Inquiry into the CIA hits a series of snags

Dubai: Special Prosecutor John Durham has taken on the Gambino mafia family in New York, the Irish mob in Boston and he's put dozens of gangsters behind bars.

Now he's facing his toughest assignment to date: Investigate the Central Intelligence Agency itself for war crimes committed against Iraqi detainees.

Right now, in a government building in Alexandria, Virginia, the respected US Attorney has started calling witnesses before a secret federal grand jury looking into abuses allegedly committed by CIA interrogators at Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad.

One of the deaths being examined is that of Manadel Al Jamadi, more commonly known as "the iceman", who died in custody on November 3, 2003 at Abu Ghraib following repeated interrogation sessions. In an attempt to make his body look less abused, CIA agents packed it in ice to reduce decomposition and to throw investigators off the actual time of death. Al Jamadi's body was later removed from the infamous prison with an intravenous tube attached to one arm — in an apparent attempt to show he was still alive.

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The torture probe, however, is hampered by a lack of evidence from Abu Ghraib caused, in part, when Al Jamadi's blood was washed from a cell on the orders of a military officer. In addition, a bloody hood which covered Al Jamadi's head was destroyed on the orders of a CIA officer. After Al Jamadi died, military and CIA personnel argued over who was to blame, and his body was covered in ice and taken to a shower room overnight to allow them time to get their story straight.

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