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Video shows more US Iraq abuse<br><br>
Tuesday 08 March 2005 2:54 AM GMT <br><br>
<br>
<b>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.<br><br>
</b></font><font size=2>The video, made public on Monday, was shot by
Florida National Guard soldiers.<br><br>
<br><br>
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.<br><br>
<br>
The soldiers' unit served in the city of Ramadi, about 110km west of
Baghdad, before returning home a year ago.<br><br>
<br>
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.<br><br>
<br>
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.<br><br>
<br>
<b>No criminal charges<br><br>
</b> <br><br>
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.<br><br>
<br><br>
</font><font face="verdana" size=2><b>"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"<br><br>
</b></font><font face="verdana" size=1>Jeremy Martin, army spokesman<br>
</font><font size=2>Digital pictures that were disclosed last year of US
soldiers abusing prisoners at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison drew international
condemnation.<br><br>
<br>
Soldiers depicted in the new video would not face criminal charges, the
Pentagon said.<br><br>
<br>
One section of the video shows a bound and wounded prisoner sprawled on
the ground, and displays his bullet entry and exit wounds.<br><br>
<br><br>
At one point, a US soldier kicks the prisoner in the face.<br><br>
<br>
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".<br><br>
<br><br>
<b>Inappropriate actions<br><br>
</b> <br><br>
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.<br><br>
<br>
The events that preceded the incident were not shown on the
video.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
It said the booby-trapped rear door of the truck exploded.<br><br>
<br>
Documents released by the Pentagon showed that army criminal
investigators looked into the matter and decided no criminal charges were
warranted against the soldiers.<br><br>
The documents showed the army deemed the actions shown on the video
"inappropriate" rather than criminal.<br><br>
<br>
<b>Admonished</b> <br><br>
<br><br>
"It didn't rise to the level of criminal abuse, according to the
investigations," said Lieutenant-Colonel Jeremy Martin, a spokesman
at the Pentagon.<br><br>
<br><br>
"Clearly, the soldiers probably exercised poor judgment ... and I'm
sure that they were admonished by their command for their
actions."<br><br>
<br>
</font><font face="verdana" size=2><b>"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"<br><br>
<br>
</b></font>Ramadi has been a flashpoint in the guerrilla war that
followed the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.<br><br>
Thousands of Iraqis have been killed in the war as well as more than 1500
US troops.<br><br>
<br>
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.<br><br>
<br>
"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.<br><br>
<br>
"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.<br><br>
<font size=3><b>Reuters<br>
By <br><br>
</b>You can find this article at:<br>
<a href="http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/C602E04F-7CF1-4566-830D-FD361DA2CA25.htm" eudora="autourl">
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/C602E04F-7CF1-4566-830D-FD361DA2CA25.htm</a>
<br><br>
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