Pentagon denies prison scandal stems from secret program gone awry
Sunday, May 16, 2004 Posted: 8:57 AM EDT (1257 GMT)



Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld speaks to U.S. troops Thursday at Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad.
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NEW YORK (CNN) -- The Abu Ghraib prison scandal was not the result of a few misguided soldiers, but of a decision last year by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to expand a clandestine operation against al Qaeda to the treatment of prisoners in Iraq, according to a report in The New Yorker.

Rumsfeld's goal was to bring the success of the secret terrorism program to Iraq in an effort to "generate more intelligence about the growing insurgency," the magazine reports.

The rules governing the secret operation were "Grab whom you must. Do what you want," according to a former intelligence official whom Seymour M. Hersh quotes anonymously in "The Gray Zone."

The Pentagon sharply rejected the author's conclusions.

"Assertions apparently being made in the latest New Yorker article on Abu Ghraib and the abuse of Iraqi detainees are outlandish, conspiratorial, and filled with error and anonymous conjecture," Pentagon spokesman Larry DiRita said.

Seven U.S. Army Reserve military police have been charged with abusing inmates at the prison near Baghdad. Three of the soldiers face arraignments Thursday for general courts-martial, used for felony-level offenses. A fourth soldier faces a special court-martial -- the military equivalent of a civilian misdemeanor court -- Wednesday.

Photos of that abuse -- some showing men in humiliating sexual positions -- enraged people around the globe after CBS's 60 Minutes II broadcast the snapshots.

Hersh's article attempts to explain the history of the policy that led to the abuse.

Hersh, who has won a Pulitzer and dozens of awards for investigative reporting, concludes that the "roots of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal lie not in the criminal inclinations of a few Army reservists," but in the August 2003 decision by Rumsfeld.

His article has been posted online at the New Yorker's Web site and will be published in the May 24 issue of the magazine, on newsstands Monday.

The U.S.-led military coalition in Afghanistan confirmed Saturday that a second investigation has been initiated into allegations of detainee abuse at the hands of U.S. jailers.

On Wednesday, the U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan announced that the military was investigating the alleged mistreatment of an Afghan police colonel while in the custody of coalition forces.

The officer says he was stripped naked, photographed, kicked and subjected to sexual taunting while being held by coalition forces in August, according to an embassy statement. (Full story)

On Friday, the Pentagon announced that the U.S. military will not use certain prisoner interrogation procedures in Iraq and Afghanistan, including sleep and sensory deprivation, as a result of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal. (Full story)

Earlier in the week, top officials acknowledged that some of the techniques being reviewed could violate the Geneva Conventions, which were adopted internationally as a way to protect prisoners of war from abuse.

It remains unclear whether the ban applies to accused Taliban and al Qaeda detainees held by the U.S. military in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Hersh's article notes that Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller was summoned to Baghdad from Guantanamo to evaluate the prison system.

An internal Army report on the prisoner abuse charges written in February by Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba quotes Miller as saying "detention operations must act as an enabler for interrogation."

Recent Senate hearings, Hersh writes, indicate that Miller supported using the methods used in Guantanamo, including sleep deprivation, and exposure to extremes of cold and heat.

Powell chides Arafat's terror talk
Sunday, May 16, 2004 Posted: 4:40 AM EDT (0840 GMT)



Secretary of State Colin Powell and Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei meet on Saturday in Jordan.
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DEAD SEA RESORT, Jordan (CNN) -- The United States is doing all it can to get the Middle East peace process back on track, but "ultimately reform must come within," U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said Sunday at the World Economic Forum in Jordan.

He took Yasser Arafat to task, after the Palestinian leader Saturday quoted a verse from the Koran calling on people to find the strength to "strike terror in your enemy... if they want peace, then let's have peace."

"Mr. Arafat continues to make statements like the one he made yesterday about let's terrorize the region," Powell said.

"Everybody says the United States should do more, we want to do more but Mr. Arafat continues to take actions and make statements that makes it exceptionally difficult to move forward."

Arafat has publicly rejected terrorist attacks, but Israeli officials have accused him of supporting such actions.

U.S. officials do not communicate with Arafat, saying he has failed to act against terror or allow a prime minister enough power to crack down on Palestinian terrorism.

Powell met with Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei a day earlier, where the U.S. secretary pushed Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's disengagement plan as a move that could help jump start the peace process.

