| Iraq |
| Abu Ghraib officer cleared |
| 2008-01-11 |
| The Army has thrown out the conviction of the only officer court-martialed in the Abu Ghraib scandal, bringing an end to the four-year investigation and drawing complaints from human rights activists of a Pentagon whitewash. Lt. Col. Steven L. Jordan was cleared this week of any criminal wrongdoing by Maj. Gen. Richard J. Rowe, commander of the Military District of Washington. Jordan was instead given an administrative reprimand, a blot on his record. Barring any startling new information, the decision means no officers or civilian leaders will be held criminally responsible for the prisoner abuse that embarrassed the U.S. military and inflamed the Muslim world. Jordan, 51, of Fredericksburg, Va., was acquitted at his court-martial in August of charges he failed to supervise the 11 lower-ranking soldiers convicted for their roles in the abuse, which included the photographing of Iraqi prisoners in painful and sexually humiliating positions. But he was found guilty of disobeying an order not to talk about the investigation, and the jury recommended a criminal reprimand, the lightest possible punishment. Maj. Kris Poppe, Jordan's attorney, said he argued that Jordan "faced these very serious charges for a long period of time, that he had been found not guilty of any offense related to the abuse of detainees, and that he had a stellar record." Rowe agreed. "In light of the nature of the offense that Jordan had been found guilty of committing and the substantial evidence in mitigation at trial and in post-trial matters submitted by defense counsel, Rowe determined that an administrative reprimand was a fair and appropriate disposition of the matter," Joanna P. Hawkins, a military spokeswoman, said in a statement. Eugene R. Fidell, a Washington lawyer who specializes in military law, said the decision was not at all surprising. If disobeying an order had been the only charge against Jordan, the matter almost certainly would not have gone to a court-martial, Fidell said. |
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| Home Front: WoT |
| 2 Charges Against Army Officer Dropped |
| 2007-08-21 |
| A military judge on Monday dismissed two of the most serious charges against the only officer charged with abusing detainees at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison after an investigator acknowledged he failed to read the defendant his rights. Army Lt. Col. Steven L. Jordan is the last of 12 Abu Ghraib defendants to be court-martialed. He still faces four counts, including cruelty and maltreatment of detainees. |
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| Iraq |
| Trial of officer charged at Abu Ghraib to begin |
| 2007-08-20 |
| The US military is nearing the end of its investigation of Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse with the court-martial of Army Lt. Col. Steven L. Jordan, who is accused of approving some mistreatment, allowing it to continue and lying about it afterward. A trial for Jordan, 51, will begin Monday at Fort Meade, Maryland. He has pleaded innocent to the six charges, which could bring a 16 1/2-year prison sentence. He is the last of 12 defendants - and the only officer - charged in a probe triggered by photographs showing low-ranking US soldiers assaulting and humiliating naked detainees at the prison in Iraq in late 2003 and early 2004. Jordan, the former director of the prison's interrogation center, is not in any of the pictures but is charged with illegally approving the use of dogs and nudity during interrogations. |
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| Iraq | |
| General Says Abu Ghraib Officer Lied | |
| 2006-10-17 | |
FORT MEADE, Md. (AP) - The highest-ranking officer charged with crimes at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq allowed detainee abuses and then lied about it, a general who investigated the scandal testified Monday. Maj. Gen. George Fay, who wrote a report on mistreatment of detainees at the prison, testified at a hearing to determine whether the director of the prison's interrogation center should be court-martialed.
