News & Politics - Torture of Iraqi Prisoners

dayne · 05-01-2004, 03:22 PM

I didn't see a thread on the issue of Iraqi POW's being mistreated and tortured. So, I opened a thread on the topic. Any comments?

Yahoo News

Quote:

Iraq Prisoners Faced 'Sadistic' Abuses - Magazine

By Caroline Drees

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Iraqi prisoners faced numerous "sadistic, blatant and wanton criminal abuses" by U.S. soldiers, including sodomy and beatings, according to a U.S. Army report quoted by the New Yorker magazine

The New Yorker said it had obtained a 53-page, internal U.S. military report into alleged abuses at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad. In an article posted on its Web site on Saturday, the magazine said the report had been authorized by Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the top U.S. officer in Iraq (news - web sites), and was completed in February.

The May 10 issue of the magazine goes on sale on Monday.

The army report listed abuses such as "breaking chemical lights and pouring the phosphoric liquid on detainees; ... beating detainees with a broom handle and a chair; threatening male detainees with rape; allowing a military police guard to stitch the wound of a detainee who was injured after being slammed against the wall in his cell; sodomizing a detainee with a chemical light and perhaps a broom stick."

The report, written by Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba, said evidence to support the allegations included "detailed witness statements and the discovery of extremely graphic photographic evidence."

A U.S. defense official, who asked not to be identified, said he had not specifically heard about the report cited by the New Yorker, but said:

"We take all reports of detainee abuse seriously. All allegations of mistreatment are investigated. We are committed to treating all persons under our control with dignity, respect and humanity ... . The U.S. Army has acted immediately in all cases of alleged abuse."

INVESTIGATION UNDER WAY

News of the military report comes days after photographs showing abuse by U.S. troops of Iraqi prisoners were published and broadcast around the globe.

The photos showed U.S. troops smiling, posing, laughing or giving the thumbs-up sign as naked, male Iraqi prisoners were stacked in a pyramid or positioned to simulate sex acts with one another.

President Bush (news - web sites) said on Friday he was deeply disgusted by the abuse but said only a "few people" were to blame. He defended the conduct of the U.S. occupation forces as the White House scrambled to head off a backlash in Iraq and across the Arab world.

A British newspaper also published pictures showing British soldiers apparently urinating on a shackled Iraqi prisoner of war. Prime Minister Tony Blair (news - web sites) said on Saturday that abuse of Iraqi prisoners was "completely and totally unacceptable."

U.S. officials said on Thursday that the military is weighing disciplinary action against the Army general who was in charge of the Abu Ghraib prison, a center of torture and executions under toppled President Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s government.

The U.S. military now holds several thousand prisoners at Abu Ghraib, most of them rounded up on suspicion of carrying out attacks against U.S.-led forces.

The U.S. military announced on March 20 it had brought criminal charges against six soldiers with the 800th Military Police Brigade, which could lead to courts-martial. The charges, stemming from a probe launched in January, relate to accusations of abuses carried out in November and December 2003 on around 20 detainees at the prison.

The charges included indecent acts with another person, maltreatment, battery, dereliction of duty and aggravated assault, Morgenthaler said.

Also from Yahoo News!

Quote:

U.S. Tries to Calm Furor Caused by Photos

By Dana Milbank, Washington Post Staff Writer

Arab countries reacted with rage and revulsion yesterday after images of U.S. soldiers abusing Iraqi prisoners were broadcast around the world.

Bush administration and U.S. military officials scrambled to contain the furor and to assuage concerns among allies. The photos showed U.S. troops celebrating as prisoners were sexually humiliated and otherwise abused.

"I shared a deep disgust that those prisoners were treated the way they were treated," President Bush (news - web sites) said in a Rose Garden appearance with Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin. "Their treatment does not reflect the nature of the American people. That's not the way we do things in America. And so I didn't like it one bit." Bush said the abuses will be investigated and the perpetrators "will be taken care of."

Analysts said the strong response by Bush appeared directed less at an American audience than at an international audience skeptical about U.S. intentions in Iraq (news - web sites). The United States and Britain are struggling to meet a June 30 deadline for a transfer of sovereignty in Iraq, and the images threatened to undermine already tenuous international cooperation.

U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan (news - web sites) said he was "deeply disturbed" by the photos, and the British government called the matter appalling, though later it confirmed it was investigating allegations of abuse by British soldiers.

Arab countries were more strident, with the Arab League calling the mistreatment "savage acts" and Arab broadcast networks describing the incidents in similar terms. Arab newspapers and students and even a member of the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council said the images could be pivotal in turning Iraqis against the United States.

"This is the logic and modus operandi of imperialist conquest and colonial occupation," the Tehran Times wrote. "The pictures of torture, brutality and sexual sadism are representative of the entire criminal operation being conducted in Iraq."

The photos, first broadcast Wednesday on CBS's "60 Minutes II," showed hooded prisoners piled in a human pyramid and simulating sex acts, as U.S. soldiers celebrated. One photo showed a hooded prisoner standing on a box with wires attached to his hands; the prisoner was told, falsely, that he would be electrocuted if he fell off the box.

