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| Iraq-Jordan |
| Most Iraqi Abuse Photos Taken on Single Day |
| 2004-05-21 |
| Nov. 8 was the day U.S. guards took most of the infamous photographs: soldiers mugging in front of a pile of naked, hooded Iraqis, prisoners forced to perform or simulate sex acts, a hooded prisoner in a scarecrow-like pose with wires attached to him. It was unclear Friday whether most or all of the new pictures and video published by The Washington Post depicted events on Nov. 8. At least one photo, showing Spc. Charles Graner Jr. with his arm cocked as if to punch a prisoner, is described in military court documents as having been taken that day. When Spc. Jeremy C. Sivits tearfully pleaded guilty Wednesday to abusing prisoners, he described fellow soldiers committing an escalating series of abuses on eight prisoners that included stamping on their toes and fingers and punching one man hard enough to knock him out. Sivits is likely to testify about the events of Nov. 8 at courts-martial for other soldiers charged with abuse. Three of them declined to enter pleas at hearings Wednesday: Sgt. Javal Davis, Staff Sgt. Ivan "Chip" Frederick II and Graner. The abuse came during Ramadan, the Islamic holy month of fasting and reflection. The abused Iraqis, Sivits said, had been suspected of taking part in a prison riot that day. They were held at Abu Ghraib on suspicion of common crimes, not attacks on U.S. forces, said Col. Marc Warren, the top legal adviser to Iraqi commander Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez. The day of abuse — a Saturday — capped what had been the worst week for U.S. troops in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion. Nearly three dozen had been killed in a surge of attacks that left some other soldiers frustrated and frightened. Insurgents had attacked the Abu Ghraib prison and other U.S. bases in the area with mortars several times in previous weeks. The day before, insurgents had downed a Black Hawk helicopter with a rocket-propelled grenade near Saddam Hussein’s hometown of Tikrit, killing six. Sixteen soldiers had died five days earlier when a shoulder-fired missile destroyed a Chinook transport helicopter near the flashpoint city of Fallujah. The International Red Cross temporarily pulled out of Iraq on Nov. 8 because of the violence, which also had included a deadly car bomb outside the aid group’s Baghdad headquarters on Oct. 27. Three Iraqi prisoners escaped in the four days before Nov. 8 — and an additional half-dozen detainees escaped on that day, according to the military’s internal report prepared by Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba. The pressure was on to get information from prisoners to help stop the attacks. "We’ve been working very hard to increase our intelligence capacity here," Sanchez told reporters in Iraq on Nov. 11. "We are not where we want to be yet." Several accused soldiers have told investigators that military and civilian intelligence officers asked them to scare and humiliate the prisoners before they were questioned. "The orders came directly from the intelligence community, to soften up the detainees so that intelligence information could be gathered to save the lives of soldiers in the field," said Paul Bergrin, a lawyer for Davis. Using guards to help interrogators "set the conditions" for questioning had been one tactic recommended by Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller in September. Miller, then the commander of the Guantanamo Bay prison camp for terrorism suspects, toured U.S. prisons in Iraq and recommended several changes in tactics to Sanchez. Troops in Iraq adopted many of Miller’s suggested approaches, military officials have said, after toning them down because some would have violated the Geneva Conventions, which apply to prisoners in Iraq. U.S. officials have said those rules did not apply to detainees at Guantanamo. Sanchez told a Senate panel Wednesday that he never approved any tactics harsher than keeping prisoners in isolation. And Miller testified that he never meant for military guards to abuse detainees, only to tell interrogators their observations of the prisoners. Miller now oversees the military detention facilities in Iraq. Sanchez announced last week that he would no longer even consider requests for harsh treatment of detainees other than isolation or segregation. After Miller’s visit in September, the military brought in Maj. Gen. Donald Ryder in October to survey prison camps and make more suggestions. Ryder issued