Lisa Ashkenaz Croke

New details have emerged in the week after nearly 380 tons of powerful explosives were reported missing from the al-Qaqaa munitions facility south of Baghdad, supporting Iraqi interim government assertions that someone looted the site following the U.S. capture of the capital city on April 9, 2003. Additional reports by eyewitnesses and the military suggest … Continue reading “Missing Weapons Go Far Beyond al-Qaqaa”

An FBI memorandum released Oct. 15 demonstrates a lack of consistency regarding agents’ knowledge of permitted interrogation techniques used at Abu Ghraib prison. Several Bureau special agents and translators told inspectors during an internal inquiry in May that, while visiting the infamous facility between October and December 2003, they saw detainees hooded or naked and … Continue reading “FBI Glossed Over Abu Ghraib Abuses”

The defiance of 17 U.S. Army Reservists who refused a fuel delivery mission Wednesday prompted the military to promise long-awaited armor for their military vehicles, even as the military refused to acknowledge claims from family members that the platoon’s convoy was expected to travel through insurgent hotspots unprotected. "I can’t think of anything we’re not … Continue reading “Refusing Reservists’ Fates Uncertain”

HUNTINGTON WOODS, MICH. – American legal investigators have discovered evidence of abuse, torture and rape throughout the U.S.-run prison system in Iraq. A Michigan legal team meeting with former detainees in Baghdad during an August fact-finding mission gathered evidence supporting claims of prisoner abuse at some 25 U.S.-run detention centers, most of them so far … Continue reading “Torture and Rape Rampant in Iraq Prisons”

While the latest reports investigating the widely condemned events at Abu Ghraib prison attempt to close the book on the Pentagon’s culpability with a somber critique, new evidence gathered for a class action lawsuit filed against two U.S.-based private contractors could prove that the scandal at Abu Ghraib was far from an isolated series of … Continue reading “Iraqi Prison Horrors Pervasive, Says Attorney”

In what had been touted as Iraq’s first democratic election, last week’s tumultuous Iraqi National Conference closed with a four-judge panel selecting a list of candidates for the Interim National Council, leaving the hundreds of delegates invited to the conference to approve the decision with only a show of hands. In the end, the same … Continue reading “Former Exiles Dominate Iraqi Puppet Govt”

From the disrupted Iraqi National Conference in Baghdad to the low-key threat of secession from Shi’ite leaders in southern Iraq, the entire country’s future may be determined by events in the holy city of Najaf. The National Conference, where 1,300 Iraqi delegates were to meet for three days and elect the 100-member National Council, was … Continue reading “Najaf Prompts Talk of Secession Among Iraqi Politicians”

Just as the U.S.-led forces refused to release thousands of adult prisoners after the June 28 handover of partial sovereignty to Iraq, U.S. and UK authorities continue to incarcerate children. The Pentagon says around 60 teens, "primarily aged 16 and 17," are still being detained, though unnamed sources at the Pentagon and U.S. Central Command … Continue reading “US Silent on Torture of Children”

Hours after U.S. officials declared Iraq a “sovereign” state, the case of a single Iraqi prisoner stood as a reminder that the question of which government now has jurisdiction over Iraqi detainees – the United States or the Interim Government of Iraq – is far from settled. In addition to potentially affecting the fates of … Continue reading “US Ignores Iraqi Courts”