Posted on 05/08/2004 9:28:21 PM PDT by Born Conservative
A former POW in Iraq names an Ashley-based reservist in a complaint against the U.S. Army. And he compared the treatment at his camp to the abuse that's making international news.
Hossam Shaltout said widespread mistreatment from soldiers in Camp Bucca, where he was imprisoned last year, was as inhumane as that depicted in recent photos from Camp Abu Ghraib in Iraq.
Shaltout described Camp Bucca as a "torture camp" where soldiers beat and humiliated prisoners, had them lie naked atop each other or pose in sexual positions.
"They wanted us to have sex with each other," Shaltout said. He said prisoners were humiliated but refused to engage in sex. Shaltout, 57, said the soldiers had "watch outs" to alert them when an officer was approaching.
"There is no way to fix this prison," he said.
Shaltout said recent photos of prisoner abuse at Camp Abu Ghraib remind him of Camp Bucca, though he did not see prisoners attached to electrodes as they allegedly were at Abu Ghraib.
Shaltout said he witnessed Camp Bucca soldiers tie groups of naked prisoners together. He said they hogtied his hands and legs and placed scorpions on his body. "American soldiers love scorpions," Shaltout said.
He did not implicate 320th Military Police Master Sgt. Lisa Girman, of Hazleton, in those incidents. But he did allege in a claim filed April 30 with the U.S. Army Claims Service that several soldiers under her direction placed handcuffs and leg irons on him and that Girman was beating him in the face and "kneeing him in the groin."
His claim said he was on a hunger strike in April 2003 to end three weeks of torture and mistreatment by other soldiers when Girman allegedly beat him. Shaltout alleged that several soldiers held him while Girman, an Army Reservist, struck his face and body.
"They were just holding me so I didn't fall down," he said in a phone interview Friday from Saudi Arabia.
Girman, 35, a Pennsylvania state police trooper, did not return phone messages seeking comment.
Shaltout said 40 to 50 soldiers beat him and he was interrogated daily during his incarceration at Camp Bucca from mid-April 2003 until his release in mid-May 2003. He said he recalls Girman's name because she repeatedly told him to remember it during their encounter.
While discussing alleged beatings by other soldiers, Shaltout sounded appreciative of one small gesture. "They have good manners. They took off my glasses before they beat me up."
SUBHEAD: He forgives Girman
Shaltout does not blame Girman for her alleged actions. "I've forgiven her. It's not her fault. It's the Army's fault."
Girman was among four soldiers with the Ashley-based 320th Military Police Battalion accused of beating prisoners last May. She was found guilty of one count each of abuse of prisoners and failing to safeguard them.
"They're making them a scapegoat for the whole problem," Shaltout said. He said that if a few soldiers are punished, all of those responsible should be punished.
Girman was given an other-than-honorable discharge in connection with an incident on May 12, 2003, at Camp Bucca. By accepting the Army's punishment, Girman avoided court-martial and a potential prison sentence.
Three officers with the 320th face military discipline in connection with the abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison.
SUBHEAD: What the claim alleges
Shaltout, a native Egyptian, said he is a Canadian citizen and permanent U.S. resident but said he has not been allowed to return to the United States because officials confiscated his green card. He is living in Saudi Arabia. He is seeking $350,000 from the government through the U.S. Army Claims Service for "torture and other personal injuries" while at Camp Bucca.
Shaltout said he is an aerospace engineer and an exporter for an American company that distributes global positioning equipment. He said he is at least able to afford psychological treatment as compared to other prisoners freed from camps in Iraq.
"Their lives will be destroyed," he said.
Attorney Thomas Nelson of Portland, Ore., filed the claim. It said Shaltout entered Iraq in January 2003 as a member of a peace organization called Rights and Freedom International. The organization tried to convince Iraqi leaders to step down to avoid war with the United States, the claim said.
Shaltout described himself as a "peacemaker" and said Camp Bucca soldiers wanted him to admit to being Saddam Hussein's "right hand man," but he refused to confess during daily interrogations.
"They wanted confessions," he said. "A lot of people didn't have anything to confess."
According to the claim:
Shaltout was outside his hotel room in Baghdad on April 9, 2003, when Marines detained him. He was placed in an armored personnel carrier and prevented from returning to his hotel room to retrieve $118,700 in hidden cash and other items.
He was held in the personnel carrier for three days and was handcuffed and beaten on the fourth day after protesting his arrest. Shaltout was sent to Camp Bucca, where the word "Canadian" was written on his white shirt. The claim said "apparently being a Canadian did not mean favorable treatment, for Mr. Shaltout was then interrogated and tortured on a daily basis."
The most alarming form of torture was when interrogators put gun muzzles to his head and body. He decided after three weeks to launch a hunger strike. Shaltout said Girman beat him after he refused a meal during the hunger strike. SUBHEAD: The discharges
It is not known whether Shaltout's allegations led to the prosecution of Girman and three other soldiers with the 320th Military Police Battalion for an incident on May 12, 2003, at Camp Bucca.
Girman, Sgt. 1st Class Scott McKenzie, 38, of Clearfield; and Spc. Tim Canjar, 22, of Madison Township, Lackawanna County, were scheduled to face a court-martial in January when they submitted to a nonjudicial hearing, in which their conduct was judged by a commander without a jury, Army spokesman Lt. Col. Vic Harris had said.
Brig. Gen. Ennis Whitehead III, the acting commander of the 143rd Transportation Command, found that Girman knocked a prisoner to the ground, "repeatedly kicking him in the groin, abdomen and head, and encouraged her subordinate soldiers to do the same," Harris said.
A fourth 320th soldier, Sgt. Shawna Edmondson of South Abington Township, Lackawanna County, requested an other-than-honorable discharge.
Hearing Yesterday for MP's Accused of Abusing EPW's
Hearing Today for MP's Accused of Abusing EPW's
In support of accused soldiers (MP's accused of abusing Iraqi prisoners
Local soldier facing double trouble
This perversion in the military is a sad product of Slick Willy's 'Don't ask, don't tell' policy for the military. Maybe now people will begin to realize that homosexual perversion has far deeper ramifications for society than the simple minded modern mentality of: "I don't care what they do in their bedroom, it's their business and it doesn't affect me". Well guess what folks..................?
Man, you're living in a fantasy world. They didn't want that because they're gays and wanted to see men together to get off; they wanted that because it was the most humiliating thing they could think of to make them do, in order to laugh at them.
Bottom line is that we are at war with an enemy so ruthless that they rather give up their lives than let us free Iraqi's .
We're into the long hall. Pray people.
IIRC,Shaltout's attorney may be from Portland and is a friend of the lawyer that was picked up.
I may be way off base with this but I'm pretty sure there was "some" kind of connection.
Fingerprint links Oregon with Spain
"One of Mayfield's attorneys, Tom Nelson, stressed again Friday that Mayfield had not been arrested and is not a defendant in a criminal case."
I thought there was "something" but my Doc's been keeping me stupid with pain meds.At least I'm not imagining things. :o)
BTW, this guys story just doesn't pass the smell test.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.