The Story of Prisoner 200343

(CBS)  Attorney Andrew Cohen analyzes legal issues for CBS News and CBSNews.com.

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Maybe we'll pay better attention now. Maybe since the story was splashed Monday as a two-column lead on the front page of The New York Times. Maybe since the alleged victim in the case is a white American with an easy-to-pronounce name and not a dark "foreigner" named "Hussein" or "Mohammed." Maybe since he is an ex-Navy vet and not a foot soldier for the Taliban or some poor sap caught up in the chaos of post-Saddam Baghdad. Maybe.

The story that Donald Vance is telling is a familiar one to people who have paid attention to the way U.S. military personnel all too often have handled their detention duties and responsibilities in Iraq even since the scandal at the Abu Ghraib prison there. It is both a familiar and a simple tale. Detain first, ask too few earnest questions along the way, mistreat in a way that smudges legal and moral lines, grudgingly and belatedly concede the mistake by releasing the prisoner, and then blame it all on the "fog of war," or worse, refuse to take any blame at all.

This time, apparently, there are no pictures to generate and sustain the world's scorn and the nation's shame. But it hardly matters to Vance. As Michael Moss of the Times relates, Vance went to Iraq as a security contractor but soon ended up as an informant for our government, passing along to the Federal Bureau of Investigation information about suspicious activities at the Iraqi firm at which he worked. This makes him, it's sadly not too obvious to mention, part of the solution and not part of the problem in Iraq today.

Vance should have gotten a medal for trying to stop the burgeoning arms trade in the war-torn area. Instead, reports Moss, he got three months' worth of prison time at "Camp Cropper," America's maximum security prison site in Baghdad. Why? Because in classic bureaucratic mindlessness, one hand didn't know what the other was doing. The military in Iraq determined that Vance was connected with the very people he was "spying" on for the FBI. Of course he was connected with the bad guys in Baghdad. That was the whole point of his effort on behalf of our domestic law enforcement agency.

It's bad enough that our military initially apprehended Vance and then refused to immediately check out his story. I'm sure that every person detained in Baghdad (or Boston or anywhere else) always has a story. What is truly astonishing is that even after military officials were told about Vance's legitimate connections, even after they had reason to know from their own fellow government officials that Vance was not a security threat, they still refused to release him until over two more months had passed. And, not only that, he was treated in a manner unbecoming our military and our nation's values even after his captors knew or should have known he was not a bad guy.

Vance tells the Times that he now intends to sue the government and the individuals responsible for the way he was treated. His lawsuit isn't likely to go far –perhaps he'll get a modest settlement out of the feds – but with a little bit of luck and a stern federal trial judge the complaint may force military officials (and the FBI for that matter) to explain, formally and under oath, how it could come to pass that a U.S. citizen who was helping his own government ferret out fraud and crime in Baghdad could end up, as Moss writes, begging in vain for his freedom from the very people who would benefit from those efforts.

Here are just a few of the questions, for example, that ought to be answered through any litigation that emerges from this scrape. Why didn't the FBI act more quickly to help out its informant? And if the military did not believe the story offered in Vance's defense on behalf of the FBI, why not? What did military officials know, or thought they knew, that required them to keep Vance on ice even after the FBI corroborated his story? And why, at a minimum, after the feds told their colleagues in Baghdad about Vance's informant role, did Vance's captors not treat him better, just in case he was telling the truth?

The Vance story emerged as big news just a few days after military officials announced the release of 18 more men who had been detained for years as terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. These men no doubt are among the hundreds currently held at Gitmo who already have been determined by our own military not to have taken up arms against the United States or to have belonged to the al Qaeda terrorist organization. These men have been held as detainees in many cases more than 10 times as long as Vance was held.

They did not, like Vance, have the support of friends and family (never mind federal agents) back here in the States. Their voices will never be heard on American television and their words will never grace the front pages of the Times or any other newspaper. But surely they, and their treatment, are as much a part of the story of our country's military detentions as Vance is. The worst excesses of America's military guards may have ended at Abu Ghraib. But that doesn't mean that lesser scandals aren't happening even now. Just ask Vance. Like all the other detainees he's got a story to tell and maybe this time, because of the color of his skin and the land of his birth, we'll at last muster up the decency to listen a little more closely.

By Andrew Cohen

[getcentered]

cbscrash07:

You are sadly misinformed about the threat Iraq posed to the United States, and the events leading up to the beginning of the Iraq war.

TURN OFF FOX NEWS and/or RADIO!! Change the channel to get more sources. Don't feel mad or stubborn because you voted for the most CURSORY leaders a country could have.

