This article is a must read.  A 29 year old U.S. Navy veteran named Donald Vance, who was working as a security contractor in Iraq, noticed that his Iraqi employer was engaged in some shady activities.  He contacted the FBI and blew the whistle.  American soldiers raided the company and detained Vance.  He was held in the same prison complex as Saddam Hussein and labeled a “threat.”  Despite assurances from the FBI that he was not a threat the military continued to detain him, all the while subjecting him to the same treatment afforded run of the mill (alleged) terrorists.  He was not released until over three months had elapsed.

American guards arrived at the man’s cell periodically over the next several days, shackled his hands and feet, blindfolded him and took him to a padded room for interrogation, the detainee said. After an hour or two, he was returned to his cell, fatigued but unable to sleep.

The fluorescent lights in his cell were never turned off, he said. At most hours, heavy metal or country music blared in the corridor. He said he was rousted at random times without explanation and made to stand in his cell. Even lying down, he said, he was kept from covering his face to block out the light, noise and cold. And when he was released after 97 days he was exhausted, depressed and scared.

It doesn’t sound like torture when the recipient is an alleged terrorist, but when the person involved is an apparently completely innocent American citizen it doesn’t sound so harmless, does it?

What may be even more troubling is this:

Mr. Vance said he made numerous written requests — for a lawyer, for blankets, for paper to write letters home. Mr. Vance said that he wrote 10 letters to Ms. Schwarz, but that only one made it to Chicago. Dated July 17, it was delivered late last month by the Red Cross.

I can understand it if the military needs to surveil all incoming and outgoing mail, resulting in some delays, but only one of ten letters being delivered in a roughly half year time period is unacceptable.

Just think about how many innocent Iraqis might be detained, but don’t have the full force of Congressmen and the State Department lobbying for their release.  We’re losing the moral high ground as we lose this war. 

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This entry was posted by Brian on Monday, December 18th, 2006 at 11:30 pm and is filed under Iraq, War on Terror. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. Please note the copyright policy.