his report and left Iraq just three days before Nov. 8. Ryder opposed Miller’s recommendation that military police be used to help set the stage for interrogations. He also urged officers to give more training to prison guards, which was never done. Lack of training was one of many leadership problems with the Army Reserve unit that provided the guards at Abu Ghraib, according to the report by Gen. Taguba. He described a unit in which discipline had broken down to the point that soldiers were writing poems on their helmets and wandering around in civilian clothes carrying weapons. Two days after the Nov. 8 spasm of abuse, the general in charge of the MPs gave written reprimands to two of the unit’s leaders for failing to correct security lapses at Abu Ghraib. Taguba recommended further disciplinary action against the two officers — Lt. Col. Jerry Phillabaum and Maj. David DiNenna. It is unclear if that has happened; they have not been criminally charged. |
| Posted by:TS(vice girl) |
| #23 Empirical findings (Troy Duster, etc) on the sources of "guilt free massacre" suggest that transient-revenge-killing is the result of frustration with rules-of-engagement. That is one reason why I support total-commitment in Iraq. I include starvation-siege and disproportionate retaliation, and nuclear blackmail, within legitimate counter-jihad operations. This is the enemy that Rantburg-Limited-War fools are indulging: Abu Zarqawi ("Address to the Muslim Nation, April 2004) "Thanks to God, we are attacking them like they are attacking us and we are hitting them like they are hitting us. We are not equals to them. They fight to go to hell; we fight to go to heaven. We do not have much support or capabilities but God is on our side, they have no one on their side. God has blessed us; we have cut off their head and ripped their bodies in many areas; the United Nations in Baghdad, coalition forces in Karbala, the Italians in Nasiriyyah, the American forces on the Khalidiyyah Bridge, American intelligence in Al-Shaheen Hotel, the CIA in Al-Rashid Hotel and the Polish forces in Al-Hillah." How do the I-want-to-be-part-of-something-big-even-as-a-kiss-ass jerks sleep? Watch for Bush's support go into tailspin after his inevitable spin-vomit exercise this Monday. |
| Posted by: Dog Bites Trolls 2004-05-21 10:52:23 PM |
| #22 #21 Jarhead, it's as if the moron (yorgos)doesn't even realize that Sadaam filmed all his greatest escapades. Posted by: Super Hose Isn't Jarhead some dunce out of Richy Rich comics? And isn't Super Hose a cellulite restrainer often white, uptight and outa-sight? And as for the Kurds, a nation of stateless persons who have been, (and continue to be) hit from left, right and center by the Turks, Iranians and Iraquis for the past 70 years - suddenlly you're concerned? This abuse and genocide of a people was being performed by the Iranians with CIA guidance, under the Shah - remember him? The USA's greatest middle eastern ally (and cheaper than the Israelis) and the Iraqis - remember trained and armed by the CIA, furnished with poisonous gas and all neccessary personal protectors? And the Turks, you know the current CIA lapdog to the north current. Please remember that no patriotic Kurd would ever call him or herself an Iraqi. And no Iraqi considers a Kurd anything other than a Kurd. It's our western media and propaganda that tries to subvert their national identity by referring to them as Iraqi Kurds. |
| Posted by: yorgos 2004-05-22 5:15:35 PM |
| #21 Jarhead, it's as if the moron doesn't even realize that Sadaam filmed all his greatest escapades. For Yorkie the truth must sound muffled his ears wedged so tightly within his alimentary canal - with the rest of his head. As for the reservists, if this all took place in one day, were they using meth that day? Did they stage some kind of dementia Olympics. What a twisted bunch of filth they must be. |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2004-05-22 3:34:16 AM |
| #20 "just some renegade marines having a party!" -actually it was Army reservists, we would've just killed them and left their carcasses for the mother luvin' rats - and - there would be no pictures. There would also be no silly ass blown out of proportion trial claiming all the so-called "abused" were fathers of the year recipients, good samaritans, and rescuers of baby ducks. Get your facts straight yorgos. |
| Posted by: Jarhead 2004-05-21 11:06:23 PM |
