CORRECTED-Iraq prisoners faced "sadistic" abuses

[seemslikeadream]

By Caroline Drees

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Iraqi prisoners have 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 authorised by Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the top U.S. officer in Iraq, 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."

more
http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsPackageArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=502934§ion=news

[TahitiNut]

1. I started a GD thread on this article ...

at http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x1508364

[seemslikeadream]

2. I know I read it and have been trying for over 4 hours

to have my thread unlocked but now since Rueters thinks its a news story

[maddezmom]

3. got one there, too

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x1508247

[seemslikeadream]

4. This is news!

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 authorised by Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the top U.S. officer in Iraq, and was completed in February.

[maddezmom]

5. it's being discussed in LBN thread

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=523093&mesg_id=523093

[seemslikeadream]

7. Yes I know

There is a couple. I tried to post the original story at 10:20am from which all other story came and had no luck until a couple of minutes ago when my thread was unlocked.

TORTURE AT ABU GHRAIB

Edited on Sat May-01-04 10:22 AM by seemslikeadream
by SEYMOUR M. HERSH


Last June, Janis Karpinski, an Army reserve brigadier general, was named commander of the 800th Military Police Brigade and put in charge of military prisons in Iraq. General Karpinski, the only female commander in the war zone, was an experienced operations and intelligence officer who had served with the Special Forces and in the 1991 Gulf War, but she had never run a prison system. Now she was in charge of three large jails, eight battalions, and thirty-four hundred Army reservists, most of whom, like her, had no training in handling prisoners.

General Karpinski, who had wanted to be a soldier since she was five, is a business consultant in civilian life, and was enthusiastic about her new job. In an interview last December with the St. Petersburg Times, she said that, for many of the Iraqi inmates at Abu Ghraib, “living conditions now are better in prison than at home. At one point we were concerned that they wouldn’t want to leave.”

A month later, General Karpinski was formally admonished and quietly suspended, and a major investigation into the Army’s prison system, authorized by Lieutenant General Ricardo S. Sanchez, the senior commander in Iraq, was under way. A fifty-three-page report, obtained by The New Yorker, written by Major General Antonio M. Taguba and not meant for public release, was completed in late February. Its conclusions about the institutional failures of the Army prison system were devastating. Specifically, Taguba found that between October and December of 2003 there were numerous instances of “sadistic, blatant, and wanton criminal abuses” at Abu Ghraib. This systematic and illegal abuse of detainees, Taguba reported, was perpetrated by soldiers of the 372nd Military Police Company, and also by members of the American intelligence community. (The 372nd was attached to the 320th M.P. Battalion, which reported to Karpinski’s brigade headquarters.) Taguba’s report listed some of the wrongdoing:

Breaking chemical lights and pouring the phosphoric liquid on detainees; pouring cold water on naked 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, and using military working dogs to frighten and intimidate detainees with threats of attack, and in one instance actually biting a detainee.




way more
http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?040510fa_fact

[leftchick]

12. Seymour Hersh never fails to amaze me...

with his contacts and insider information his articles and discussions require attention. Thank God for him and the remaining few real investigative journalists in this country.

[Just Me]

6. Whomever said, "just the tip of the iceberg" was spot on.

Good Gawd this article is so, so, SO damning!!!

[cliss]

8. The absolute worst thing about all this

is that this is old news. These things (many of them) happened a year ago. Bush himself knew about this a long time ago. Scott McClellan said on Friday, "Bush has known about it for quite some time". And just now he expresses his "disgust". Funny how that emotion took a while to materialize.

Expect more. Expect lots more. But don't look to the American press to publish more photos. They will come from Madagascar, maybe Denmark, or Lithuania. Then they will migrate to us.

[seemslikeadream]

9. That blew me away

bush has known about this for quite awhile.

[Karenina]

15. It is OLD NEWS

to the Iraqis and to anyone paying attention.

[seemslikeadream]

10. As many as 17 US troops

WASHINGTON: As many as 17 US troops including a lady Brigadier General were suspended on Friday on charges of abusing Iraqi prisoners, while White House has said that stern action would be taken against the individuals responsible for these despicable acts.

more

Accused general called scapegoat


By Rowan Scarborough
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
The woman general who ran the Abu Ghraib prison in post-Saddam Iraq is being made a scapegoat in the Army's investigation of abuse of Iraqi prisoners, a defense attorney charged yesterday.
Attorney Neal A. Puckett, who has been hired by the general's family, said Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the top commander in Iraq, worded his order for an investigation last winter to ensure that Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski would take the fall.

http://washingtontimes.com/national/20040430-112641-1768r.htm

[seemslikeadream]

11. Iraq: MoD probes ten claims of torture

The Ministry of Defence has confirmed that inquiries have been, or are being, carried out into a total of ten allegations of torture or cruelty - with nine cases relating to Army personnel and a single case being examined by the RAF.

Troops from the Queen's Lancashire Regiment (QLR), based in Catterick, North Yorkshire, face questioning in Iraq and in Britain by Royal Military Police (RMP) over the alleged killing of an Iraqi PoW, whose body was found in a Basra prison camp.

The death of pro-Saddam fighter al-Maliki last September prompted a major inquiry, which showed the Iraqi's body had multiple injuries.

And the RMP Special Investigations Branch has probed a case in which soldiers photographed the alleged torture of Iraqi PoWs left suspended in netting from a forklift truck

Soldiers from the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers have been questioned following the discovery of the images, in which POWs were gagged and bound.

more
http://www.itv.com/news/1360946.html

[ConcernedCanuk]

13. I see Reuters skipped over a minor detail

.
.
.

but maybe there's a slight possiblity that they just didn't know? :shrug:

"There was considerable evidence to support the allegations, Taguba added, including "detailed witness statements and the discovery of extremely graphic photographic evidence"; the photographs, which were taken by American soldiers while the abuse was going on, were not included in the report, Taguba said, because of their "extremely sensitive nature."

______________________________________________________

Just a weenie omission there, but it does sort of indicate an intent to cover up - no? :eyes:

(sigh)

what next? :shrug:

[seemslikeadream]

14. also by members of the American intelligence community.

and private companies?

This guy wouldn't hurt anybody, do ya think?