Posted on 09/24/2005 2:09:01 AM PDT by Crackingham
Three former members of the Army's 82nd Airborne Division say soldiers in their battalion in Iraq routinely beat and abused prisoners in 2003 and 2004 to help gather intelligence on the insurgency and to amuse themselves. The new allegations, the first involving members of the 82nd Airborne, are contained in a report by Human Rights Watch. The 30-page report does not identify the troops, but one is Capt. Ian Fishback, who has presented some of his allegations in letters this month to top aides of two senior Republicans on the Senate Armed Services Committee, John Warner of Virginia and John McCain of Arizona. Captain Fishback approached the Senators' offices only after he tried to report the allegations to his superiors for 17 months.
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Captain Fishback and two sergeants described systematic abuses of Iraqi prisoners, including beatings, exposure to extremes of hot and cold, stacking in human pyramids and sleep deprivation.
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In one incident, the Human Rights Watch report states, an off-duty cook broke a detainee's leg with a metal baseball bat. Detainees were also stacked, fully clothed, in human pyramids and forced to hold five-gallon water jugs with arms outstretched or do jumping jacks until they passed out. "We would give them blows to the head, chest, legs and stomach, and pull them down, kick dirt on them," one sergeant told Human Rights Watch researchers. "This happened every day."
"Some days we would just get bored, so we would have everyone sit in a corner and then make them get in a pyramid. This was before Abu Ghraib but just like it. We did it for amusement."
He said he acted under orders from military intelligence personnel to soften up detainees, whom the unit called persons under control, or PUC's, to make them more cooperative during formal interviews.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
The Times and Cindy must be furious with Rita. They had everything ready to go - the polls, the hundreds of thousands of marchers, the routine Americans, the grieving mothers, and now, the abusing soldiers. And.Rita had to ruin everything!!!
What? There's a demonstration in New York? Haven't you heard, there's another huge HURRICANÊ!! It's going to hit Texas... or Louisiana...
Does this look familiar: American soldiers "raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, cut off limbs, randomly shot at civilians, razed villages in a fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan...." John Kerry, 1971
Maybe the captain has political ambitions, or is just a shill for the left. You have to demonize the troops so people will stop supporting them, it's all according to the lefts 1968 playbook, time has not moved on in their heads.
I expect they put panties on their head too? What were these guys promised? An interview with Katie Couric or Diane Sawyer or something? A book deal? Fug 'em.
A off-duty cook? That got to be kidding me. How many cooks would bother going down there to mess with these detainee's? This is real life not a Steven Segall movie.
That = They
Brother Patriot, it is time to re institute hangings for all traitors. Congressional traitors, entertainment traitors and traitors of all walks of life who have given aid and comfort to the enemy through their America bashing, let's hang em high.
fish wrap
This is what our boys can expect if they are caught by the enemy. I hope we hunt down these guys with their fists in the air and string them up the same way.
Sow the wind, reap the whirlwind.
Maybe they should just go home and stfu. I am sure the good folks in the Gulf states could use a break.
I am a bit more cynical--the first thing I thought of was the decision to allow testimony in the Able Danger inquiry.
Yep! I caught that, too. 'Magic Busses', "camp whatever", demonstrations on the mall, sure bring flashbacks...of a rotten era.
The bastinado is a bit mild for this..
Just more fuel for the "America is wrong" crowd. They seem unable to discern the fact that the "insurgents" are non-traditional "soldiers" who do not obey any international covenants on treatment of prisoners, and have no defined government for whom they are fighting to defend. Anarchy is not a form of "government in exile" or any kind of "freedom movement". These are street thugs, and it is imperative to bring them under control.
Fear and intimidation work in conjunction with physical detainment. Takes the sass out of their attitudes and the wind out of their sails.
All I can say is "BULLSHEET"
All this is testimony to is that those soldiers who did this violated everything they'd been taught. If the unit was aware of it, then the unit, too, was out of line.
However, in defense of those on the line who get stressed out when their and their buddies' lives are on the line....walk a mile in their shoes.
They're still guilty, but so is the guy in the middle of a riot who shoots someone at his door instead of waiting for them to break through the door.
I think you're right about the aticle being made up. The quote from one of the sergeants just doesn't seem to ring right. I don't think the syntax is believable.
"5 gal water jugs with outstretched arms" okay......Thems some mighty strong bad guys.
Sounds like basic training routine.
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