War

Pentagon documents on embedded media

On a subpage of their Freedom of Info Act website, the Defense Department today has posted 127 pages of documents concerning embedded media. The file may be downloaded here:

DOD FOIA Reading Room [PDF | 3.3 meg | 127 pp]

Memory Hole mirror

————————-

————————-

————————-

——————————– (more…)

[exclusive] “Prisoner Boxes” in Iraq

First Published Photographs of Wooden Imprisonment Crates

>>> In Iraq, some prisoners/detainees are kept in wooden crates known as “prisoner boxes,” so I filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the US Central Command asking for the following:

“Vanity Fair (Feb 2005 issue) has reported the existence of wood “prisoner boxes” being used by the US military in facilities in and around Baghdad. They are used to hold individual prisoners and detainees.

“I hereby request all photographs of these boxes, including empty boxes as well as boxes holding prisoners and detainees.”

Around nine and a half months later, CentCom responded by sending the three photographs on this page.

You are seeing the photos exactly as they were sent to me - as black and white printouts on standard printer paper, with creases from being folded into thirds. Two of the photos are extremely blurry and pixelated.

Considering that the average summer temperature in Baghdad is 111 F, and that temps can easily go above 120 F [source], it’s hard to imagine what it’s like to be inside these boxes.

—————————

____________________________________________

____________________________________________

____________________________________________

Technical note: These photographs were released as black and white print-outs by the US Central Command on 10 Nov 2005 in fulfillment of FOIA request #2005-085, filed by Russ Kick on 27 Jan 2005.

————————————-

Zip file containing high-resolution scans of all three photo print-outs [12 meg]

————————————-

Pentagon docs: expenditures in Iraq & elsewhere

——————

Today in its Freedom of Information Act reading room, the Pentagon has posted 202 pages of documents related to its Iraqi Freedom Fund transfers/expenditures from 2002 to 2006:

DOD reading room [PDF | 9 megs]

Memory Hole mirror

The Government Accountability Office explains the Iraqi Freedom Fund:

“The Iraqi Freedom Fund is a special account providing funds for additional expenses for ongoing military operations in Iraq, and those operations authorized by P.L. 107-40 (Sept. 13,2001), Authorization for Use of Military Force, and other operations and related activities in support of the global war on terrorism.”

Some sample pages from the Pentagon’s FOIA release:

——————————–

(more…)

Proposed Tillman-Lynch report released by Oversight Committee

———————-

From the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform:

Committee Releases Proposed Tillman Report

A proposed Committee report on the investigations into the death of Corporal Patrick Tillman and the capture of Private Jessica Lynch discloses important new details about the incidents, but could not resolve “the key issue of what senior officials knew” because “the investigation was frustrated by a near universal lack of recall.” The full Committee will meet on Thursday to approve the report.

Documents and Links

Report: Misleading Information from the Battlefield: The Tillman and Lynch Episodes (383 KB)

The Memory Hole has posted an HTML version (automatically generated using DreamWeaver).

Flashback: US Brass Ordered Civilian Massacres During the Korean War

The Associated Press has a major investigative story about the Korean War.:

In the early days of the Korean War, other American officers observed, photographed and confidentially reported on such wholesale executions [of political prisoners] by their South Korean ally, a secretive slaughter believed to have killed 100,000 or more leftists and supposed sympathizers, usually without charge or trial, in a few weeks in mid-1950.

Extensive archival research by The Associated Press has found no indication Far East commander Gen. Douglas MacArthur took action to stem the summary mass killing, knowledge of which reached top levels of the Pentagon and State Department in Washington, where it was classified “secret” and filed away.

This reminded me of an early Memory Hole article, which I’ve now updated with archival links and document images:

Civilian Massacres During the Korean War: US Military Documents Show Brass Ordered Slaughters

———–

15,000 more Iraq detainees by year-end (in addition to the 60,000 so far)

According to the Army, the US is planning to imprison 15,000 more “detainees” in Iraq over the next six months. (60,000 people have been detained so far.)

These little-known figures were revealed in a military contract that was flagged by Sharon Weinberger of Wired’s Danger Room blog. (However, they aren’t the focus of the post, which is titled “Strangest Iraq Contract Yet: Store Detainee Property.”) So far the media have completely ignored these revelations.