Another Reason Not To Do This
By now everyone should have heard of the New York Times article about Donald Vance, the American in Iraq who was thrown into prison for three months by US authorities after he reported on the illegal weapons trading of the company he worked for in Iraq to the FBI. Mary of Pacific Views calls her post: Guilt by Association.
There is another “evil” that is part of what the military did that goes a long way to explaining why they have made no progress in fighting the insurgency in Iraq: this is no way to treat people who give you hard information about activities you are trying to stop.
The most valuable “tools” an “investigator” has are his/her informants, the people who provide him/her with information about what is occurring on “the street.” If your street is in Baghdad and you are chasing insurgents instead of burglars, you still need informants, especially if you can’t blend in with the local people. What the US military did was punish an informant.
In Iraq there is grave danger if you are seen to be tied to the American military, so providing information requires a lot of risk on the part of individuals. Some people may be willing to take the risk for a lot of reasons, but when you throw them in prison if they volunteer information, you can forget any cooperation. You can’t defeat an insurgency without street-level intelligence. Throwing people in solitary when they provide you with intelligence is not a winning strategy.
3 comments
“Throwing people in solitary when they provide you with intelligence is not a winning strategy.” But it does dove-tail entirely into the *punish the whistleblowers* and at my most cynical…this is what they have done.
It’s in the line of – OH, you’re going to make us investigate this? Cause us Trouble…We’ll show You. With bit of You’re a *Security Threat* thrown in for good measure…and Voila – They can treat you as they wish for months on end with no explanation or recourse. And I’m sure they might one day apologize – but if I were Mr. Vance i wouldn’t hold my breath…and I’d file that lawsuit instead!
Oh..may favorite line is this: “…First Lt. Lea Ann Fracasso, said in written answers to questions that the men had been “treated fair and humanely,” and that there was no record of either man complaining about their treatment.”
No record of their complaints! Hahahahaha! That’s hillarious in a Twisted/Sick sort of way – but so typical of how these folks operate. Yep …who could possibly complain about their Club Med experinces at Camp Cropper!
The military are not the police and the police are not the military. Occupation is a police or civil affairs function, not something combat arms are trained to do. With too few translators it can’t be accomplished, because people can’t function in an information vacuum.
From my days in law enforcement I seem to remember that complaints were made by attorneys, not be suspects, and don’t don’t ever remember seeing a “suggestion box” in a jail.