WASHINGTON, May 30 — Twenty death certificates for Afghan and Iraqi prisoners who died in American custody were completed in a 10-day rush only after the investigation into the notorious abuses at Abu Ghraib became public last month, even though some of the deaths occurred months — in some cases many months — before.

Officers from Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, the headquarters of the Armed Forces Medical Examiner, signed the certificates between May 12 and 21, including one certificate for an Afghan prisoner killed at the American military base at Bagram on Dec. 10, 2002, in what an autopsy found was a homicide.
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There is already ample evidence of a confusing array of investigations," said Eugene Fidell, the president of the National Institute of Military Justice in Washington. "I believe the situation has already lost focus. It has all the makings of an investigative debacle."

- posted by Cynthia @ 11:15 PM | | | Link |