Maggie OKane talking:
I think when the WikiLeaks documents came out in November 2011, I had a sense, and the team that I work with who have spent a lot of time covering the war in Iraq, that there was a deeper story here. And one of the things that made us very interested was there was a reference to a thing called “Frago 242,” which was Fragmentary Order 242, which was a U.S. military order instructing U.S. soldiers to ignore Iraq-on-Iraqi torture. Now, this incidence, this Frago 242, came up over a thousand times in the documents as we looked at it, and we wondered why was this order issued and what was the story behind it. And there was also references in the WikiLeaks to a General Adnan Thabit, who was visiting the American embassy. So, it was a sense that there was a deeper story to tell here and that the WikiLeaks documents, because they were the actual documents and what the State Department was sending back to Washington about what was going on, that this was a real treasure trove that we should explore, rather than just become excited about the means of these documents being delivered.
The sort of extraordinary parallels that exist between Salvador and Iraq. One of the interesting things in the WikiLeaks documents is that General Adnan Thabit, who ran the special police commandos that were carrying out the torture, used the phrase “to fight terror with terror,” which is exactly the same phrase that was used by General Montana phon. in El Salvador when they were operating what was called the “platforms,” which were basically the torture and interrogation centers where the American advisers were present. And what you have seen is an almost exact parallel between the platforms in El Salvador, which were the regional torture centers, and the platforms in Iraq, which operated in the same way, which was bringing in hundreds of mostly Sunni men and boys and torturing them for information.
Now, in between the Salvador operation, we find that James Steele was involved in Iran-Contra, was one of six key people, along with Oliver North, that was funneling arms to the Ilopango air base to Nicaragua, to the Contras there. He then went on and was appointed by Dick Cheney to go to Panama to set up the police force there after the overthrow of Noriega. And between that, he goes in and out of the energy business. Hes employed by Enron. He works for various private military companies. And then he seems to be called back in at periods of crisis or at periods where they need his experience. So, in 2004, when the insurgency was gaining strength in Iraq, there is a call from Steeleto Steele directly from Donald Rumsfeld that he is to go to Iraq and to get involved in the training of the special police commandos. And this, we now understand, was to go to Iraq and set up a similar platform operation, which would involve regional torture centers, to get information on the insurgents.
We also know that CENTCOM, immediately after the film was broadcast on BBC Arabic, set up a monitoring unit within CENTCOM to see what the response has been among the Arab population. We know also that there were public screenings of the film in Samarra, in which people came out onto a square to watch the film, which, in a sense, is a sort of acknowledgment of what happened to the male population of that time. But so far, the Pentagon has said nothing.
I mean, one of the interesting things I find is that the interest in this in Europe, for example, is huge. I mean, 14 countries haveare showing the film over the next 10 days and have bought it. But actually, within the America mainstream television networks, theres been very little response, and also very little response from the American mainstream media. So I presume theyre just going to try and ignore it. And except for what DemocracyNow, and also Real TV, it seems to have been played down.
we have had very little response in the American mainstream media. It went out last night on ZDF in Germany, which is the German state channel. It went out on the Swedish state channel two nights ago. And its going out in France tomorrow. So, one wonders, since this is about, you know, Americas war in Iraq and the American special advisers, why is America not interested? why, indeed, does the Pentagon feel that they dont actually have to respond to theseto this investigation?
it wouldnt have happened if it wasnt for the WikiLeaks document, because so many things are about deniability and distancing and not taking responsibility. And El Salvador is a classic example. You can push away with a distance, and you can put a layer of, you know, the local police forces in between your actions, and theres always been plausible deniability. What WikiLeaks gave us was a clear indication from the U.S. State Department that they knew what wasthey knew what was going on. And it was that bedrock, and also the information from Frago 242 that officially there was an order to ignore torture, that, you know, give journalists like me and other investigative journalists the basis of something to work on, something that actually cant be denied, because its there in black and white. And that is an extraordinarily valuable tool for an investigative journalism. And you wouldnt be seeing this film, we wouldnt be looking back at El Salvador, if it hadnt been for WikiLeaks.
whats very important to understand here is that there was a creation of the special police commandos, which began in 2004, and over the period of the next year, they developed into a force that was nearly 12,000 strong, which had been armed by the Americans, had beenwas being advised by them, and included this network of torture platforms. Then you had another step, which was, in June 2005, you had a highly sectarian Shia minister taking over in the Ministry of the Interior. And basically this force now was handed over also to his control, and it began a full-scale war on the Sunni community, which involved large-scale death squad activity.
