CIA officer under scrutiny in death of prisoner in Iraq

Yet, in November 2003, CIA officers brought a prisoner, Manadel al-Jamadi, to Abu Ghraib and, instead of turning him over to the Army, took him to a shower stall. They reportedly put a sandbag over his head, handcuffed him behind his back, and chained his arms to a barred window. When he leaned forward, his arms stretched painfully behind and above his back.

The CIA interrogated Jamadi alone. Within an hour, he was dead.

Now, nearly eight years after a photo of an Army officer grinning over Jamadi’s body became an indelible image in the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal, federal prosecutors are investigating whether his death amounted to a war crime.

The instructions from CIA lawyers could become an important element of that inquiry. Though it is not required for prosecutors to show that someone knew such interrogations were against the rules, it is still valuable evidence, said David Crane, a Syracuse University law professor and former war crimes prosecutor. The instructions also undercut the argument that the CIA officers were simply following the rules laid out by their superiors.

“The government can say, ‘He was told not to, and he went ahead and did it anyway,’ ’’ Crane said.

Two witnesses who testified before a grand jury in Virginia said they were asked about Stormoen’s role at the prison and his whereabouts when Jamadi died. The witnesses and officials agreed to discuss the case only on condition of anonymity because they were told not to speak with reporters.

Stormoen, who ran what was known in the CIA as the detainee exploitation cell, processed Jamadi into the prison but was not in the shower room when he died.