The second good piece in today’s NYT mag is a short “as told to” piece featuring Hyder Akbar. You may recall that Akbar is the young Bay Area Afghan-American who had the un-nerving experience of accompanying a “wanted” man in Afghanistan into the custody of some US soldiers and contractors– only to be called in three days later and told that the man, Abdul Wali, was dead.
US contract employee David Passaro is now being tried in connection with the torture of that suspect. (I wrote a post about that here, on June 17.)
Anyway, in this latest piece, Akbar gives many more details than he had done in an earlier, NPR-broadcast radio diary about the time he spent taking Abdul Wali to the American base back in June 2003.
In fact, he stayed with Abdul Wali and with the three Americans who were interrogating him inside the US base for quite a while, interpreting between the two sides. (It seems that none of the Americans apart from him knew any of Abdul Wali’s language. Nor, as seems equally clear, did they understand anything about the local culture.)
So there they were: Akbar, then 18 years old, Abdul Wali, and also (according to Akbar’s latest account)…
- Steve, Brian and Dave, who proved to be David A. Passaro, the C.I.A. contractor now facing trial. It was more than 100 degrees in the small room, and above us, a fan whirred wildly.
The interrogation started casually enough. In his friendly Southern accent, Brian dispensed with the nuts and bolts: have you been in contact with Taliban? Were you Taliban? Then the subject turned to Wali’s recent visit to Pakistan.
”How long ago were you in Pakistan?” Brian asked.
Wali looked confused, and I doubted he’d be able to answer. People in Kunar don’t have calendars; most of them don’t even know how old they are.
”You don’t have to give a specific date,” Brian said. ”Was it two, three days ago? Two, three weeks ago? Two, three months ago?”
”I don’t know,” Wali responded. ”It’s really hard for me to say.”
Soon therafter:
- Dave took over the questioning. He asked Wali where he had been 14 days earlier, on a night when three rockets were fired at the American base. ”How could you not know where you were on the night three rockets were fired?” he said. Wali explained that his nights were often punctuated by explosions.
Even seated, Dave seemed enlarged by anger. His demeanor felt put on, as if he were acting the role of a fearsome interrogator (especially in comparison to Brian, whose Southern hospitality softened even his grilling of this suspected terrorist). Dave fixed Wali with an unrelenting stare. Wali returned a nervous smile. ”Translate this to him!” Dave exploded: ”This is not a joking matter! Don’t smile!”
”I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to offend him,” Wali replied anxiously. ”It’s very hard for me. I can’t understand anything he’s saying. He was staring at me, and I didn’t know what to do. What should I do?” he asked me.
I wasn’t sure how to react. Dave’s behavior was unpredictable. Only days earlier, he and I had a friendly conversation about his little son, who could say his ABC’s and count from 1 to 20 and back down again. But now he was acting as if he was full of rage. ”If you’re lying, your whole family, your kids, they’ll all get hurt from this,” he threatened.
As I translated, I started to feel as if Dave’s words to Wali were my own, and all I wanted to do was stop saying these things to him. ”Your situation’s getting worse,” Dave warned. How was I supposed to tell that to Wali, when my father had assured him that coming to the base would make everything better?
Later, Akbar felt his role had become impossible. He asked Brian to let him quit interpreting and have the US-employed translator who was also in the room take over…
- I was relieved to be on the sidelines, but still, it wasn’t easy to watch Dave browbeat Wali. Finally the questions stopped, and Wali stood facing the wall as the Americans patted him down in preparation for detention. ”Is there anything you want to give to your family?” Dave asked him.
The question terrified Wali. ”No, no,” he stuttered.
I approached Wali and, to calm him, put my hand on his shoulder. ”Just say the truth,” I told him, trying to sound normal. ”Nothing is going to happen if you just say the truth.” Then I walked out of the room, promising myself that I’d come back and check up on him. He died before I got the chance.
The following isn’t a comment on the above, but thought you might want to comment on the topic and couldn’t locate another way to email you.
Hi, Helena,
Some months ago I commented in moveon.org
The poorer the base intelligence, the greater the reliance on clumsy or violent interrogation of low grade detainees who may know little and, appearing “uncooperative,” pay with their lives.
The US simply has very weak, third hand “human intelligence” in either Afghanistan or Iraq. US operatives risk their lives for pay that is modest next to competing wages in the opium trade.
Odds are poor that we will interdict sophisticated plots or capture ring leaders. We will catch only low grade Padilla wannabes or hear simply vague (or untranslatable) “chatter” and boasts. Don’t envy the authorities’ task. The options make one cringe.
US election postponement? Who is to say whether a disruptive terrorist act would favor the incumbent or the opponent? Maybe a 1 month “cool off” would be essential to lessen the sort of allegations that fouled the Spanish vote. Why suppose that the Demos would fare better if, a day after an attack, the vote were held as scheduled? Perhaps voters would feel compelled to “send a message” and vote GOP to show solidarity and tell UBL they cannot be deterred.
Anyway, probably no need or a postponement or “coup” if Bush and Cheney continue their edge in the poll (especially in the prospective Electoral College outcome). In November, much of the public may be tired of world politics and tune out such issues in favor of “values” and cultural politics. The Cheney – Edwards debate may be fascinating, but unwatched. The Bush – Kerry debates will boil down to “Mr. Common Man versus Mr. Cantunderstandtheguy.”
Helena, I am so glad someone like you follows these things with such care and posts regularly on them. I have been very upset over the mainstream press’ generally successful efforts at ‘disappearing’ any and all references to the torture of prisoners at Abu Ghraib and elsewhere. For whatever reasons, these stories are simply not being printed, and perhaps, for all I know, they are not even written by American reporters. I do know that the German media, the Norway media, and the Pakistani press service did carry stories concerning the report of 107 Iraqi children being detained in Abu Ghraib and elsewhere, and allegations of abuse done to some of these detainees. But nowhere in the NYT or WaPo did I see such stories.
I understand how distasteful and perhaps even impossible it is for many Americans to confront these events, but the press has no honest reason to be silent about them.
Let’s just say the ‘victim’ in case died accidently or of complications. Do you really think David intended to kill this guy ?? Get real……. he could have been killed 1000 ways in 1000 places at 1000 different times.
So…….. the real question is Why David ?? Who did he piss off, and what did Heart say in those sealed affidavits for the search warrant that jusified the search warrants in the first place.
Ask yourself more “WHAT” were they looking for, and forget the who’s and why’s…… It’s painfully obvious he was a ScapeGoat to patch strained relationships between the Provisional Afghani Government who’s son was directly involved in this.
Don’t foget who was paying Davids salary, and why the U.S. sent him there in the firlst place people. Who hires thugs, then complains when a victim dies ??? Naaaah there’s more to this one than meets the eye. Read between the lines.
I am of the inderstanding that when these allegations first came to light, the 3 members of the CIA interviewing Wali blamed the death on members of the 82nd Airborne Division, and that those 3 CIA interrogators were the first to raise the alarm about the victims death (or point the finger)
The higher echelons of the 82nd Airborne Division then threatened to make Public the matter and subsequent allegations if the CIA didn’t tell the truth and accept responsibility.
Could David be a Fall-Guy ?? or just a Thug in the wrong place at the wrong time.
And is it true that this only came to light after memebers of the 82nd Airborne Division pushed Akbar to both record and Air his ‘diary’ on National Radio ? Sounds like Ass Covering all round to me.
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