Now, before this was building up, Steele left in September 2004. Some of the other advisers stayed. And then, despite the warnings of many within the Iraqi political establishment, who said, “Do not hand this force over to the control of Jabr,” it was allowed to happen. So, again, this brought the killing onto a new scale. Our information is that while Steele was organizing the platform of torture centers, there was not wide-scale death squad activity. That took place after 2005, when, effectively, the special police commandos were handed over to Jabr Solagh. And then hell broke out in Iraq. Through 2005 and 2006, there was a civil war, a sectarian civil war, in which as many as 3,000 bodies a month were turning up in the streets of Iraq. Thats was precipitated and certainly aided by the formation of the special police commandos.
in terms of the relationship with Petraeus, the main link between Colonel Steele and General Petraeus was Colonel James Coffman, who was the direct link in the chain of command between Petraeus and special police commandos. Colonel Coffman was appointed as the special adviser to the specialto the police commandos, reporting directly to General Petraeus. He described himself in the Stars and Stripes, the military newspaper, when he was interviewed, as General Petraeuss eyes and ears on the ground in Iraq.
So, from our interviews with people who worked within the special police commandos who observed Steele and Coffman, one said to me, “Steele and Coffman were never apart. In the 40 or 50 times I saw them inside the detention centers, I never saw them separated. They came in separate cars every morning and left separately, but worked hand in hand.” So there was clearly a close working relationship between Steele and Coffman, who was reporting to General Petraeus.
But we understand that Steele was sent to Iraq by Donald Rumsfeld, and we understand that because Donald Rumsfeld actually writes to George Bush in September 2004 and tells him about sending James Steele to Iraq.
I think the most surprising thing was the scale and the organization of theof the torture, that it was sort of so well organized, that there were these platforms, that there were hundreds of people being lifted all of the time.
And the other thing that surprised me about it is that somehow in the kind of fog of war, that we never, as journalists, never really seem to reach theto report it in a way that people could really understand what was happening there. There were reports. It was called “The Way of the Commandos.” There were reports that torture was going on, but somehow it never penetrated, or it was never sort of acknowledged that thats the way the war was being conducted.
And I think one of the things, the great things, that I have learned from this is that were verywere very easy with words like “human intelligence,” “counterinsurgency,” and that we dont really understand that this is about systematic and brutal torture that has repercussions among the civilian population.
And also that there was one man whose history goes back through so many of Americas wars. And I think its indicative of a very dysfunctional, brutal time, that I hope this film will be a legacy that actually says, if you want to go to war, this is what war means. It means 14-year-old boys being hung up and tortured. It means men being turned on spits. And thats called “counterinsurgency.” So I just feel its important that this information comes out, and Im shocked, in a way, that we want to forget it.
There hasnt been the response we expected in America. But I do want to go back to the point which I made before. Really, this would not be coming out, if it hadnt been for Bradley Manning. This information, the basic information, has been very key.
And Ill tell you something else thats very, very chilling. We spent maybe six months trying to track down young American soldiers who served in Samarra. Many of them knew what was going on there. In the end, we found one guy, called Neil Smith, in Detroit, who was 21 when he was there, who spoke out. He spoke out because, he said, “Im born-again Christian.” But many were too frightened because of what happened to Bradley Manning.
— source democracynow.org
Maggie O’Kane, multimedia investigations editor at The Guardian. She is a former foreign correspondent. Her past awards include British journalist of the year and foreign correspondent of the year.