Update [2005-5-27 18:18:33 by susanhu]: Navy Lt. Andrew Ledford, a SEAL commander, was found innocent today. He’s been through hell. I hope his life goes smoothly for a while.
The “smirking chimp” dares to say this to Navy cadets while he allows a U.S. Navy Seal lieutenant — himself a U.S. Naval Academy graduate and one of the U.S. Navy’s best and brightest — to be hung out to dry, and allow the C.I.A. to cover up its murder?
My fury knew no bounds as I listened to Bush’s live speech before the Naval Academy this morning, and heard him say (via White House transcript):
And all I could see, while Bush smirked and chortled, were these images of the dead Manadel al-Jamadi:
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As Bush warned the Navy cadets about “the dangers ahead,” I wondered if the cadets thought of the fate of their Navy SEAL brothers — including Andrew K. Ledford, a “32-year-old U.S. Naval Academy graduate,” reports the Bakersfield Californian newspaper.
The C.I.A. and civilian contractors are getting off while a Navy Seal, who was not adequately trained for the Iraq mission — and who did not kill Manadel al-Jamadi — is in the dock.
Navy personnel who’ve been interviewed are pissed off and bitter : : :
The Los Angeles Times reported on May 25 that “[n]o charges were brought over Jamadi’s death, but 10 SEALs were accused of brutalizing him and other prisoners”:
Asked about his attitude on the case against [Lt. Andrew K.] Ledford, [former Petty Officer Dan Cerrillo] Cerrillo said: “I’m not very happy about it, because I don’t think the whole thing is right.”
Lt. Ledford was Cerrillo’s superior in the SEAL unit. “Cerrillo testified under immunity,” reported the LAT, “that he was the SEAL beating the prisoner and pushing his face into the sand.”
Yesterday, Lt. Ledford retracted his confession to the death of Iraqi prisoner, Manadel al-Jamadi, and says his confession was coerced after eight hours of interrogation. (Imagine a highly trained Navy SEAL who cracks under interrogation, and one can only wonder what methods were used to get him to sign a confession he’s now recanted.) The NYT story about the retraction is below.
First, it’s important to view how the C.I.A. is treating this case, and how it is blatantly abandoning any responsibility for the murder its people committed.
“Testifying behind a curtain to protect his identity,” reported the LAT, “a CIA operative told a court-martial Tuesday that he saw a Navy SEAL “pummeling” a defenseless prisoner in Iraq.”
Here’s more about the setting in which this CIA operative testified, and what judicial rights were bent to accommodate his status:
In the unclassified part of the CIA operative’s testimony, none of the six officers acting as jurors asked any questions — as is their right — that would reconcile his version of events with Cerrillo’s. A CIA attorney was present for the entire testimony.
TIME FOR A RANT: I need a break. I work on this story, then I have to stop because my heart is beating so fast, and I’m so ANGRY with our government.
Besides murdering Mr. al-Jamadi — and permitting the torment and abuse of god knows how many other prisoners — Bush-on-down are now screwing with the morale of our soldiers. Bush et al. are destroying the lives and careers of some of the most talented, smart, physically gifted members of our military — precisely the kind of military personnel we need for missions for which they are qualified, not for the tasks they had not been trained to do.
And today that asshole Bush has the nerve to speak to the graduating class of the naval academy, many of whom will someday be officers, just like Ledford, who will be drug through the mud and destroyed as part of the immense cover-up by our government from the top on down.
/ RANT SUSPENDED /
The LAT reports:
[………]
The CIA operative testified he and his superiors would never tolerate abuse of prisoners.
His testimony differed markedly from that of a former SEAL [Cerillo], an enlisted man.
[……………]
“When [the prisoner] wouldn’t answer, I would make him talk,” Cerrillo told jurors in the case against Ledford.
“I was told in the middle [of the incident] by the security personnel [CIA and civilian contractors] not to hit [the prisoner] in the face because it would make it hard for him to turn them in,” said Cerrillo, who was later wounded in Iraq and left the Navy a few weeks ago.
The beating occurred in late October 2003 as SEALs were teamed with CIA operatives to arrest “high-value” Iraqis suspected of being terrorists.
