Exclusive: Grand Jury considers the Crimes of war in "Ice Man of Abu Ghraib" (Time.com)
Former colleague and contributor to time Adam Zagorin breaks new here on Battleland and exclusive reporting on the last federal action on the infamous death of "the Iceman" Iraq Abu Ghraib prison in 2003:
By Adam Zagorin
Manadel al-JamadiIt was almost a decade since Manadel al-Jamadi, an Iraqi prisoner known as "the Iceman" - for the attempt failed cool its body and make him seem less dead - died in the custody of the CIA at Abu Ghraib. But there is now some rumblings in the notorious case Washington, as well as other alleged CIA abuses, could return to haunt the Agency. TIME has learned that a Prosecutor to probe CIA - John Durham, a respected, US Attorney appointed by the Republican of Connecticut - began to call witnesses before a federal grand jury secret in Alexandria, Virginia, scrutinize, among other things, the terrifying on 4 November 2003, homicide, which has been documented by time in 2005.
TIME obtained a copy of a subpoena signed by Durham that points to the expanded mandate of the great sound board, which could involve the pricing of other officers of the CIA and contract employees in other cases. The subpoena, said "the grand jury investigation of possible violations of federal criminal for Crimes of war (18 USC/2441), Torture (18 USC 243OA) and laws related to federal offences."
In 2009, after the Barack Obama President replaces the President George w. Bush - new Attorney General of the United States Eric Holder operated Durham to examine a dozen cases of alleged abuse against suspects of "war against terrorism" who had gone dormant. Decision of the licensee to extend the probe took place shortly before the CIA released a five-year-old IG report detailing a litany of abuse of detainees by the Agency.
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Death of Al-Jamadi may be the unresolved case more known that Durham has been tasked to investigate on the. Despite the publicity around the world, including the publication of photographs of smiling American military personnel landed on the body of the victim, only a single officer to court martial. But he was found innocent in connection with the death of al-Jamadi, an alleged terrorist. Navy SEALs wounded al-Jamadi during his violent arrest and the initial interrogation, but an autopsy concluded that these events could not killed him. In fact, al-Jamadi was observed to be transformed by the seals of Abu Ghraib, kicking and screaming in English and Arabic, only to be placed in a cell with an interrogator of the CIA and contract linguist.
An official inquiry ruled a homicide the death of al-Jamadi. Researchers have concluded that detention of the CIA, the prisoner was hung on a wall before succumbing to asphyxiation and "blunt force injuries." Inspector General of the CIA referred the case to the Ministry of Justice, shortly after, he went for the possible continuation, but no action has been taken.
Durham is now seeking evidence on the death of the iceberg, among others, current and former U.S. military personnel who served at Abu Ghraib, the infamous prison West of Baghdad, according to the sources of knowledge of the investigation. And he asks many questions - such as who took photographs of the body, and when. Durham, according to these sources, was also asked about the civilian contractors at the site, mentioning a name and surveyed the source of multiple prints shoe apparently found on the equipment used to wrap the body of al-Jamadi.
Perhaps more importantly, according to a person familiar with the investigation, FBI agents and Durham reported that focus of the probe is to "specific civil person." Durham did not name names, but those close to the case believe that this person is Mark Swanner, a non-covert CIA interrogator and a polygraph expert who interviewed al-Jamadi immediately before his death. Swanner, of the County of Stafford, Virginia, said investigators, there are several years he did not the prisoner. Swanner and his lawyer declined to comment on. Citing its investigation, the Justice Department has also refused to comment on.
Unanswered questions surrounding the murder. Investigating official reports did not consider the key elements of evidence because the blood of the victim has been removed from the floor of the cell death on the orders of a U.S. military officer. The CIA would have removed a bloodstained hood which had been placed on the head of the victim. A supervisor of the CIA admitted later it destroyed. Immediately after the murder, the CIA and military argued about who could be blamed; the corpse was iced to slow decomposition and stored in a room shower at night, before being spirited away with an intravenous tube, attached to an arm, creating the impression that al-Jamadi was still alive.
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It is not clear what crime, if any, Swanner and other possible defendants could be charged. But the costs of the CIA, much less charges of war crimes and of torture, could be explosive and the amounts of inquiry of the Durham to crawl through a Lebanese minefield.
Last month, Michael Mukasey, who served as Attorney General of the United States under Bush, said it was "absolutely scandalous" that the Department of Justice examines still possible CIA wrongdoing. Seven former CIA directors wrote to Obama shortly after the appointment of the owner of Durham and asked him to the investigation of scrap metal. Former Senator of GOP Rick Santorum violently recently the effort that he launched his presidential bid in 2012. "This whole process should be terminated immediately," said Santorum. "It is a political prosecution which would put an end to a political solution, it is the 2012 elections."
Even groups like the American Civil Liberties Union is unhappy, because the mandate of the Durham focuses on the activities of the CIA which exceeded the guidelines made by counsel for the Bush Administration's top of the page. Responsible for ACLU stated that the guidelines were too lax.
Durham, respected for his tenacity over the decades to pursue organized crime, has been charged with taking his inquiry everywhere where it will lead. But since the beginning of his investigation, legal complications and pressure from Congress forced the Obama Administration to classify the plans to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and to abandon federal civil trials for the alleged 9/11 conspirators.
In January, Durham himself announced that former CIA counterterrorism official would not be prosecuted for ordering the destruction of video tapes documenting the interrogations of CIA severe - material that a Federal Court ordered the Agency to submit in response to the requests of the Freedom of Information Act taking into account all these decisions, even if there is sufficient evidence to justify the acts of indictment, the case of the iceberg and other possible prosecutions related to the CIA could remain frozen in time.
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