There will be a 'dress rehearsal' in Spring of 2009 "to see how well people understand the proposed questions and how well questionnaire delivery, collection and processing arrangements work". The rehearsal will be limited to one urban consituency, West Edinburgh, and one rural constituency. Lewis and Harris. Public participation in this rehearsal is totally voluntary.

This is the first and perhaps best chance to sink the CACI contract. Everyone in West Edinburgh, Lewis and Harris should be told that the people they are giving their private details to are the colleagues of Abu Ghraib torturers, that their tax is profiting this gestapo corporation, and that they can stop this simply by telling the canvassers to bugger off.

This means local leafletting, postering, letter-writing, spray-painting, public meetings, all the leg-work that goes into the public making an informed decision to refuse to cooperate with torturers.

Anyone who does two minutes research into either CACI or successful tactics used against the poll tax in Scotland will also see more direct ways to help scupper the census.

The current Scottish government position is that vecause CACI staff haven't been charged then there is no reason to not award the contact to them. This is a false argument since the contractors are legally immune to US prosecution under the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act, which in 2003 held that only civilians hired through a contract directly with the Defense Department could be prosecuted for crimes overseas. They have not been prosecuted soley because they were granted immunity in advance. There is enough evidence in the Taguba Report to prosecute the two men under Scottish law - and yet the government is saying there is not enough evidence to forbid them from profitting from sensitive contacts here. This is immoral complicity.




FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

(PART ONE)

6. (S) I find that the intentional abuse of detainees by military police personnel included the following acts:

1. (S) Punching, slapping, and kicking detainees;
jumping on their naked feet;

2. (S) Videotaping and photographing naked male and
female detainees;

3. (S) Forcibly arranging detainees in various
sexually explicit positions for photographing;

4. (S) Forcing detainees to remove their clothing and
keeping them naked for several days at a time;

5. (S) Forcing naked male detainees to wear women's
underwear;

6. (S) Forcing groups of male detainees to masturbate
themselves while being photographed and videotaped;

7. (S) Arranging naked male detainees in a pile and
then jumping on them;

8. (S) Positioning a naked detainee on a MRE Box,
with a sandbag on his head, and attaching wires to his
sfingers, toes, and penis to simulate electric torture;

9. (S) Writing "I am a Rapest" (sic) on the leg of a
detainee alleged to have forcibly raped a 15-year old
fellow detainee, and then photographing him naked;

10. (S) Placing a dog chain or strap around a naked
detainee's neck and having a female Soldier pose for a
picture;

11. (S) A male MP guard having sex with a female
detainee;

12. (S) Using military working dogs (without muzzles)
to intimidate and frighten detainees, and in at least
one case biting and severely injuring a detainee;

13. (S) Taking photographs of dead Iraqi detainees.

"'Specifically I suspect that Col. Thomas M. Pappas, Lt. Col. Steve L. Jordan, Mr. Steven Stephanowicz and Mr. John Israel were either directly or indirectly responsible for the abuses at Abu Ghraib and strongly recommend immediate disciplinary actions ..." - Major General Antonio Taguba

Back in 2004 -- even before the latest allegations -- military investigators left little doubt that Stefanowicz was a perpetrator of abuse at Abu Ghraib. The Fay report found that he had directed the use of dogs on prisoners, forced a prisoner to wear women's underwear, kicked a prisoner into his cell, failed to report abuse, and lied to investigators. The Taguba report found that he instructed military police to abuse prisoners in an effort to "set the conditions" for interrogation. "He clearly knew his instructions equated to physical abuse," Taguba concluded about Stefanowicz.
 http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2006/03/31/big_steve/index1.html