Donald J. Ryder

Last updated
Donald J. Ryder
Donald Ryder.jpg
Major General Donald J. Ryder c. 2003
AllegianceUnited States
Service/branch United States Army
Years of service1971–2006
Rank Major General
Commands held United States Army Provost Marshal General
United States Army Criminal Investigation Command
Battles/wars Gulf War
Iraq War
Awards Army Distinguished Service Medal
Legion of Merit (3)
Bronze Star Medal

Donald Ryder is a retired major general of the United States Army who served as United States Army Provost Marshal General from 2003 to 2006.

Contents

Biography

Ryder was commissioned into the United States Army in 1971. He was promoted to major general in 2001. He served as the most senior officer in the Criminal Investigation Division and was also the top Army Law Enforcement officer as the Army Provost Marshal General.

Taguba Report

In 2003, Ryder conducted an inquiry into the abuse of prisoners in Iraq, cited in the Taguba Report. Some of the key recommendations of Ryder's report were directly contrary to the recommendations of Major General Geoffrey Miller, formerly the commander of Camp Delta.

Ryder recommended that the duties of the military police who guarded detainees be strictly separated from the duties of the Military Intelligence officers who interrogated them.

General Miller had urged closer cooperation between guards and interrogators. Miller had recommended that guards "set the conditions" for successful interrogation—a vague term that some critics believe was the trigger for some of the abuse some guards later committed. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld's response to the public release of the news of the Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse was to ignore Ryder and Taguba's recommendations and appoint General Miller to take over the direction of the prison facilities in Iraq. Ryder also oversaw the organization and operations of the DoD Criminal Investigation Task Force (CITF), which conducted terrorism investigations. Ryder retired in 2007.

Awards and decorations

During his military career, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal, the Legion of Merit with two oak leaf clusters, the Bronze Star Medal, the Meritorious Service Medal with oak leaf cluster, Army Commendation Medal with three oak leaf clusters, the Southwest Asia Service Medal with two campaign stars, the Armed Forces Service Medal, the Humanitarian Service Medal, and the NATO Medal.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Janis Karpinski</span> Retired United States Army officer (born 1953)

Janis Leigh Karpinski is a retired career officer in the United States Army Reserve. She is notable for having commanded the forces that operated Abu Ghraib and other prisons in Iraq in 2003 and 2004, at the time of the scandal related to torture and prisoner abuse. She commanded three prisons in Iraq and the forces that ran them. Her education includes a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and secondary education from Kean College, a Master of Arts degree in aviation management from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, and a Master of Arts in strategic studies from the United States Army War College.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abu Ghraib</span> Town in Baghdad Governorate, Iraq

Abu Ghraib is a city in the Baghdad Governorate of Iraq, located just west of Baghdad's city center, or northwest of Baghdad International Airport. It has a population of 189,000 (2003). The old road to Jordan passes through Abu Ghraib. The government of Iraq created the city and Abu Ghraib District in 1944.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Graner</span> Soldier convicted of prisoner abuse (born 1968)

Charles A. Graner Jr. is an American former soldier who was court-martialed for prisoner abuse after the 2003–2004 Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal. Along with other soldiers of his Army Reserve unit, the 372nd Military Police Company, Graner was accused of allowing and inflicting sexual, physical, and psychological abuse on Iraqi detainees in Abu Ghraib prison, a notorious prison in Baghdad during the United States' occupation of Iraq.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Antonio Taguba</span> Retired United States Army general (born 1950)

Antonio Mario Taguba is a retired major general in the United States Army. He was the second American citizen of Philippine birth to be promoted to general officer rank in the United States Army.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Camp Bucca</span> American detention facility in Iraq

Camp Bucca was a forward operating base that housed a theater internment facility maintained by the United States military in the vicinity of Umm Qasr, Iraq. After being taken over by the U.S. military in April 2003, it was renamed after Ronald Bucca, a New York City fire marshal who died in the 11 September 2001 attacks. The site where Camp Bucca was built had earlier housed the tallest structure in Iraq, a 492-meter-high TV mast.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse</span> 2004 American military scandal during the Iraq War

During the early stages of the Iraq War, members of the United States Army and the Central Intelligence Agency committed a series of human rights violations and war crimes against detainees in the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, including physical abuse, sexual humiliation, physical and psychological torture, and rape, as well as the killing of Manadel al-Jamadi and the desecration of his body. The abuses came to public attention with the publication of photographs of the abuse by CBS News in April 2004. The incidents caused shock and outrage, receiving widespread condemnation within the United States and internationally.