Jordan, 50, of Fredericksburg, Va., is charged with 12 offenses, including one count of cruelty and maltreatment for allegedly subjecting detainees to forced nudity and intimidation by dogs. He faces a maximum of 42 years in prison if convicted of all counts. Fay said that when he asked Jordan if he had seen prisoners stripped naked, Jordan told him he had, but that the nudity had nothing to do with interrogations. Under cross-examination, Fay acknowledged that Jordan had reported some abusive episodes. He also testified that the Pentagon's rules regarding harsh interrogation techniques, such as the use of dogs, had gone through several rapid changes in late 2003, confounding workers at Abu Ghraib. ``It was a confusing situation,'' Fay said. Defense attorney Maj. Kris Poppe said in opening statements that Jordan was thrust into an unfamiliar, ill-defined role in an ad hoc command structure. Poppe said most of the abuses at Abu Ghraib were committed by rogue military police soldiers who were not under Jordan's command. ``In the end, we believe the story will show to you that Col. Jordan did not commit criminal misconduct,'' Poppe told hearing officer Col. Daniel Cummings. Prosecutor Lt. Col. John P. Tracy said Jordan had embarrassed the Army by ignoring the abuse. He said Jordan had not personally committed egregious acts but that his negligence created an atmosphere conducive to mistreatment. Jordan, a military intelligence reservist, was director of the interrogation center from mid-September through late November 2003, when detainees were physically abused, threatened with dogs and sexually humiliated. He is now assigned to the Intelligence and Security Command at Fort Belvoir, Va. Jordan's supervisor at Abu Ghraib, Col. Thomas Pappas, was reprimanded and fined $8,000 for once approving the use of dogs during an interrogation without higher approval. Several other officers have been reprimanded for their roles in the abuse. Eleven lower-ranking soldiers have also been convicted in the scandal. | |
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| Home Front: WoT |
| Army Charges Former Abu Ghraib Officer |
| 2006-04-28 |
| The Army on Friday charged the former head of the interrogation center at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq with cruelty and maltreatment, dereliction of duty and other criminal offenses for his alleged involvement in the abuse of detainees at the notorious prison in 2003. Lt. Col. Steven L. Jordan, was charged with seven offenses. He is the highest-ranking officer at Abu Ghraib to face criminal charges. A preliminary hearing will be held when Jordan's defense counsel is ready but no date has been set, according to an announcement of the charges by the Military District of Washington. |
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| Home Front: WoT |
| US officer to be charged over Abu Ghraib abuse |
| 2006-04-27 |
| WASHINGTON - The US Army plans to charge a high ranking officer in connection with the abuse of prisoners at Baghdads Abu Ghraib prison, The Washington Post and The New York Times reported on Wednesday, quoting his lawyer. The papers said in their online editions that Lt. Col. Steven L. Jordan, the former head of the interrogation unit at the jail, was expected to be charged on Friday with dereliction of duty, lying to investigators and conduct unbecoming an officer. He would be the highest-ranking officer at Abu Ghraib to face criminal charges in connection with the abuse of inmates at the prison. So far 10 low-ranking officers have been convicted and Jordan was the last major figure whose status remained unresolved after other more senior officers have been reprimanded, fined and relived of command, The New York Times said. Were thankful that decision has finally been made, and we look forward to finally reviewing the evidence and making some decisions, Samuel Spitzberg, Jordans lawyer, was quoted as telling the Post. The Times quoted Spitzberg as saying Jordan, a reservist who has remained on active duty for three years, was currently stationed in the Washington area. The paper added that if Jordan was charged, the next step would be the military equivalent of a grand-jury investigation to determine whether he would face court-martial, administrative punishment or no penalty. |
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| Iraq-Jordan |
| LtCol in Charge of Interrogators Blamed for Loss of Control |
| 2004-08-27 |
| From The Los Angeles Times Lt. Col. Steven L. Jordan .... was placed in charge of the interrogation task force at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison .... By some accounts, he worked to exhaustion to keep up with the demands of the job. Inexperienced, untrained and overwhelmed, he eventually became part of the compound's problems, failing to read notices — posted on prison walls — on the legal rights of detainees, allegedly witnessing but not reporting abuses, and giving false statements to superiors. Now facing disciplinary action or possible criminal charges, Jordan has come to exemplify the situation at the prison where he worked — a place that investigative panels have since described as poorly run, understaffed and neglected, giving rise to conditions in which grotesque abuses of detainees took place. Much like Abu Ghraib, Jordan was not prepared for the job U.S. commanders in Iraq gave him, and would later come under fire for doing the wrong thing under difficult conditions. .... He arrived at the overcrowded and understaffed prison outside Baghdad in September with what he later acknowledged was only a "passing familiarity" with his assigned tasks. .... Jordan turned to CIA agents working in the prison and became "fascinated" with them and their activities .... His direct supervisor acknowledged that it was a mistake that