CAIRO, March 26, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) – Adding a new dimension to the abuse scandal in Iraq, often described by the US as the work of a few bad servicemen, army documents unveiled “systematic” and “intentional” abuse of detainees in northern Iraq, The Washington Post reported on Saturday, March 26.
Occurring weeks before the Abu Ghraib scandal broke into public view, the indulgence in grisly abuse of Iraqi prisoners took place in an American facility in the northern city of Mosul, said the daily citing more than 1,200 pages of documents.
The documents were released by the army on Friday, March 25, to reporters and to the American Civil Liberties Union, which had filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit.
“They show that the torture and abuse of detainees was routine, and was considered acceptable practice by US soldiers,” said Amrit Singh, staff counsel for ACLU.
The torture techniques included subjecting detainees to deafening heavy metal music, hitting them with half-filled water bottles, throwing cold water on them at night, beating them, and blowing cigarette smoke into the sandbags they were forced to wear as hoods.
The torture led to the death of at least one detainee at the facility, said the Post.
Systematic
An investigation into how a 20-year-old Iraqi detainee's jaw was broken at a 101st Airborne Division holding facility on December 11, 2003, led one officer to conclude that “the detainees were being systematically and intentionally mistreated” by inexperienced guards.
The documents also cited an incident on November 29, 2003, showing an American soldier torturing a detainee just for fun, emulating the Jackass, a half-hour television series in which a group of men do various humiliating, dangerous and/or ridiculous stunts for fun.
“I am going to punch this guy in the stomach; this is Jackass Iraq,” the soldier said in the 52-second video before striking the detainee, sending him to the ground.
The ACLU contended that investigations into the abuse have been less than thorough.
“The scale of the abuse and its systemic nature calls for a systematic independent investigation,” added Singh.
Following Senior’s Lead
The documents further disclosed that US soldiers were just “following the lead” of their seniors and military intelligence investigators.
“The guards who were guarding the detainees in the holding room were not properly briefed or properly trained on handling detainees, and were shown abusive behavior toward the detainees by the [military intelligence] personnel and the interpreters,” an unnamed investigator wrote on December 31, 2003.
And it looked like a vicious circle as military interrogators themselves said they were also instructed by officers higher in the chain of command.
The New Yorker magazine reported on May 16 that the abuse was okayed by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
A month later, the Post revealed that former top US commander in Iraq, Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, gave free rein to US officers in charge of Abu Ghraib to adopt various torture and abuse tactics used at the infamous Guantanamo detention camp.
Impunity
US commanders have decided not to prosecute 17 soldiers implicated in the deaths of three prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2003 and 2004, despite recommendations by the Army Special Forces Command at Fort Bragg, N.C.
Investigators has recommended that all 17 soldiers be charged with murder, conspiracy and negligent homicide, The New York Times reported on Saturday.
In one case, an Iraqi colonel had at one point been lifted to his feet by a baton held to his throat, which contributed to his death, the daily said.
Only one of the 17 received a letter of reprimand and another was discharged after the investigations.
The commanders determined that in one case the death to be “a result of a series of lawful applications of force.”
They added that in the second case there was not enough evidence while in the third the soldier had not been well informed of the rules of engagement.
To date, the US military is investigating the death of between 28 and 31 deaths in American detention centers in Iraq and Afghanistan.
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