Detainee 200343 was among thousands of people who have been held and released by the American military in Iraq, and his account of his ordeal has provided one of the few detailed views of the Pentagon’s detention operations since the abuse scandals at Abu Ghraib. Yet in many respects his case is unusual.
The detainee was Donald Vance, a 29-year-old Navy veteran from Chicago who went to Iraq as a security contractor. He wound up as a whistle-blower, passing information to the F.B.I. about suspicious activities at the Iraqi security firm where he worked, including what he said was possible illegal weapons trading.
But when American soldiers raided the company at his urging, Mr. Vance and another American who worked there were detained as suspects by the military, which was unaware that Mr. Vance was an informer, according to officials and military documents.
At Camp Cropper, he took notes on his imprisonment and smuggled them out in a Bible.
“Sick, very. Vomited,” he wrote July 3. The next day: “Told no more phone calls til leave.”
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U.S. Veteran Whistle Blower Imprisoned in Iraq
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Doug
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U.S. Veteran Whistle Blower Imprisoned in Iraq
"We could have done something important Max. We could have fought child abuse or Republicans!" --Oona Hart (played by Victoria Foyt), in the 1995 movie "Last Summer in the Hamptons."
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Barbara Fitzpatrick
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Hopefully this will get the attention of people who don't care what is done to "others" - and get some action on repealing those dictatorial laws! Yes, it can happen here. Yes, it can happen to you. Rights have become privileges that depend on the whim of the president. We haven't been a free country since October, 2006. I hope we manage to return to "free" status in 2007.
Barbara Fitzpatrick