Disgusting reports here on the mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners in a military prison.
In one photograph obtained by the program, naked Iraq prisoners are stacked in a human pyramid, one with a slur written on his skin in English. In another, a prisoner stands on a box, his head covered, wires attached to his body. The program said that according to the United States Army, he had been told that if he fell off the box, he would be electrocuted. Other photographs show male prisoners positioned to simulate sex with each other.
“The pictures show Americans, men and women, in military uniforms, posing with naked Iraqi prisoners,” states a transcript of the program’s script, made available Wednesday night. “And in most of the pictures, the Americans are laughing, posing, pointing or giving the camera a thumbs-up.”
The CBS News program said the Army also had photographs showing a detainee with wires attached to his genitals and another showing a dog attacking an Iraqi prisoner. The program also reported that the Army’s investigation of the case included a statement from an Iraqi detainee who charges that a translator hired to work at the prison raped a male juvenile prisoner.
I definitely agree that the officials in charge of the prison should get nailed to the wall for this one, for it happening on their watch if nothing else. The brigadier general in charge of the prison has been reassigned — while I doubt he’ll get court martialled or anything, I expect (and hope) it will be a career-stopper.
My only disagreement with the article is the self-serving excuses from the defense attorney for one of the soldiers involved.
Gary Myers, the lawyer for one of the enlisted men charged, said in an interview that the military had treated the six soldiers as scapegoats and had failed to address adequately the responsibilities of senior commanders and intelligence personnel involved in the interrogations.
Mr. Myers said the accused men, all from an Army Reserve military police unit, had been told to soften up the prisoners by more senior American interrogators, some of whom they believe were intelligence officials and outside contractors.
“This case involves a monumental failure of leadership, where lower-level enlisted people are being scapegoated,” Mr. Myers said. “The real story is not in these six young enlisted people. The real story is the manner in which the intelligence community forced them into this position.”
Bullshit. This is not a matter of “inadequate training” or being pressured by intelligence officers, or scapegoating, or anything else. The behavior described and in the photos is clearly wrong, and is clearly a matter for jollity by the perpetrators. They deserve the full punishment for their actions, if so convicted by the courts martial they face.
(via Scott)
I found this to be a bit on the outrageous side.
“The US army confirmed that the general in charge of Abu Ghraib jail is facing disciplinary measures and that six low-ranking soldiers have been charged with abusing and sexually humiliating detainees.
Lawyers for the soldiers argue they are being made scapegoats for a rogue military prison system in which mercenaries give orders without legal accountability.
A military report into the Abu Ghraib case – parts of which were made available to the Guardian – makes it clear that private contractors were supervising interrogations in the prison, which was notorious for torture and executions under Saddam Hussein.
One civilian contractor was accused of raping a young male prisoner but has not been charged because military law has no jurisdiction over him.”
The NY Times story above couches it this way: The [60 Minutes II] program also reported that the Army’s investigation of the case included a statement from an Iraqi detainee who charges that a translator hired to work at the prison raped a male juvenile prisoner.
I’m reluctant to provide too much credibility if the accusation is solely from one of the detainees. And it’s ludicrous to say that the rape of a prisoner in US military custody would not be subject to action by the military. (I suspect if I went onto a military base and committed a crime, I would be subject to prosecution.)
Still, given the nature of what else has been uncovered there, it certainly bears further investigation.
“(I suspect if I went onto a military base and committed a crime, I would be subject to prosecution.)”
Sure. In a civilian court in most cases (you’d be turned over to the civilian authorities). So, that will no doubt happen to the “civilian contractors”. If they are lucky, it will be US authorities, not Iraqi authorities.
No reservist *I know* would behave in such a fashion. That includes me. No damn excuse for such behavior, we’re supposed to be better than the guys who did this for a living (the folks who used to run those prisons). Gack.
What fred said, plus Randy has in the past talked about the post Veitnam war/winter soldier war crimes/UCMJ/right to refuse an unlawful order training that the military conducted.
Plus one of the other guys that I game with has told me all of the rules and training that he had to go through before going to Bosnia.
Maybe they don’t do that anymore. Doubtful, but maybe.
It is possible that the reserve troops have not had all the adequate training they need — though if these are Army Reserve military police (as the Times reported), I’d think they’d have more training than the average grunt in such things.
The Times story also mentions that this case came to light via an American soldier reporting it, FWIW.
The Guardian story that BD quotes above focuses quite a bit on use of military contractors (a/k/a private security firms a/k/a mercenaries a/k/a “hired guns,” depending on who’s doing the describing in what context in Iraq)
Lawyers for the soldiers argue they are being made scapegoats for a rogue military prison system in which mercenaries give orders without legal accountability.
If the prison facility commander put his troops under the command of non-military personnel, then “administrative review” is the least of his concern.
Titan, based in San Diego, describes itself as a “a leading provider of comprehensive information and communications products, solutions and services for national security”. It recently won a big contract for providing translation services to the US army. CACI, which has headquarters in Virginia, claims on its website to “help America’s intelligence community collect, analyse and share global information in the war on terrorism”. […] According to the military report on Abu Ghraib, both played an important role at the prison.
At one point, the investigators say: “A CACI instructor was terminated because he allowed and/or instructed MPs who were not trained in interrogation techniques to facilitate interrogations by setting conditions which were neither authorised [nor] in accordance with applicable regulations/policy.”
More disturbing is this, which goes into more detail of BD’s comment above:
Colonel Jill Morgenthaler, speaking for central command, told the Guardian: “One contractor was originally included with six soldiers, accused for his treatment of the prisoners, but we had no jurisdiction over him. It was left up to the contractor on how to deal with him.”