"It provides a graphic portrayal of many of the worst impressions that much of the world has about America," said Andrew Kohut, who, as director of the Pew Research Center, has polled extensively in Arab and European countries. "It's red meat to large numbers of people all around the world who are increasingly anti-American and don't think we represent the things Americans pride themselves on."

Foreign policy experts said the photos could cause lasting damage to U.S. efforts. "It is a disaster," said Michael Rubin, resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and until earlier this year a political adviser to the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority. "Five or six people have managed to soil the reputation of American soldiers worldwide."

Arab commentators said the images were particularly damaging because of Muslim restrictions on nudity. The photos also invited parallels to Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s regime because the abuse occurred in Abu Ghraib, a prison used by Hussein for torture.

Without detailing the abuses, the military brought criminal charges in March against six soldiers over incidents, allegedly the ones in the photos, at the prison in November and December 2003. Charges included indecent acts with another person, maltreatment, battery, dereliction of duty and aggravated assault. The military has also recommended disciplinary action against seven U.S. officers involved in running the prison.

In addition, the commander of the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, detention facility, Maj. Gen. Geoffrey D. Miller, is being sent to Iraq to take over the coalition detention facilities. And the CIA (news - web sites) said yesterday that its inspector general has two long-standing probes into abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib, including one investigation into a prisoner's death. But a CIA spokesman said there is "no direct evidence" connecting the CIA to the incidents in the photographs.

In Baghdad, Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, a military spokesman, said he tried to limit the damage before the CBS show on Wednesday. "I talked with the Arab press two nights ago, before the '60 Minutes' show was broadcast because I wanted the Arab press to understand and possibly communicate to their fellow Iraqis a couple of key points," he said. Kimmitt said the U.S. military is "absolutely appalled" by the photos and that the perpetrators are facing criminal charges. He also said authorities believe the incident involves fewer than 20 of about 8,000 prisoners at Abu Ghraib.

"Please don't for a moment think that that's the entire U.S. Army or the U.S. military, because it's not," Kimmitt said in remarks directed at Iraqis. "And if you think those soldiers that are walking up and down the street approve of what they saw, condone what they saw or excuse what they saw, I can tell you that I've got 150,000 other American soldiers who feel as appalled and disappointed as I do at the actions of those few."

Papri · 05-01-2004, 04:08 PM

I was just about to post this....if the photographs to turn out to be true, then this is absolutely sickening. I suppose we just have to wait and see what happens.

Phébé la Frenchie · 05-01-2004, 05:27 PM

Hm, well last night while passing through my living room I glanced at the TV just as they were showing the photos, and even though they were heavily blurred because of the nudity, I felt really, really sick... I suppose it's naive of me to say I can't believe people can be so cruel.

ceilirose · 05-01-2004, 05:48 PM

This is another slant on this story..I believe the general spoken of in dayne's first article is Janis Karpinski. The article is from the New York Times.

Quote:

General Suggests Abuses at Iraq Jail Were Encouraged
By PHILIP SHENON

Published: May 2, 2004

WASHINGTON, May 1 � The Army Reserve general whose military police officers were photographed as they mistreated Iraqi prisoners said Saturday that she had been "sickened" by the pictures and had known nothing about the sexual humiliation and other abuse until weeks later.

But the officer, Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski of the 800th Military Police Brigade, said the special high-security cellblock at the Abu Ghraib prison, west of Baghdad, where the abuses took place had been under the tight control of a separate group of military intelligence officers who had so far avoided any public blame.

In her first public comments about the brutality � which drew wide attention and condemnation after photographs documenting it were broadcast Wednesday night by CBS News � General Karpinski said that while the reservists involved were "bad people" and deserved punishment, she suspected they were acting with the encouragement, if not at the direction, of military intelligence units that ran the special cellblock used for interrogation.

Speaking in a telephone interview from her home in South Carolina, the general said military commanders in Iraq were trying to shift the blame exclusively to her and the reservists.

"We're disposable," she said of the military's attitude toward reservists. "Why would they want the active-duty people to take the blame? They want to put this on the M.P.'s and hope that this thing goes away. Well, it's not going to go away."

She said the special cellblock, known as 1A, was one of about two dozen in the large prison and was essentially off limits to soldiers who were not part of the interrogations.

She said repeatedly in the interview that she was not defending the actions of the reservists who took part in the brutality, who were part of her command. She said that when she was first presented with the photographs of the abuse in January, they "sickened me."

"I put my head down because I really thought I was going to throw up," she said. "It was awful. My immediate reaction was: These are bad people, because their faces revealed how much pleasure they felt at this."

But she said the context of the brutality had been lost, including the fact that the military police officers involved represented only a small fraction of the nearly 3,400 reservists who reported to her from 16 different prisons and similar locations around Iraq.

She said she was also alarmed that little attention has been paid to the military unit that controlled Cellblock 1A, where her soldiers guarded the Iraqi detainees between interrogations.

She said that the floor space of the two-story cellblock was only about 40 feet by 20 feet, and that military intelligence officers were in and out of the cellblock "24 hours a day."