Jordan was ever placed in such a demanding position, according to a classified transcript. Army generals who have interviewed Jordan several times have recommended that he be reprimanded for poorly training his soldiers, failing to take full responsibility for his actions and not always telling the truth about what happened at Abu Ghraib. Jordan has never spoken publicly about his work at Abu Ghraib. He has pleaded the 5th Amendment right against self-incrimination when called to testify against other soldiers in pretrial hearings. He has not appeared in any of the prison abuse photographs made public. But he was there on the tiers where much of the abuse took place, records state. .... Many times, Jordan allegedly "lost his composure" and had guards strip the inmates, frighten them with dogs and, in the words of one of the investigative reports issued this week, created a more "chaotic situation." .... Jordan's direct boss at Abu Ghraib, Col. Thomas M. Pappas, who also is recommended for administrative discipline, told investigators that Jordan was foisted upon him, at a time when the prison was growing crowded and pressure for more information was intense. "Lt. Col. Jordan was a loner who freelances between MP and MI, and I must admit that I failed in not reining him in," Pappas said in one of the sworn statements, suggesting that Jordan never understood the delineation of duties between military police and military intelligence soldiers. Sometimes, Pappas said, Jordan failed to report back to him when there were major disturbances in the prison. Jordan, in his sworn comments to investigators, countered that Pappas gave him too much authority and let him operate on his own without teaching him intelligence gathering. .... Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, who ran the military police side of the detention operations, said she was surprised that Jordan was spending so much time in the lockup and not enough in the task force office making sure reports were processed, according to documents. .... [Capt. Donald J.] Reese [who ran the military police company] and others said Jordan's constant presence on the prison tiers signaled to them that their treatment of detainees was all right. Once, Reese said, he pointed out to Jordan that some of the detainees were being held naked for long periods. "That's an interrogation method that we use," Reese quoted Jordan as saying. It was not, officials have since declared, except in the most severe circumstances when it was approved by Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, then the commander of ground forces in Iraq. And yet, Reese said, guards had the understanding that "everything was approved by Lt. Col. Jordan." When questioned by investigators, Jordan insisted that he never saw any abuse at Abu Ghraib and would never have condoned it. He made those assertions in a number of interviews, sometimes after being told that others recalled things differently and being reminded that he was under oath. .... |
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| Iraq-Jordan |
| MP Captain Describes Circumstances of Prisonerâs Death |
| 2004-06-25 |
| From The Washington Post The company commander of the U.S. soldiers charged with abusing detainees at Abu Ghraib prison testified Thursday that the top military intelligence commander at the prison was present the night a detainee died during an interrogation and that efforts were made to conceal the details of the detaineeâs death. Capt. Donald J. Reese, commander of the 372nd Military Police Company, said he was summoned one night in November to a shower room in a cellblock at the prison, where he discovered the body of a bloodied detainee on the floor. A group of intelligence personnel was standing around the body, discussing what to do, and Col. Thomas M. Pappas, commander of military intelligence at the prison, was among them, Reese said. Reese said an Army colonel named Jordan sent a soldier to the prison mess hall for ice to preserve the body overnight. Lt. Col. Steven L. Jordan was head of the interrogation center at the prison, but it was unclear whether he was the officer to whom Reese referred. No medics were called, Reese said, and the detaineeâs identification was never recorded. Reese testified that he heard Pappas say at one point, "Iâm not going down for this alone." An autopsy the next day determined that the manâs death was caused by a blood clot resulting from a blow to the head, and the body subsequently was hooked up to an intravenous drip, as if the detainee was still alive, and taken out of the prison, Reese recalled. There is no known record of what happened to the body after that. .... During an earlier hearing for another soldier in the 372nd, Spec. Jason A. Kenner testified that a Navy SEAL team and officers from other government agencies -- referred to as OGA, a common designation for CIA operatives -- brought the detainee in alive with a bag over his head. Kenner said he later saw that the man had been severely beaten on his face. Intelligence officers took the detainee to a shower room used for interrogations, Kenner said, and shackled him to a wall. "About an hour later, he died on them," Kenner testified. "They decided to put him on ice. There was a battle between [OGA] and MI [military intelligence] as to who was going to take care of the body. A couple days later, he was finally disposed of." .... Reese said military intelligence clearly controlled the cellblock where Harman and other members of her military police platoon worked the night shift. "My MPs, they were directed by the MI people for what they wanted and how they wanted it," he said. .... |
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| Iraq-Jordan |
| Investigating General Focuses on Colonel at Joint Interrogation Center |
