.S. military of holding him prisoner
By Matt O’Connor
CHICAGO – A Chicago man who worked for an Iraqi contractor alleged Monday he was imprisoned in a U.S. military compound in Baghdad, held incommunicado for more than three months and subjected to interrogation techniques “tantamount to torture.”
In a federal lawsuit filed in Chicago, Donald Vance, 29, a Navy veteran, charged that his constitutional rights were trampled by American military interrogators even though they knew he was a U.S. citizen.
“I couldn’t believe they did this to any human being,” said Vance in a telephone interview.
Vance was taken into custody without charges in April. While imprisoned at Camp Cropper near Baghdad International Airport, Vance said, he was held in solitary confinement in a continuously lit, windowless and extremely cold cell as loud heavy metal and country music blared nonstop. Vance said the military men loved to torture and said “this is for America”.
This story just broke yesterday. The New York Times, CBS and several other major news outlets are starting to pick it up. (I have linked the NYT and CBS stories below). While all the details are not yet out, it appears to be a genuine mix-up. Mr. Vance was an employee of a security contractor in Iraq. He began to notice serious irregularities, including his employer stock piling weapons and conducting business with shady characters. He reported it and became an informer for the FBI. The military conducted a raid against the company and he got caught up in the sweep. It took them a fairly long time (3 weeks) to confirm his story with his FBI contact. I am copying and pasting the military’s current response:
“A spokeswoman for the Pentagon’s detention operations in Iraq, First Lt. Lea Ann Fracasso, said in written answers to questions that the men had been “treated fair and humanely,” and that there was no record of either man complaining about their treatment. She said officials did not reach Mr. Vance’s contact at the F.B.I. 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 was released two months later, Lieutenant Fracasso said, based on a “subsequent re-examination of his case,” and his stated plans to leave Iraq.Only days later did they receive an explanation: They had become suspects for having associated with the people Mr. Vance tried to expose. “You have been detained for the following reasons: You work for a business entity that possessed one or more large weapons caches on its premises and may be involved in the possible distribution of these weapons to insurgent/terrorist groups,” Mr. Ertel’s (another employee detained with Mr. Vance) detention notice said.”
I am not going to jump to any hasty conclusions – this sounds like one of those undercover stings gone bad where the FBI Agent in charge failed to cover for his informant when the bust went down.
“The Anti-Americans” — Polish Country Music Festival
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