Navy vet says he was tortured by U.S. forces

By Sarah Schulte
ABC7Chicago.com
Dec. 24, 2006

Video HereDecember 18, 2006 - A Navy veteran from Chicago says he was detained and tortured by U.S. forces in Baghdad without being charged. Twenty-nine-year-old Donald Vance was a private security employee in Baghdad at the time of his arrest. He has filed a federal lawsuit against former U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

Donald Vance is a lifelong Chicagoan. After graduating from Taft High School he joined the Navy. He was discharged in the 90's. Two years ago, Vance went to work for a security contractor in Iraq. The 29-year-old wound up in an American prison. His experience is spelled out in a lawsuit that is based on the violation of Vance's constitutional rights.

His Bible is all he had. Donald Vance kept notes in it while he was detained for three months in Iraq. The 29-year-old Navy veteran was held at Camp Cropper, the United States military's maximum security detention site in Baghdad. To this day, Vance has no idea why the U.S. government imprisoned him and, he says, tortured him from April to July of this year.

"It's a 9-by-9 cell, built of cinder block, painted white. There is a Turkish toilet hole in the floor, which is, as I'm sure everyone knows, is a hole in the floor," said Vance.

Vance is back home in Chicago While he has filed a lawsuit against former U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Vance did not want his face shown on camera.

At the time of his arrest, Vance was working for a security contractor in Iraq. He wound up as an informant for the FBI, telling them about his company's alleged illegal activity. When U.S. soldiers raided the company at Vance's urging Vance and another American citizen became suspects.

"We were blindfolded, shackled, hands tied, and we were put inside Humvees and escorted away," Vance said.

Vance says for three months he was tortured by the U.S. government and denied any legal representation.

"In the history of this country, American citizens have always been entitled to the rule of law. And what they did to Mr. Vance is to toss the rule of law out the window," said Arthur Loevy, Vance's attorney.

Vance was never charged and released in July He remains shocked that the U.S. government can treat anyone like he was treated, let alone an American military veteran.

"Regardless of their nationality or their religion, background -- I could believe this was happening to anyone in any place," said Vance.

Vance is convinced that Donald Rumsfeld knew and signed off on his arrest and imprisonment. A Pentagon spokesperson told the New York Times that Vance and his American co-worker were treated fair and humanely. The pentagon says Vance was being held as a threat. The spokesperson also admitted that the U.S. military did not know Vance was an FBI informant until three weeks after he was arrested.