Posted on 09/01/2009 11:34:14 AM PDT by BGHater
At 7 p.m. on Aug. 20, 2003, in a cell used for interrogations at Forward Operating Base Gunner outside Taji, Iraq, an Army lieutenant colonel, sitting in on a session, took out his 9mm pistol, placed it on his thigh so it pointed at an Iraqi detainee, and said he would kill the prisoner if he did not provide information filling out what an informant had said was a planned attack on the officer and his unit.
Lt. Col. Allen B. West, a battalion commander, told Army investigators the next month that the Iraqi, a police officer from a nearby town, "was being evasive and belligerent" with interrogators, one of whom in an earlier session had taken out a knife and threatened to cut the detainee on his legs.
West told investigators he had brought with him three soldiers, who in the first 25 minutes he was there had sporadically hit the Iraqi with punches to the ribs, back and lower body. But the officer said he did not allow it "to get too brutal."
When another punching session did not work, West said, he ordered the Iraqi taken outside and had soldiers put him next to a "clearing barrel" -- one three-quarters full of sand that is used to test weapons. When a pistol is discharged into it, the bullet remains in the sand.
Lt. Col. Allen B. West is shown in a military court, in Tikrit, Iraq, in November 2003. West acknowledged in testimony that he had threatened to shoot an Iraqi detainee to extract information about a planned attack. He was disciplined by the Army but did not face criminal charges.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Pretty please give us the information and we will let you go!! Yea right they will give us info to go to !!!
Sometimes I wonder what has happened to many people’s survival instincts.
“The CIA inspector general listed the case officer’s actions — threatening a key al-Qaeda prisoner with a gun and a power drill — as one of his most disturbing findings. “
This doesn’t disturb me in the least! He did not use the gun, or the drill. Just threatened to. NOT TORTURE!
Of course there is a double standard. I have been BOTH. The military pride themselves in being tough, fair, and consistent. Intelligence civilians get treatment that is often partisan, inconsistent, ungrateful, harsh, and ruinous. In todays partisan atmosphere, I would never again put mine “on the line”. America should be ashamed for letting its politicians and political prosecutors destroy its defenders.
Just to remind FReepers that Col. West will be speaking at the FR convention in 11 days. BTT.
The need for interrogation to find out what’s being planned has saved a lot of enemy combatant lives. By not allowing sufficient means for real interrogation, the end result will be that fewer will be taken prisoner, and instead will die “in combat”.
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