| #19 If the situation sinks to the point where the majority of Sunni & Shi'ite Arab Iraqis demand the Coalition to depart, then maybe we should say "ok fine, we leave you with Saddam on top as we withdraw". Just a thought to teach them a lession in being greatful, as the Kurds really are, that we toppled Saddam from power. |
| Posted by: Mark Espinola 2004-05-21 11:03:40 PM |
| #18 [Off-topic or abusive comments deleted] |
| Posted by: Dog Bites Trolls TROLL 2004-05-21 10:52:23 PM |
| #17 Yorgie - You'll line up in servitude, alright. Not to the US, but you will be a good li'l dhimmi soon enough. Mebbe we'll come and bail your ass out. Mebbe not. Enjoy. |
| Posted by: .com 2004-05-21 10:38:54 PM |
| #16 Yeah, Frank - re-write the Bill of Rights and the American Constitution to suite you and your agreeing lackies! After all the only opinion worth anything is yours - the rest are just pure anti-american, aren't they? No I'm not American and I've never pretended to be and I've never wanted to be - you probably can't understand why, can you? For you there only is the good old USA and the rest of the world can just line up in servitude! |
| Posted by: yorgos 2004-05-21 10:33:00 PM |
| #15 Fred---my computer went nuts, please delet 11-13 comments. One comment is enough... |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2004-05-21 9:51:45 PM |
| #14 Yorgos---keep up the drivel and I will issue a fatwa and sick OGROY on you. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2004-05-21 9:49:31 PM |
| #13 Yorgos---keep up the drivel and I will issue a fatwa and sick OGROY on you. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2004-05-21 9:28:43 PM |
| #12 Yorgos---keep up the drivel and I will issue a fatwa and sick OGROY on you. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2004-05-21 9:26:06 PM |
| #11 Yorgos---keep up the drivel and I will issue a fatwa and sick OGROY on you. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2004-05-21 9:20:39 PM |
| #10 So actually, when you consider the "big picture of human abuse" Saddam was pretty mild. Haahahahahahaaaa!! HAAAAHAHAHAHAHAAAA!!!!!!!! Care to divulge what it is you're smoking? I'd sure like to have some. |
| Posted by: Bomb-a-rama 2004-05-21 9:18:30 PM |
| #9 "No-one in Iraq asked you for this war!"?? Saddam & his Ba'athist Party asked for it a long, long time ago ,,,,it was never finished during the Gulf War. Next on the list Iran, Lebanon-Syria. |
| Posted by: Mark Espinola 2004-05-21 9:15:05 PM |
| #8 They didn't ask for Saddam either. |
| Posted by: Rafael 2004-05-21 8:11:26 PM |
| #7 No-one in Iraq asked you for this war! Actually, they did. Go ask the Kurds. |
| Posted by: Robert Crawford 2004-05-21 8:01:50 PM |
| #6 We're so terrible we shouldn't do anything, should we "yorgos" bite me troll, and quit pretending (as in your other comment) that you're American - we wouldn't have you |
| Posted by: Frank G 2004-05-21 7:33:32 PM |
| #5 Yes, yes - the photos - just some renegade marines having a party! And of course, no-one in authority could posibly know, could they? It's not written in policy anywhere, now is it? And saddam did much worse - although he never was foolish enough to take photos, was he? And Hitler, well he was even worse still -wasn't he? Oh, and we better not mention our old WWII ally, Stalin, 'cause they all pale to insignificance next to him? So actually, when you consider the "big picture of human abuse" Saddam was pretty mild. Don't even know why people bothered to complain about him, hey? No-one in Iraq asked you for this war! No suburban Bhagdadee asked you to bomb his home or take his clothes off etc etc..You're vindicated - completely innocent! |
| Posted by: yorgos 2004-05-21 7:28:10 PM |
| #4 But, but, it's a "growing scandal"! Run! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!! AAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!! |
| Posted by: Bomb-a-rama 2004-05-21 7:19:58 PM |
| #3 This is maddening have to fight a two front war, with one front in your back yard! Our back yard opposing general : |
| Posted by: BigEd 2004-05-21 6:27:40 PM |
| #2 The great informative news media needs to post some of Sammy's Abu Graib photos, too, just for a frame of reference. Of course, they won't because they are Al Jazerra, Western Division. This is maddening have to fight a two front war, with one front in your back yard! |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2004-05-21 6:19:53 PM |
#1 Most Iraqi Abuse Photos Taken on Single DayI figured that, particularly since the "news" media are straining to make it seem it's been going on for months. |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2004-05-21 6:07:00 PM |