In my opinion calls for G.W. Bushes impeachment are completely justified!!!
The GOP tried to get Clinton impeached for a B.job.
G.W. Bush's crime is MUCH greater!! He has got thousands of US service men and women killed in Iraq for reasons now debunked and that had been disputed from the beginning. Now many tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians are dead for NO JUSTIFIED REASON.

[Syndicate]

Perhaps they held and mistreated him to protect his cover. After all you must be one of the bad guys if the army is *** with you. No? This is the second case I've seen which tells me there not taking them out back and shooting them and that these cases are rare. A small percentage of any prison population is going to be innocent. Most of you are as bad as the military officers you criticize. You call for Bush's impeachment on non existant evidence. Most of the case for going into Iraq was made under Clinton by Saddam himself.

[ceekuei]

The time has come for Americans of all denominations to take back America from Bush and company. This administration has done so much harm that it will take years to repair, if it is at all possible. Faith in America can only be re-established when Bush and company are held accountable for their actions, which are mostly misdeeds and blatant violation of the Constitution and human rights.

[babus2]

What kind of firm did Vance work for in Iraq and what activities and fraud did he discover?
r

[catt42701]

In an article in another paper it was said that the government hinted that he shouldn't talk about his experience. I think every prisoner should be found and tell their story. I feel that theirs could be much worse. This government has bought shame upon the American people due to it's behavior in this so called war on terror. We have become the terrrorists.

[sjc_1]

As long as whistle blowers are seen as "snitches" rather than doing what is right, we will live in a world where injustice prevails.

[jimmyd2596]

Sad in that when Americans are tortured, mutilated, beheaded, etc., it hardly makes a ripple in the media. If Americans torture terrorists by over-feeding them, it's front page for months.

[egresor]

wow! is anyone really amazed at this happening? are there still prisoners at gitmo----in a virtual twilight zone? are there still secret prisons? do we still send detainees to other countries for what ammounts to torture? is it surprising that their IS such a thing?

isn't it always those who avoided putting their lives in danger (hint* hint* 'national guard' bush & '6 deferrals' cheney) who somehow find the courage to be brave with other peoples lives and called heroes cowards? neocon ideologues don't change course----they only change tactics!

to VikingGI:
you speak of it being "frustrating to see how many also believe anything negative which is fed to them."

what about how frustrating it was for all of us who knew the falsity of what was being fed to the american public (yes and press!) as truth? how frustrating was it for all of us back then? the bush administration deserves every bit of heat it's getting and more. they are incompetent....and uncaring about who suffers (as long as it isn't themselves and their friends) in the furtherance of their ideology and greed.

you think the truth of things has come out? sadly not yet, but we have hopes!

[getcentered]

I don't really know why G.W. Bush sent US service men and women to be killed and maimed in Iraq. We do have some smart people in our government, but they%u2019re not in the White House.

Most of the experts, Bush and Chenney had at their disposal said going to Iraq is a mistake.

DOE: "The tubes cannot be use for a centrifuge"
CIA: "NO yellow cake connection"
NSA: "NO contact between Iraq and Al Qaeda"
Pentagon: "Taking Iraq will be a long and hard fought guerrilla warfare exercise"

I don't remember hearing much of this dissent in the run-up to "The GOP/Bush Iraq War". Why? I don't know, but I do know that Republicans were and are in power everywhere in our government.

The party wanting this war needed it to BEGIN quickly or it might never come to pass.

Bush, Chenney, GOP:

I put the blame solely in your hands for the cursory war in Iraq, which you and your sloppy administration led us into.

I WANT FAMILY OF MINE TO COME HOME ALIVE FROM IRAQ. I NEVER WANT CURSORY LEADERS PUTTING MY FAMILIY IN HARMS WAY, WHEN I DON'T KNOW WHY OR FOR DISPUTED REASONS.

Shame on Republicans for their lack of imagination, their poor performance as leaders and their willful ignorance when adapting policies that effect the lives of every American.

We have to do everything in our power to remove these incompetent leaders from power.
Americans need to vote with their minds and not their emotions so our government can be made up of leaders that will do the same.

[getcentered]

The neo-con's and the military industrial complex have really done it to us with this Iraq war.

I'm starting to think that the people that started this war in Iraq don't really want it to end. Why?
PROFITS, MONEY, COMMERCE?
If the war stops now then they won't sell as many bullets and guns or get to steal all the oil from the country.
IS IT ALL ABOUT MONEY AND INDUSTRY?

This is the only reason, our men and women were ordered to die in Iraq I can come up with.

GOP/Republicans/conservatives/neo-cons are the worst leaders a country could be duped into voting for. They have made a fool out of everyone who voted for them. From our president all the way down to the crappy school board who wants to teach "Intelligent Design" to our children. These people are DUMB and CRAZY! The neo-con generation needs to STAY at HOME and watch TV, and STAY OUT OF GOVERNMENT.