6 US Troops charged for maltreating Iraqi jail inmates

[MichaeltheGreat]

Originally posted by Ted Striker
at least nobody is trying to sugar coat it or cover it up

Why would they? This sort of thing is extremely offensive to almost everyone who has worn the uniform, and even the most cynical bastard realizes it can do us a lot of harm with the propaganda value it gives the enemy.

The only thing that concerns me is avoiding any sort of scapegoating of some low-level vermin, without really vigorously prosecuting higher level commanders who were likely (at least) guilty of criminal dereliction of duty and conduct unbecoming an officer.

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

[The Mad Monk]

That is awful.

[Agathon]

He died years after 'Nam, but due to Agent Orange induced cancers.

Was he or your family compensated by the military?

When I was stopping over in LAX a couple of years back I got talking to this guy who was ex military. He loved the military but hated the way that veterans were treated. Is it really that bad?

[Dinner]

It's sorry that 17 people out of 200,000 in the theater do something like this and so many posters here want to condemn everyone in Iraq.

I see this as being better then what most countries do. The Coalition exposed the abuse and has arrested those responsible while in a great many countries these would have been buried or over looked. At least we punish criminal behavior when we find it even if the people responsible are US soldiers.

[Agathon]

Thanks for posting Oerdin. Another couple of days and tongues would have started wagging.

Just kidding. No Apolytoner would commit such foul acts. Actually I can think of a couple who might.

It's pretty shocking. I'm hard to shock and I was appalled and sickened by the pictures. But you might give us anti-war folks some credit. I don't think any reasonable person thinks that sexual humiliation of prisoners is widespread in the US army.

[Agathon]

The cover of the Mirror was pretty bad.

[Agathon]

Actually I've been thinking about it. It isn't a surprise that the Brits have been up to this. In fact their soliders have been quite restrained compared to the way their football supporters behave.

[PLATO]

So sad that these things happened. Very happy that they are being brought to light and those responsible punished. If we handle this correctly and the Iraqi people see that justice includes our troops then maybe it can come of some good.

[Gibsie]

Originally posted by Ted Striker
at least nobody is trying to sugar coat it or cover it up

Indeed. I was asking because a lawyer friend of mine made an issue over the fact that CNN had not "verified" the photos. We're clearly way past that point.

[Ramo]

Federal law still applies to overseas activity, but the military has no authority under the UCMJ to try any non-combatant, non-enemy civilian.

So someone has jurisdiction to go after them? The DoJ?

[Ramo]

Abuse in Abu Ghraib systematic?

A fifty-three-page report, obtained by The New Yorker, written by Major General Antonio M. Taguba and not meant for public release, was completed in late February. Its conclusions about the institutional failures of the Army prison system were devastating. Specifically, Taguba found that between October and December of 2003 there were numerous instances of “sadistic, blatant, and wanton criminal abuses” at Abu Ghraib. This systematic and illegal abuse of detainees, Taguba reported, was perpetrated by soldiers of the 372nd Military Police Company, and also by members of the American intelligence community. (The 372nd was attached to the 320th M.P. Battalion, which reported to Karpinski’s brigade headquarters.) Taguba’s report listed some of the wrongdoing:

Breaking chemical lights and pouring the phosphoric liquid on detainees; pouring cold water on naked detainees; beating detainees with a broom handle and a chair; threatening male detainees with rape; allowing a military police guard to stitch the wound of a detainee who was injured after being slammed against the wall in his cell; sodomizing a detainee with a chemical light and perhaps a broom stick, and using military working dogs to frighten and intimidate detainees with threats of attack, and in one instance actually biting a detainee.

http://newyorker.com/fact/content/?040510fa_fact

[Ted Striker]

Originally posted by Oerdin
It's sorry that 17 people out of 200,000 in the theater do something like this and so many posters here want to condemn everyone in Iraq.

I see this as being better then what most countries do. The Coalition exposed the abuse and has arrested those responsible while in a great many countries these would have been buried or over looked. At least we punish criminal behavior when we find it even if the people responsible are US soldiers.

[Berzerker]

Frederick, a prison guard from Virginia in civilian life, and his lawyer, Gary Myers, blamed the problems at the prison on the atmosphere created by commanders.

"We had no support, no training whatsoever," he told CBS.

He wasn't trained to be a prison guard in Virginia either?
What scares me even more is people like this get to guard Americans when they aren't ****ing with foreigners. Well, maybe there is a god and this clown will soon be treated to a stay in a federal pen in Virginia, just a few months so he can see what's it like to be on the other side of the fence.

Btw, Sean Hannity announced how he wasn't making excuses for these guards but offered how they must feel watching their friends get limbs blown off in battle, i.e., Hannity was making excuses. I'd be surprised if this guy has even seen a battlefield, he's a "trained" prison guard and they don't normally rush them onto battlefields to fight. But what else is new, the only time Hannity will complain sincerely about the behavior of agents of the state is when good buddies like Rush Limbaugh do something illegal.

[PLATO]

Originally posted by Berzerker
Btw, Sean Hannity announced how he wasn't making excuses for these guards but offered how they must feel watching their friends get limbs blown off in battle, i.e., Hannity was making excuses.

I heard this to. I just couldn't believe my ears. Hannity was TOTALLY of his rocker on that one.