As controversy continues over the abusive treatment of Iraqi prisoners by US overseers at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison (the New Yorker magazine provides
photographs), a Canadian citizen and resident of Los Angeles has launched a suit against the US Army for $350,000 in damages for abuse and torture during his own brief detention at Camp Bucca, Iraq, after the fall of the Saddam Hussein regime. Hossam Shaltout says he went to Iraq before the war as a member of Rights and Freedoms International, a group that was pressing Hussein to step down, but the month after the regime fell he was detained by US troops and accused of being a "right-hand" man and speechwriter for the deposed dictator. He says he was taken to Camp Bucca, where he was beaten and saw Iraqi prisoners being tortured. One of the US officers he accused of abuse has already been discharged, and has been quoted in the press as saying that Army reservists tasked with guarding Iraqi prisoners had little or no instruction in the Geneva Conventions and were not trained in how to use force in controlling detainees. Shaltout was eventually freed, but his Green Card was taken away and he was taken to Egypt, his country of origin.
Quote:Another Iraq Prison Cited in Army Lawsuit
As Scandal at Abu Ghraib Prison Unfolds, Another Iraq Prison Cited in Lawsuit
The Associated Press
PORTLAND, Ore. May 3 ?- A Canadian civilian who claims he was falsely imprisoned, tortured and injured by Army interrogators shortly after the U.S. invasion of Iraq last year is suing the Army for $350,000.
Attorney Thomas Nelson said he filed the suit with the U.S. Army Claims Office on April 30 on behalf of Hossam Shaltout, 57, of Los Angeles.
The charges coincide with a larger scandal involving alleged mistreatment of prisoners in Iraq. Photos made public last week showed U.S. soldiers humiliating and abusing Iraqi prisoners at the U.S. Army-run Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad.
Repeated calls to Army public affairs officials seeking comment on the Shaltout case were not immediately returned Monday. President Bush has asked military officials to investigate any alleged prisoner abuse, and to punish soldiers responsible.
In his complaint, Shaltout alleges one of his tormenters is one of three soldiers who have already been discharged for allegedly abusing prisoners at the Camp Bucca detention center in Iraq.
According to the complaint, Shaltout had gone to Iraq before the war on behalf of a group called Rights and Freedom International, hoping to persuade Iraqi leaders to step down.
The complaint says Shaltout was arrested by U.S. troops April 9, 2003, the month after the U.S. invasion. He claims he was taken to Camp Bucca where he was accused of being a speechwriter and "right-hand-man" of Hussein.
He claims to have been detained three days in an armored personnel carrier, then beaten after protesting his arrest. He said he also saw Iraqis being tortured.
"I saw Iraqis tortured more than I was. They did unspeakable things to Iraqis," Shaltout said Monday in a telephone interview with The Associated Press from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
The complaint also says $119,000 was taken from his hotel room in Iraq and not returned. Nelson said American authorities have refused to return his green card so Shaltout cannot return home.
The lawsuit says Shaltout was freed and eventually taken to Egypt.
Shaltout said he identified among his torturers Army Master Sgt. Lisa Girman, 35, by the nameplate on her uniform. Girman has been discharged because of alleged abuses at Camp Bucca.
She did not immediately return a phone call Monday night for comment on the lawsuit.
But in a telephone interview earlier Monday, Girman, a former master sergeant with the Pennsylvania-based 320th Military Police Battalion, said reservists guarding enemy prisoners are thrust into duty with little or no instruction in the Geneva Convention or the use of force in controlling prisoners.
Girman and Timothy Canjar, a former specialist with the unit, also described conditions in the detention camps as disorganized and dangerous. At times, they said, two soldiers might be asked to guard as many as 500 detainees.
"You could absolutely see the dangers in the direction that the chain of command was taking this operation," Girman said. "It was going to end messy, one way or another."
Girman was among four reservists from Pennsylvania who were accused in a separate incident last May of beating detainees at Camp Bucca, a detention site in southern Iraq.
All four denied they did anything wrong and said the force they used was necessary to subdue unruly prisoners.
Shaltout says he was born in Egypt and moved to Canada in 1971 and became a citizen, then moved to Los Angeles. He said his business distributes American-made global positioning devices in Saudi Arabia.
Associated Press Writer David B. Caruso in Philadelphia contributed to this report.
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