About six months after the United States invasion of Iraq of 2003, rumors of Iraq prison abuse scandals started to emerge.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Taguba Report</span> 2004 report of the United States government

The Taguba Report, officially titled US Army 15-6 Report of Abuse of Prisoners in Iraq, is a report published in May 2004 containing the findings from an official military inquiry into the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse. It is named after Major General Antonio Taguba, the report's principal author.

Steven Anthony Stefanowicz was involved, as a private contractor for CACI International, in the interrogations at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Geoffrey D. Miller</span> Retired United States Army Major General

Geoffrey D. Miller is a retired United States Army major general who commanded the US detention facilities at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and Iraq. Detention facilities in Iraq under his command included Abu Ghraib prison, Camp Cropper, and Camp Bucca. He is noted for having trained soldiers in using torture, or "enhanced interrogation techniques" in US euphemism, and for carrying out the "First Special Interrogation Plan," signed by the Secretary of Defense, against a Guantanamo detainee.

Ghost detainee is a term used in the executive branch of the United States government to designate a person held in a detention center, whose identity has been hidden by keeping them unregistered and therefore anonymous. Such uses arose as the Bush administration initiated the War on Terror following the 9/11 attacks of 2001 in the United States. As documented in the 2004 Taguba Report, it was used in the same manner by United States officials and contractors of the Joint Interrogation and Debriefing Center at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq in 2003–2004.

Thomas M. Pappas is a former United States Army colonel who is a civilian intelligence officer with the Army's Training and Doctrine Command at Fort Eustis, Virginia.

United States Army Captain Carolyn Wood is a military intelligence officer who served in both Afghanistan and Iraq. She was implicated by the Fay Report to have "failed" in several aspects of her command regarding her oversight of interrogators at Abu Ghraib. She was alleged by Amnesty International to be centrally involved in the 2003 Abu Ghraib and 2002 Bagram prisoner abuse cases. Wood is featured in the 2008 Academy award-winning documentary Taxi to the Dark Side.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fay Report</span> Military investigation into the Abu Ghraib torture and abuse scandal

The Fay Report, officially titled Investigation of Intelligence Activities at Abu Ghraib, was a military investigation into the torture and abuse of prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. It was sparked by leaked images of Iraqi prisoners, hooded and naked, being mistreated obtained by the United States and global media in April 2004. The Fay Report was one of five such investigations ordered by the military and was the third to be submitted, as it was completed and released on August 25, 2004. Prior to the report's release, seven reservist military police had already been charged for their roles in the abuse at the prison, and so the report examined the role of military intelligence, specifically the 205th Military Intelligence Brigade that was responsible for the interrogation of prisoners at Abu Ghraib. General Paul J. Kern was the appointing authority for the report and oversaw the investigation. The chief investigators were Major General George Fay, whom the report is named after, and Lieutenant General Anthony R. Jones.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Randall Schmidt</span> United States Air Force general

Randall Mark Schmidt was a lieutenant general in the United States Air Force.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rick Baccus</span> United States Army general

Rick Baccus is a retired Army National Guard Brigadier General. Baccus received a regular Army commission in 1974 as an Infantry Officer through the Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) program and immediately entered active duty. He is most noted for commanding the Guantanamo Bay detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba in 2002.

Steven L. Jordan is a former United States Army Reserve officer. Jordan volunteered to return to active duty to support the war in Iraq, and as a civil affairs officer with a background in military intelligence, was made the director of the Joint Interrogation Debriefing Center at Abu Ghraib prison.

The Ryder Report, officially the Report on Detention and Corrections Operations in Iraq, is an official report produced by an inquiry by U.S Provost Marshal General Donald Ryder into reports of abuse by American troops in Iraq. Ryder's report was completed on November 5, 2003.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rodney L. Johnson</span> United States Army general

Brigadier General Rodney L. Johnson was a senior officer of the United States Army as the 9th Commanding General of the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command and the 12th Provost Marshal General of the Army.

A number of incidents stemming from the September 11 attacks have raised questions about legality.

References

  1. ^ Annex 19 of the Taguba Report, Taguba Report
  2. ^ As Insurgency Grew, So Did Prison Abuse: Needing Intelligence, U.S. Pressed Detainees, The Washington Post , May 10, 2004
  3. ^ Annex 20 of the Taguba Report, Taguba Report