She did not specify the accusation facing the contractor, but according to several sources with detailed knowledge of the case, he raped an Iraqi inmate in his mid-teens.
Appalling, both in that it happened and that it’s dismissed as “we had no jurisdiction over him.” A military contractor, in a military facility, in a country under the control of a US-led provisional government, had no jurisdiction? Absurd.
Now if you told me that there was insufficient evidence to hold him on the charge, and all they could do was ship his ass out of there, that I could believe.
One of the soldiers, Staff Sgt Chip Frederick is accused of posing in a photograph sitting on top of a detainee, committing an indecent act and with assault for striking detainees – and ordering detainees to strike each other.
He told CBS: “We had no support, no training whatsoever. And I kept asking my chain of command for certain things … like rules and regulations.”
You needed to be told what the rules were about posing for a photo sitting on top of a detainee? Yeesh.
I tend to dismiss analysis by one of the defense attorneys, but certainly there is need for further investigation, which is what it sounds like is going on.
Also, most reservists that I know that are MP’s are FULL TIME PROFESSIONAL POLICE in their “real jobs”. At worst, there’s a good sprinkling of such folks in the unit.
And any NCO making the rank of sergeant should have gone through at least one (three in my case) “service schools” to make you a member of the NCO Corps–the “backbone of the Army”.
If the behavior described is true, these guys are an utter disgrace to the NCO Corps.
As for contractors, well, if I were a NCO in a unit guarding a prison and I saw a contractor doing something out of bounds, I’d restrain first and ask questions or worry about jurisdiction later.
Argh. Again.
it is shameful n appalling we have been reporting on rumors for months with info direct from iraq, this not the action of a few but co-ordinating breaking of prisoners with rape n torture this is not isolated.
private contractors cannot be held accountable for rapping young boys, degrading acts on iraqis.
liberators my foot, n the british r worse this was shown last year then hushed up now it cannot be denied with pictures published, it is a real shame.
i think now is the time to for timetable for collation to leave the country u can go home n commit such crimes we do not need this, we have been rapped enough by saddam we do not need foreigners doing to us.
if U as I am an iraqi who had enough of US adminstration n their bad judgements the US people have to wake up otherwise worse than vietnam is facing u in the mirror, do not hide behind the rotten adminstration work to vote them out NOW
I disagree that this is any sort of systemic, coordinated action by American forces. This sort of thing is repugnant to most Americans (and, in fact, the evidence in the case was brought forward by an American soldier). Ditto, from what I can tell, regarding the Brits. That these acts have taken place is apalling, but I do not see anything that tells me this is intentional policy.
After reading things over the past several days I’m thinking the “free iraq” above is in the right, and we had our head in a hole over what’s being done in our name over there.
It’s starting to sound like Lord of the Flies without the rescuing adults at the end. A few will be scapegoated like PVT. Slovik, and the officers and civilians that gave them the orders will go on their merry way. The whole lot of them should be sent to The Hague for war crimes tribunals.
Sad that it took a few pictures for anything to be done about it.
We’ll see. I think it’s too early to draw any conclusions — everyone at this point is still trying to figure out if the dots can actually be connected. Perhaps that is my own naivete speaking.
Tonight I saw the president of the United States go on Arab television to explain what the difference was between his regime in Iraq and the regime of Saddam Hussein.
That this distinction had to be made at all–why yes, we’ve humiliated, tortured and murdered Iraqis under our watch in the Iraqi prison system, but we’re different from Saddam because someone will pay …
Oh, man.
The other thing that struck me? While everyone around him is profoundly apologizing, the President did not apologize in any of the material I saw. He used words such as “despicable”, “unAmerican”, and “justice” but he did not apologize.
He’s the commander in chief. The buck is supposed to stop with him. What sort of message does this send?
I feel profound sadness every time I think of the 135,000 young Americans who are now committed to stay in Iraq through 2005. While you know and I know that 99.99999% of them are good kids, completely incapable of the kinds of atrocities now coming to light, I wonder how many Iraqi’s can see that?
I feel as if we’re in the eye of the storm, that the full fury that these pictures have stirred up is yet to come. How many of these 135,000 young people are going to come home in flag draped coffins?
My heart goes out to your country.
Thanks, Marn.
The unwillingness (or inability) of Bush to apologize is vexing to me. On the one hand, there are indeed times when it seems the proper and right thing to do. On the other hand, I also know that making an apology — whether over 9/11 or over this matter — would have dire consequences of its own. There are people who would exploit such an apology — and who would then demand an apology for something else, and something else … “The president apologized for mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners — why does he not apologize of the mistreatment of poor working women who’ve lost their Food Stamps because of …” etc.
And for every analyst I’ve heard who’s said that apologies are very important to the Arab world, I’ve heard another who says that they are seen as a sign of weakness, to be exploited.
I don’t know. I want him to apologize. I can understand, giving him the benefit of the doubt, why he does not.
As to the long-term effects, it’s equally hard to say. There are certainly those who need no further provocation to hate and attack Americans. There may be some for whom this sways them into attacks. There may be others who this drives from being helpful. And there will doubtless be others who do realize that this is hardly anything unusual in the “justice system” of so many Middle Eastern tyrannies (“allies” of ours or not). It’s very hard to judge at this point, between pundits and camera-focused street demonstrations.
That assumes that this is as relatively limited as I think it is. And as troubling is how this event will affect the morale of our troops there, will affect their ability to carry out their missions, will possibly restrain us from using proper force when needful, for fear of both how it will be seen by commanders, the media, the public at home, and the public in Iraq. Inappropriate over-restraint could be as deadly an error as inappropriate license and brutality.