Then there’s this from yesterday’s NYT, which lays responsibility at the feet of the C.I.A. To date, only the Sabrina Harmans (photographed with the corpse), the Lynndie Englands, and the Navy SEALS are being held to account.
SAN DIEGO – The court martial of a member of the Navy Seals accused of abusing an Iraqi detainee who later died in Central Intelligence Agency custody is providing glimpses of the agency’s involvement in the prisoner abuse scandal.
The role of the agency is not directly at issue in the trial of the seaman, Lt. Andrew Ledford, and only a few references to the agency have been made in public testimony since the trial started Monday.
But Ledford’s platoon, which was sent to Iraq in late 2003 to capture so-called high value targets, worked closely with CIA case officers on several missions. … A lawyer from the agency has monitored proceedings in the courtroom at the San Diego Navy base and occasionally consulted with Navy officials.
Several witnesses said that the mission the Seals were conducting in Iraq – finding and processing detainees believed to have intelligence value – was not one for which they had much training.
“We kind of evolved the system for handling detainees while we were over there,” said Petty Officer Jerrod Holferty, a platoon member.
Two Navy lawyers said the Seal teams were briefed before leaving the United States and upon arriving in Iraq on the need to handle detainees humanely. But there have been several suggestions during the trial that the involvement of CIA or other U.S. intelligence personnel appeared to contribute to the harsh treatment of some detainees by members of the Seals.
From today’s New York Times:
Navy Officer Retracts Confession in Death of Iraqi Prisoner
By DAVID S. CLOUD
SAN DIEGO, May 26 – Taking the stand at his court-martial, a Navy Seal officer on Thursday denied striking an Iraqi prisoner who later died and said he had been “pressured” into signing a confession in which he admitted hitting the detainee.
Saying Navy criminal investigators unexpectedly told him last July that they were investigating him for manslaughter, the officer, Lt. Andrew K. Ledford, testified that after an eight-hour interrogation he finally signed the confession. In it, he admitted lightly striking the prisoner, Manadel al-Jamadi, one time on the night of his capture.
“They wanted hear that I hit al-Jamadi,” Lieutenant Ledford said, adding that he now believed, “That could not possibly have happened on that night.”
Navy prosecutors contend that Lieutenant Ledford, who commanded the Seal platoon that captured Mr. Jamadi in a violent raid near Baghdad in November 2003, punched the prisoner once at the urging of his subordinates. They also charge that he failed to restrain his men from repeatedly kicking and hitting Mr. Jamadi before he was turned over to Central Intelligence Agency custody. He died several hours later in a shower stall at Abu Ghraib prison.
A photograph of Mr. Jamadi’s body wrapped in plastic and packed in ice became one of the infamous images to emerge in the prisoner abuse scandal.
Lieutenant Ledford, 32, is charged with dereliction of duty, assault and battery, making false statements to investigators, and conduct unbecoming an officer. He faces a possible prison term of 11 years and dishonorable discharge from the Navy.
He is the only American so far to face charges in connection with the episode. The six-member military jury is likely to begin deliberations in the case on Friday after hearing closing statements from lawyers.
Since the trial began Monday, the prosecution has been hampered by a lack of direct evidence that Lieutenant Ledford joined in or even knew about the abuse.
The prosecutors have been forced to build their case around the confession Lieutenant Ledford now disavows and on a photograph, taken soon after Mr. Jamadi’s capture, showing the defendant and his men surrounding Mr. Jamadi, who was hooded and bound but still alive, in the back of a Humvee at an Army base. Other photographs taken around the same time show Seals with their guns drawn around Mr. Jamadi, but Lieutenant Ledford is not present in the pictures.
Several Seals from the platoon have admitted that they hit Mr. Jamadi and poked at him with their rifles. But none have said Lieutenant Ledford joined in the abuse. …
Good for Ledford. I hope the judgment against him is fair because that’s all we can hope for at the moment.
In the meantime, the chimp smirks on with impunity.
Emphases mine.
Postscript: If this story rings a bell, it’s because we discussed the upcoming court martial on March 23, in this story, “Navy Seals Sue AP Over Abuse Photos: Who’s Right?. But we’re far past debates about photographs now.