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Sun 3 Apr, 2005 09:48 am
I'm putting it here rather than in politics or news because I think it's a mental health issue.
FORT CARSON, Colo. - Previously secret court testimony indicates an Iraqi general imprisoned by U.S. forces was badly bruised and may have been severely beaten two days before he died of suffocation during interrogation.
AP Photo
Slideshow: Iraq Prisoner Abuse Investigation
References to the alleged beating appear in a transcript, released under court order, from a military preliminary hearing for three soldiers charged with murder and dereliction of duty in the death of Maj. Gen. Abed Mowhoush on Nov. 26, 2003. A fourth soldier faces the same charges but waived a hearing.
During the interrogation, Army prosecutors claim Mowhoush was put headfirst into a sleeping bag, wrapped with electrical cord and knocked down before the soldiers sat and stood on him, prosecutors said. The cause of death was determined to be suffocation.
According to the transcript, witnesses said others had also beaten Mowhoush days before the Army interrogation. Their names and agencies were blacked out.
Col. David A. Teeples, the men's commander, said during the closed hearing: "My thought was that the death of Mowhoush was brought about by .... (blacked out) and then it was unfortunate and accidental, what had happened under an interrogation by our people."
According to the transcript, Army special investigator Curtis Ryan testified that he found extensive bruising when he examined Mowhoush shortly after he died. "So, at some point prior to the 26th, he had been beaten," Ryan said.
An autopsy revealed that Mowhoush had also suffered broken ribs, testimony showed.
The military closed the hearing to the public shortly after it began in December, but The Denver Post successfully sued to open it, and the proceeding concluded this past week in open court. The transcript was released Thursday and posted on the Internet.
Fort Carson's commander, Maj. Gen. Robert Mixon, will decide whether the soldiers are court-martialed, after he receives a recommendation from the investigating officer, Capt. Robert Ayers. No timetable was set.
My question is, if you sincerely think it's okay to torture a man this way until he dies from it merely because your commanding officer gave the okay when there are chemical (for instance) interrogation methods available, are you too f***ed up to be in a position of authority or to be handling the interrogation and treatment of others to begin with?
I think these guys are sadists personally. I think they enjoyed it.
That does NOT mean I think all people in the miltary are monsters. It does NOT mean I'm a Saddam or terrorist sympathizer. The fact that Muslim terrosits and suicide bombers are monsters does NOT excuse the monstrous acts of ANYONE, even if they're on our side. We're supposed to be different from them.
For clarification, I consider stuffing someone head first nto a sleeping bag and jumping on them until their bones break and they suffocate to be a monstrous act. I'm sure the are dissenting opinions.
so just how long have you hated america?
"Speak roughly to your little boy,
And beat him when he sneezes:
He only does is to annoy,
Because he knows it teases."
Chorus
"Wow!wow!wow!"
"I speak severely to my boy,
I beat him when he sneezes;
For he can then throughly enjoy
The pepper when he pleases!"
Chorus
"Wow!wow!wow!"
dyslexia wrote:so just how long have you hated america?
Have Chinese last night did you? Or are you just trying to beat the rush before the others get home from church?
Ya gotta love Dys's sense of humor! <LOL>
By the way, I just got home from church. Go get 'em, Dys.
The who doesn't join the International Court of Justice in Den Haag won't honer the Geneva Convention either.
That behavior is actually no different to what I experienced at school camp! lol
With a cruel twist, the would fart in the sleeping bag first! Damn them!
These interrogators should be made particular examples of, and given very severe sentences up to death, if warranted by the specific cases. It should be followed up the chain of command as far as it actually goes, but no farther. The higher the rank, the higher the betrayal of what we ought to stand for. Although our various enemies rarely observe civilized practices in war or in treatment of captives, e.g. sawing off a civilian victim's head as he screams in agony, we should. In my opinion, America was in the right in this war, and I want to keep it that way. The American military has no room for people who do these things.
Why is this in medical news and health?
Anways, the United States has had a long policy of not torturing its war prisoners. Or, at least not openly.
This issue is a slap in the face for Americans that way, because we pride ourselves on our good human rights issues (which are usually inpeccable, especially in comparison to other countries.)
Lastly, torturing prisoners is not an effective method. This is why it is not an issue of whether we should use brutality or not. Because torture doesn't work, period. People who are tortured will say not what is true but whatever the people want to hear or whatever they think they want to hear to end the torturing.
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