[News] Video shows more US Iraq abuse

[News at freedomarchives.org]

Video shows more US Iraq abuse

Tuesday 08 March 2005 2:54 AM GMT


US Army soldiers in Iraq have filmed themselves kicking a gravely wounded 
prisoner in the face and making the arm of a corpse appear to wave.

The video, made public on Monday, was shot by Florida National Guard soldiers.



They edited and compiled it into a DVD in January 2004, with various 
sections bearing titles such as Those Crafty Little Bastards, and Another 
Day, Another Mission, Another Scumbag.


The soldiers' unit served in the city of Ramadi, about 110km west of 
Baghdad, before returning home a year ago.


The video's existence had been revealed in army documents obtained by the 
American Civil Liberties Union under court order through the Freedom of 
Information Act.


The Pentagon did not release the video, saying it believed it had been 
destroyed. But a Florida newspaper, The Palm Beach Post, obtained it and 
posted some of it on its website on Monday.


No criminal charges



The ACLU has obtained thousands of pages of documents from the Pentagon and 
said they show a pattern of widespread abuses of detainees by military 
forces in Iraq.



"It didn't rise to the level of criminal abuse, according to the 
investigations. Clearly, the soldiers probably exercised poor judgement ... 
and I'm sure that they were admonished by their command for their actions"

Jeremy Martin, army spokesman
Digital pictures that were disclosed last year of US soldiers abusing 
prisoners at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison drew international condemnation.


Soldiers depicted in the new video would not face criminal charges, the 
Pentagon said.


One section of the video shows a bound and wounded prisoner sprawled on the 
ground, and displays his bullet entry and exit wounds.



At one point, a US soldier kicks the prisoner in the face.


Army documents quoted a soldier at the scene as saying he "thought the dude 
eventually died. We weren't in any hurry to call the medics".



Inappropriate actions



In another part of the video, a soldier grabs the arm of a truck driver who 
has just been shot dead and makes the corpse wave to the camera.


The events that preceded the incident were not shown on the video.

The newspaper reported that US troops had stopped the truck and ordered the 
driver to step out, but he ran back into the vehicle and sped away only to 
be shot dead by a US soldier.

It said the booby-trapped rear door of the truck exploded.


Documents released by the Pentagon showed that army criminal investigators 
looked into the matter and decided no criminal charges were warranted 
against the soldiers.

The documents showed the army deemed the actions shown on the video 
"inappropriate" rather than criminal.


Admonished



"It didn't rise to the level of criminal abuse, according to the 
investigations," said Lieutenant-Colonel Jeremy Martin, a spokesman at the 
Pentagon.



"Clearly, the soldiers probably exercised poor judgment ... and I'm sure 
that they were admonished by their command for their actions."


"It's difficult for me to understand why nobody was held accountable for 
the abuse of detainees here. There's no justification for kicking an enemy 
prisoner of war when he's wounded on the ground in front of you and about 
to die"


Ramadi has been a flashpoint in the guerrilla war that followed the US-led 
invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Thousands of Iraqis have been killed in the war as well as more than 1500 
US troops.


ACLU lawyer Jamil Jaffer said the army documents indicated that a soldier 
stated he destroyed disks containing the video to avoid having it released 
to the news media, and a colonel stated the unit's leaders would probably 
destroy copies.


"It's difficult for me to understand why nobody was held accountable for 
the abuse of detainees here. There's no justification for kicking an enemy 
prisoner of war when he's wounded on the ground in front of you and about 
to die," Jaffer said.


"Clearly, there's some stuff in this video that's inappropriate but not 
criminal. But then there's quite a lot of other stuff in here that does 
seem to be criminal," he added.

Reuters
By

You can find this article at:
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/C602E04F-7CF1-4566-830D-FD361DA2CA25.htm 



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