After the hour-long meeting at Queen Alia International Airport in Amman, Jordan, Powell told reporters, "We hope we can get the process started again within the context of the road map."

The "road map" for Middle East peace -- backed by the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations -- has been stalled amid terror attacks by Palestinian groups and Israeli military incursions into Palestinian areas.

It outlines a series of steps aimed at establishing a Palestinian state that exists peacefully with Israel by 2005.

Powell said he and Qorei discussed the pullout, including "the development of security plans" and how Palestinians would "take control of Gaza when it comes to pass."

"Time is passing," Powell said. "We have to look at the reality of the situation and ... redouble our efforts and get on with it."

But, he said, "I don't think anybody can predict right now whether we can achieve" a separate Palestinian state by 2005, as called for in the road map.

Said Qorei, "We are very pleased to talk to Secretary Powell. [We] discussed the situation about the peace process, how to revise the peace process forward. I think we had very, very constructive talks this afternoon."
Massachusetts to allow same-sex marriages starting Monday
First state in U.S. to allow such unions
Sunday, May 16, 2004 Posted: 10:52 AM EDT (1452 GMT)



David Koses, left, and his partner Alfredo Roldan-Flores, both from Boston, check a wedding cake for a planned June ceremony.


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Massachusetts begins allowing same-sex marriages Monday.

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BOSTON, Massachusetts (Reuters) -- Same-sex couples will legally exchange vows Monday when Massachusetts becomes the first U.S. state to allow gay marriage, an election-year milestone likely to fuel legal and political battles nationwide.

Hundreds of gay and lesbian couples are expected to seek marriage licenses as of Monday from city and town clerks in Massachusetts, followed by the customary ringing of church bells and the cutting of wedding cakes -- many topped with the figures of two brides or two grooms.

"May 17 is a historic day: It's the day that marks a new chapter of equality for gay and lesbian families," said gay rights activist Marty Rouse. "For the first time in U.S. history, we can receive the critical legal rights and protections that come only through marriage."

Thousands of same-sex couples were married at San Francisco City Hall earlier this year but the marriages were not recognized by the state of California. A mayor in New York state is being prosecuted after performing gay marriages in February.

The famously liberal city of Cambridge, Massachusetts, home to Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has ordered its clerk to begin accepting applications at midnight, and the first weddings are expected later that morning.

The issue has catapulted Massachusetts into the national spotlight, especially in an election year when its junior senator, Democrat John Kerry, is expected to face Republican President Bush in the race for the White House.

Both candidates oppose gay marriage, with Bush backing a constitutional ban and Kerry favoring limited legal recognition for same-sex couples.

Conservatives have blasted Massachusetts' top court, which ruled last year that a state ban on gay marriage was unconstitutional and allowed same-sex couples to wed legally.

Final hurdle cleared
The final hurdle was cleared Friday when the U.S. Supreme Court failed to block a last-minute legal challenge filed by conservative opponents of same-sex weddings.

A federal appeals court has agreed to hear the case next month, but by that time clerks will probably have granted hundreds of marriage licenses to homosexual couples.

Some may be given to out-of-state gay couples who come to Massachusetts in defiance of Republican Gov. Mitt Romney, who has told them to stay home amid fears his state could become "the Las Vegas of same-sex marriage."

Citing a 1913 state law that prevents Massachusetts from marrying any couple if the marriage would be "void" in their home states, Romney's administration has warned clerks they can issue licenses to out-of-state couples only if they plan on settling in Massachusetts.

Several clerks, noting the statute has not been applied to heterosexual couples for many years, plan on issuing licenses to all gay couples from out of state who request them. Gay rights advocates say they plan to challenge the law.

It is expected some couples will take their marriage licenses back to states where they may not be not recognized, setting up legal test cases that courts around America will have to resolve.

"The creation of a right to same-sex marriage in the end will not strengthen the institution of marriage within our society but only weaken it as marriage becomes only one lifestyle choice among many others," said Boston's Roman Catholic archbishop, Sean O'Malley.

Tourism officials in Cape Cod's Provincetown, where many gays live, say they expect at least $1 million in extra business from a wave of gay unions. Owners of a gay wedding registry, Rainbow Wedding Network, say thousands of couples from New England have signed up for gifts.