[earth2025] New Reports of Abuse of Detainees Surface
Two soldiers and an officer with the Army's 82nd Airborne Division
have told a human rights organization of systemic detainee abuse and
human rights violations at U.S. bases in Afghanistan and Iraq,
recounting beatings, forced physical exertion and psychological
torture of prisoners, the group said.

A 30-page report by Human Rights Watch describes an Army
captain's 17-month effort to gain clear understanding of how US
soldiers were supposed to treat detainees, and depicts his
frustration with what he saw as widespread abuse that the military's
leadership failed to address. The Army officer made clear that he
believes low-ranking soldiers have been held responsible for abuse
to cover for officers who condoned it.

The report does not identify the two sergeants and a captain who
gave the accounts, although Capt. Ian Fishback has presented some of
his allegations in a letter to Sen. John McCain (R-AZ).

Their statements included vivid allegations of violence against
detainees held at Forward Operating Base Mercury, outside Fallujah,
shortly before the notorious abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison began.
The soldiers described incidents similar to those reported in other
parts of Iraq - such as putting detainees in stress positions,
exercising them to the point of total exhaustion, and sleep
deprivation.

They also detailed regular attacks that left detainees with
broken bones - including once when a detainee was hit with a metal
bat - and said that detainees were sometimes piled into pyramids, a
tactic seen in photographs taken later at Abu Ghraib.

"Some days we would just get bored so we would have everyone sit
in a corner and then make them get in a pyramid," an unidentified
sergeant who worked at the base from August 2003 to April 2004 told
Human Rights Watch. "This was before Abu Ghraib but just like it. We
did that for amusement."

And like soldiers accused at Abu Ghraib, these troops said that
military intelligence interrogators encouraged their actions,
telling them to make sure the detainees did not sleep or were
physically exhausted so as to get them to talk.

"They were directed to get intel from them so we had to set the
conditions by banging on their cages, crashing them into the cages,
kicking them, kicking dirt, yelling," the soldier was quoted as
saying. Later he described how he and others beat the
detainees. "But you gotta understand, this was the norm. Everyone
would just sweep it under the rug."

Army and Pentagon officials yesterday said they are
investigating the allegations as criminal cases and said they
learned of the incidents just weeks ago when the Fort Bragg
captain's concerns surfaced. Paul Boyce, an Army spokesman, said the
Army began investigating as soon as it learned of the allegations.

Lt. Col. John Skinner, a Pentagon spokesman, severely criticized
the report and emphasized that the military has taken incidents of
detainee abuse extremely seriously since the Abu Ghraib scandal,
changing policies and procedures to prevent such mistreatment. There
have been hundreds of criminal investigations and more than a dozen
major inquiries.

"This is another predictable report by an organization trying to
advance an agenda through the use of distortions and errors in
fact," Skinner said. "It's a shame they refuse to convey how
seriously the military has investigated all known credible
allegations of detainee abuse and how we've looked at all aspects of
detention operations under a microscope... . Humane treatment has
always been the standard no matter how much certain organizations
want people to believe otherwise."

In addition to talking to Human Rights Watch, Fishback has made
his concerns known in a series of signed letters and memos sent to
Capitol Hill. Fishback, a West Point graduate who has served in
Afghanistan and Iraq, wrote that no one in his chain of command has
been able to give him a clear explanation of what humane treatment
is, and he believes that US soldiers have regularly violated the
Geneva Conventions by torturing detainees and taking family members
hostage as a means of coercion.

"Despite my efforts, I have been unable to get clear, consistent
answers from my leadership about what constitutes lawful and humane
treatment of detainees," Fishback wrote in a Sept. 16 letter to
McCain, a member of the Armed Services Committee and a former
prisoner of war in Vietnam. "I am certain that this confusion
contributed to a wide range of abuses including death threats,
beatings, broken bones, murder, exposure to elements, extreme forced
physical exertion, hostage-taking, stripping, sleep deprivation and
degrading treatment." Fishback, reached by telephone yesterday,
declined to comment.

Tom Malinowski, Washington advocacy director for Human Rights
Watch, said yesterday that the report again shows the need for an
independent investigation into detainee abuse, and for Congress to
define how US soldiers are to treat detainees in their
custody. "Even officers who wanted to behave honorably found it
difficult to do so because there was no clarity about what the rules
are," Malinowski said.

Ref:
 http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/092405Z.shtml




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