"They were in there at 2 in the morning, they were at 4 in the afternoon," said General Karpinski, who arrived in Iraq last June and who was the only woman to hold a command in the war zone. "This was no 9-to-5 job."

The photographs of American soldiers smiling, laughing and signaling "thumbs up" as Iraqi detainees were forced into sexually humiliating positions provoked outrage just as the American military was seeking to pacify a rising insurgency and gain the trust of more Iraqis before turning over sovereignty to a new government on June 30.

General Karpinski, who has returned to South Carolina and her civilian profession as a business consultant, said she visited Abu Ghraib as often as twice a week last fall and had repeatedly instructed military police officers under her command to treat prisoners humanely and in accord with international human rights agreements.

"I can speak some Arabic," she said. "I'm not fluent, but when I went to any of my prison facilities, I would make it a point to try to talk to the detainees."

But she said she did not visit Cellblock 1A, in keeping with the wishes of military intelligence officers who, she said, worried that unnecessary visits might interfere with their interrogations of Iraqis.

She acknowledged that she "probably should have been more aggressive" about visiting the interrogation cellblock. She stressed that she had received no reports from any of her commanders of possible prisoner abuses in the cellblock.

After the first allegations of abuse circulated earlier this year, Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, the senior American commander in Iraq, ordered sweeping inquiries into whether any commanders � including General Karpinski � should be held responsible. He also ordered a review of policies and procedures at all of the prisons controlled by occupation forces in Iraq.

The administrative review, known in the military criminal justice system as an AR15-6, was completed March 1 by Army Maj. Gen. Antonio M. Taguba, who had assembled a team of officers trained in military detention. The report was approved by his superior, Lt. Gen. David D. McKiernan, commander of American ground forces in the Middle East, and forwarded to General Sanchez on April 4.

The finding documented the abuses illustrated by the photographs circulating this week, as well as other problems in the military's detainee system in Iraq.

Of course it's a blame game now and whatever way you look at it - it's an atrocious, appalling situation no matter who did it.

*Ledi* · 05-01-2004, 06:20 PM

hmmm... I thought the US troops were there to FREE the Iraqis... not to hurt them even more? .. and yes I know that they're prisoners, but that doesn't make them any different from other human beings.

*Ledi* · 05-01-2004, 06:21 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Ph�b� la Frenchie:
Hm, well last night while passing through my living room I glanced at the TV just as they were showing the photos, and even though they were heavily blurred because of the nudity, I felt really, really sick... I suppose it's naive of me to say I can't believe people can be so cruel.

make that two of us.

dayne · 05-01-2004, 09:34 PM

Besides the obvious sadistic nature of these crimes, it also appalls me that some poeple like to take pictures or make videotapes of their exploits. Apparently, they may have wanted to take pictures for reminscing purposes or show some of their buddies back home their exploits from war.

I think that these reservists are responsible for their actions regardless. I am pretty sure the higher-ranking officers never asked them to photograph the POW's. The smile and the thumbs-up indicate that they obviously enjoyed dehumanizing the prisoners.

pacifierrocks · 05-02-2004, 02:51 AM

I saw the report on this on tv and i was so shocked. Not only by the treatment of them, but how in the pictures some of the soldiers would be smiling at the camera with thumbs up. i honestly don't know how people can do that. its so sickening.

Headhunter · 05-02-2004, 02:02 PM

American soldiers have a long history of abusing their prisoners; wasn't surprised to see it happen to Iraqi captives. Not surprised to see very little being done about it either, unfortunately...

Enigma, I.C. · 05-02-2004, 02:06 PM

Where is the sense of popular outrage over this?

Papri · 05-02-2004, 02:50 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Enigma, I.C.:
Where is the sense of popular outrage over this?

My thoughts exactly. Sureley people want to be vocal about something like this?

**TheAngel** · 05-02-2004, 05:09 PM

I say let them do it. After the Iraqi people drug the bodies of our dead through the streets and hung them from a bridge, I say do with the prisoners as you will. Do you think they treat us any better? You're naive if you think we're the only ones doing things that aren't totally PC over there.

*Ledi* · 05-02-2004, 05:14 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by TheAngel:
I say let them do it. After the Iraqi people drug the bodies of our dead through the streets and hung them from a bridge, I say do with the prisoners as you will. Do you think they treat us any better? You're naive if you think we're the only ones doing things that aren't totally PC over there.

ever heard of... "two wrongs don't make a right"?

so Iraqis who do that are stupid, and animals in my eyes. and so are the American soldiers now.

I'm Not Your Boy Toy · 05-02-2004, 06:08 PM

this isnt news to me. things like this happen in other countries military and unfortunately its a part of life. nothing will be done cuz no matter who they reprimand 20 others will still be doing it.

it happens to regular prisoners but because they did something wrong its ok to abuse them [img]smilies/rolleyes.gif[/img]

*Juli* · 05-02-2004, 08:12 PM

I was horrified when I saw the pictures. It's so disgusting that they did this to the soldiers, let alone photographed it with such enthusiasm!

Absolutely disgusting.


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