Guardsman says 3 fellow soldiers abused
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| Thu, 06-10-2004 - 2:23pm |
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/177217_iraqabuse10.html
Guardsman says 3 fellow soldiers abused Iraqis
Thursday, June 10, 2004
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER NEWS SERVICES
SAN FRANCISCO -- A California National Guardsman says three fellow soldiers brazenly abused detainees during interrogation sessions in an Iraqi police station, threatening them with guns, sticking lit cigarettes in their ears and choking them until they collapsed.
Sgt. Greg Ford said he repeatedly had to revive prisoners who had passed out, and once saw a soldier stand on the back of a handcuffed detainee's neck and pull his arms until they popped out of their sockets.
"I had to intervene because they couldn't keep their hands off of them," said Ford, part of a four-member team from the 223rd Military Intelligence Battalion that questioned detainees last year in Samarra, north of Baghdad. He said the abuse took place from April to June.
Ford's commanding officers deny any abuse occurred, and say investigations within their battalion and by the Army's Criminal Investigation Division determined they had done nothing wrong.
"All the allegations were found to be untrue, totally unfounded and in a number of cases completely fabricated," said the battalion commander, Lt. Col. Drew Ryan.
Ford's allegations are being further investigated by the CID, which would not comment on the inquiry.
Ford said that when he reported the problems last June to his commanding officers, they pressured him to drop his claims.
When he insisted on an official investigation, they ordered him to see combat stress counselors, who sent him out of Iraq, he said.
Ford said he did not hear from investigators until the release of photographs of mistreatment inside the Abu Ghraib prison provoked worldwide outrage and prompted a review of other allegations of abuse.
Ford, 49, said has worked for 18 years as a state prison guard and has more than 30 years of military experience. He was sent out of Iraq last June and, after about six months in Fort Lewis, Wash., returned home to the Sacramento suburb of Fair Oaks.
Earlier this week the commander of American forces in the Middle East asked Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld this week to replace the general investigating suspected abuses by military intelligence soldiers at Abu Ghraib prison with a more senior officer, a step that would allow the inquiry to reach into the military's highest ranks in Iraq, Pentagon officials said yesterday.
The request by the commander, Gen. John Abizaid, comes amid increasing criticism from lawmakers and some military officers that the half dozen investigations into detainee abuse at the prison may end up scapegoating a handful of enlisted soldiers and leaving many senior officers unaccountable.
Abizaid's request, which defense officials said Rumsfeld would likely approve, was set in motion in the last week when the current investigating officer, Maj. Gen. George Fay, told his superiors that he could not complete his inquiry without interviewing more senior-ranking officers, including Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the ground commander in Iraq.
Meanwhile, lawyers representing former detainees who say they were sexually humiliated, beaten, and tortured at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq said that they have sued two companies that provided translators and interrogators at the prison.
The lawsuit, filed by the Center for Constitutional Rights and a Philadelphia law firm, accuses the Titan Corp. and CACI International Inc. of conspiring to abuse detainees in order to secure more contracts from the U.S. government.
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>"Ford, 49, said has worked for 18 years as a state prison guard and has more than 30 years of military experience."<
I would tend to believe this man wouldn't fabricate these stories, given his age & background.
I don't think that these privately hired individuals should be doing this type of work. Who are they accountable to? Rumsfeld? Bush?
Accountability seems to be the problem.