| 2004-06-04 |
| From The New York Times The Army general investigating the role of military intelligence specialists in the abuse of Iraqi inmates at Abu Ghraib prison is focusing on the former head of the siteâs interrogation center .... The investigating officer, Maj. Gen. George R. Fay, has a broad mandate to examine intelligence gathering in Iraq and has interviewed dozens of soldiers and officers in Iraq, Europe and the United States. But General Fay is asking several specific questions about Lt. Col. Steven L. Jordan, the former head of the Joint Interrogation and Debriefing Center, the statements he made to interrogators and his instructions about treating Iraqi prisoners, said one military intelligence soldier who has been interviewed .... General Fay is also believed to be examining an incident at Abu Ghraib last October in which several Iraqi prisoners may have been hidden from representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross during a visit they made to the site. A military interrogator stationed at Abu Ghraib said that, over a six-hour period during the inspectorsâ visit, five or six prisoners were put into cells, where they were forced to sit in uncomfortable positions. "They had hoods on them and they had their arms bound," said the interrogator, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the continuing inquiry. "They put them over there to hide them from a Red Cross inspection." The interrogator said he overheard Colonel Jordan and other officers say that the Red Cross inspectors did not need to know about those Iraqi prisoners. .... From sworn testimony and interviews, Colonel Jordan emerges as a hands-on commander from the moment he arrived last September to oversee the newly created interrogation centerâs activities. "Wing One was supervised mostly by LTC Steve Jordan," Capt. Donald J. Reese, commander of the 372nd Military Police Company, said in a sworn statement to investigators. "LTC Jordan was very involved with the interrogation process and the day-to-day activity that occurred." .... In November, Specialist Monath said, military police officers failed to properly screen Iraqi police officers coming into the prison, and one was found to have smuggled in a handgun to give to a detainee. "These were serving Iraqi police officers who were attempting to smuggle in arms for the prisoners," he said. "Colonel Jordan went to the front gate and personally patted down every Iraqi police officer who came in." Two Iraqis were arrested in the next two days for smuggling weapons into the prison, he said. .... The article includes several remarks by knowledgeable soldiers praising Col Jordan. |
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| Iraq-Jordan |
| Lieutenant Colonel, Captain and Contractor Decline to Testify About Graner |
| 2004-05-19 |
| Three key witnesses, including a senior officer in charge of interrogations, refused to testify during a secret hearing against an alleged ringleader of the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal on the grounds that they might incriminate themselves. The witnesses appeared April 26 at a preliminary hearing behind closed doors for Cpl. Charles A. Graner Jr., .... In the military legal system, witnesses who do not want to testify sign an Article 31 form in which they acknowledge that their testimony could be used against them. At a later stage, if the military decides not to charge the three who refused to testify, it could give them immunity in return for their testimony at a court-martial. .... The first government witness to refuse to testify was Lt. Col. Steven L. Jordan, who as director of the Joint Interrogation and Debriefing Center at the prison oversaw the military intelligence operations. .... In a report on the abuses written by Maj. Gen. Antonio M. Taguba, it was recommended that Jordan be relieved from duty and given a General Officer Memorandum of Reprimand. He was cited for "making material misrepresentations" to Army investigators about his leadership role at Abu Ghraib; failing to ensure his soldiers were properly trained under the "interrogation rules of engagement" and the Geneva Convention prohibiting prisoner abuse; and "failing to properly supervise soldiers under his direct authority working and visiting Tier 1 of the hard site at Abu Ghraib." Next on the witness stand at the Graner hearing was Capt. Donald J. Reese, who as commander of the 372nd Military Police Company was Granerâs supervisor. He also signed the Article 31 form and was excused. In the Taguba report, it was recommended that Reese be relieved from duty as the platoon leader and given a General Officer Memorandum of Reprimand. He too was accused of failing to train his soldiers in the proper treatment of prisoners of war; failing to "properly supervise" his soldiers on Tier 1; and "failing to properly establish and enforce basic soldier standards, proficiency and accountability." The last prosecution witness to plead the 5th was Adel L. Nakhla, a U.S. civilian contractor employed by Titan Corp. and working as a translator in Baghdad. According to a transcript of the Graner hearing, Nakhla "elected not to participate in the proceedings and was excused." In the Taguba report, Nakhla was questioned about what happened to several detainees who were suspected of rape. He said they were forced to remove their clothes and then were ordered by Graner and Staff Sgt. Ivan L. "Chip" Frederick II, another defendant, to admit they had committed rape. Nakhla said Graner and Frederick threw water on the naked detainees, called them guys who "like to make love to guys" and then "handcuffed their hands together and their legs with shackles and started to stack them on top of each other," the report said. .... |
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