CIA tortured Abu Gharib detainee in “romper room”

11/2/2004 7:45:00 PM GMT

The CIA interrogated and tortured Iraqi detainees in a “romper room” where a handcuffed and hooded suspect was beaten, slapped and punched shortly before he died at the Abu Ghraib detention facility in Iraq, a Navy Seal testified at a military pre-trial hearing.

The Navy commando said on Monday at a pre-trial hearing for another Seal charged with torturing and abusing Iraqi detainees that he saw blood on the hood worn by the detainee, Manadel al-Jamadi, as he was taken into the interrogation room at Baghdad International Airport in November 2003.

The witness testified in San Diego, California, under a grant of immunity. He was identified by his rank as a hospital corpsman. He said that he kicked al-Jamadi many times, slapped him in the back of the head and punched him.

He added that five or six other CIA officers in the room shared in beating the detainee, but he did not elaborate.

Army Maj Gen George Fay’s report on Abu Gharib prison said that Al-Jamadi was found dead in a shower room less than an hour after two CIA staff brought him into Abu Ghraib as a so-called “ghost detainee”. Such prisoners were not listed in the normal roster of military detainees.

Fay’s report revealed that al-Jamadi died of a blot clot in the head, probably because of wounds suffered after being detained. The military pathologist’s report said that the cause of death was blunt force trauma complicated by hampered breathing.

A CIA spokeswoman refused to comment on the testimony, but noted that the agency was independently investigating into the CIA’s involvement in prisoner abuses and interrogations in Iraq.

The CIA’s involvement in the abuse case was revealed during a hearing for an aviation boatswain’s mate who is charged with punching al-Jamadi and posing in humiliating photos with the prisoner.

An Article 32 hearing, the military equivalent of a civilian grand jury, was held to determine whether the boatswain’s mate should be court-martialled.

An investigating officer will suggest what charges, if any, the boatswain’s mate should face.

If convicted, the accused Seal could receive up to 11 years in prison.

Al-Jamadi was described in a military report as a suspect in an attack on a Red Cross building. He was arrested by members of a Coronado, California-based Seal unit during a joint special forces-CIA mission.

Al-Jamadi was detained after a fierce struggle with the accused Seal, the corpsman reported, adding that the accused Seal and another Seal “body slam” al-Jamadi into the back of a Humvee.

The commandos then took the prisoner to an Army base where the accused Seal hit al-Jamadi with the back of his weapon. The corpsman said that while some of the blows were excessive, others were intended to make al-Jamadi shut up.

The hospital corpsman dealt a blow during the two-day proceeding, testifying only hours after reaching a plea agreement with prosecutors that would spare him prison time.

In addition to the corpsman and the boatswain’s mate, five other members of the Seal team were accused of abusing Iraqi detainees. Charges against a chief petty officer were dismissed last week. Article 32 hearings for the other four Seals have not been scheduled.

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