Naive thoughts about US treatment of Prisoners

[UKResident]

On my computer Sid Hartha doesn't have a sig, others do, he doesn't. l still think his post was wrong, hardly ironic when it was in isolation. l was about to post in defence of Manker, but thankfully l don't have to, that was too close for comfort.

[ruthie]

You might want to check out the Human Rights Watch Report "The New Iraq?
Torture and ill-treatment of detainees in Iraqi custody" on abuse..just released.
Here is another tidbit..about the lack of accountability for war crimes.

Military files describe alleged detainee abuse across Iraq

By Gail Gibson
Tribune Newspapers: Baltimore Sun
Published January 25, 2005


The Army launched dozens of investigations into detainee abuses across Iraq in the past two years, but case after case was closed with U.S. troops facing no charges or only minimal punishment, military records released Monday show.

The documents, internal reports from more than 50 criminal investigations, challenge the government's claims last year that photographed abuses at Abu Ghraib were the isolated pranks of a few low-ranking soldiers. The records describe alleged misdeeds at U.S. facilities across Iraq that are, in some instances, strikingly similar to the publicized abuses at Abu Ghraib prison.

The records include new allegations of forced sodomy, the use of dogs to frighten detainees and severe beatings of hooded and handcuffed prisoners. In one case, investigators determined that a commander and three members of an Army Special Forces unit--none of whom were publicly identified--had committed murder by luring an Afghan civilian to a roadblock before shooting him.

No court-martial was convened in the case, according to the records released Monday. Only one of the soldiers was punished, receiving a written reprimand.

In another case, a soldier told investigators: "I saw what I think were war crimes on the people of Iraq." But in closing the case, agents with the Army Criminal Investigation Command said there was "insufficient evidence to prove or disprove" the soldier's claims from the Camp Red detention facility in Baghdad--a finding repeated often in the investigative files.

ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero said the investigative records released by the government so far--obtained through the organization's ongoing lawsuit under the Freedom of Information Act--show a pattern of "woefully inadequate" investigations.

An Army spokesman said Monday that the files, many of them heavily redacted, do not give the full picture of how seriously the military has responded to allegations of detainee abuse.

"The Army has aggressively investigated all credible allegations of detainee abuse and held soldiers accountable for their actions," Army spokesman Dov Schwartz said.

Schwartz said there have been more than 300 criminal investigations launched, and more than 100 military members have faced penalties through courts martial, non-judicial punishment or administrative action.

But Amrit Singh, an ACLU staff attorney, said that in some cases, "investigations were abandoned before relevant witnesses were questioned." In other cases, she said, investigations were dropped because the abuses were considered "standard operating procedure."

The soldier at Camp Red in Baghdad, for instance, told investigators that "a lot of pictures were taken," some showing the "mistreatment or crimes against the people that were caught."

"Sometimes there would be prisoner's [sic] with sand bags on their heads, standing on a brick with their hands behind their head, and concertina wire all around them," the soldier said in a sworn statement about detainee treatment at the facility in November 2003, roughly the same time the worst abuses took place at Abu Ghraib. "If they got off the brick they were manhandled."

The files included probes into at least seven deaths. In one case, investigators reported that poor record keeping meant they could determine only that a detainee who died at Camp Bucca in Iraq, "possibly died between Apr.-Sep. 03."

Other abuse allegations included:

A 73-year-old Iraqi woman told Army investigators she was subjected to sexual abuses and that a dog was let loose in a room where she and three other women were being held. Records indicate the investigation was closed.

An October 2003 investigation found the soldiers who routinely stole money from detainees at a downtown Baghdad facility--what they called a "Robin Hood Tax"--also were accused of beating hooded and handcuffed prisoners. Two soldiers were found guilty at courts-martial, according to the investigation file. One received a reprimand and fine, the other was reduced in rank and confined for 60 days.
source