WP: Soldier Who Reported Abuse Was Sent to Psychiatrist

An Army intelligence sergeant who accused fellow soldiers in Samarra, Iraq, of abusing detainees in 2003 was in turn accused by his commander of being delusional and ordered to undergo a psychiatric evaluation in Germany, despite a military psychiatrist's initial judgment that the man was stable, according to internal Army records released yesterday.

The soldier had angered his commander by urging the unit's redeployment from the military base to prevent what the soldier feared would be the death of one or more detainees under interrogation, according to the documents. He told his commander three members of the counterintelligence team had hit detainees, pulled their hair, tried to asphyxiate them and staged mock executions with pistols pointed at the detainees' heads.

In another case detailed in the Army files, soldiers in a Florida National Guard unit deployed near Ramadi in 2003 compiled a 20-minute video that depicted a soldier kicking a wounded detainee in the face and chest in the presence of 10 colleagues and soldiers positioning a dead insurgent to appear to wave hello. The video was found in a soldier's computer files under the heading "Ramadi Madness," and it initially prompted military lawyers to recommend charges of assault with battery and dereliction of duty for tampering with a corpse.

The unit's commander told Army investigators he was concerned about the images becoming public and promised to take steps to "minimize the risk of this and other videos that may end up in the media."

Both criminal investigations involved events that occurred before the May 2004 revelation of widespread detainee abuse committed by U.S. military personnel at Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad in late 2003, but unlike that event, neither of these cases led to criminal charges.

more…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A8873-2005Mar4.html

I wonder why recruitment is dropping for the military?

Don

We are supposed to be the leaders of the free world. It, sadly enough, is almost understandable that soldiers would act like this in a time of war, because they are humans. That does not make the behavior acceptable. More importantly, the responsiblity needs to be placed as HIGH in the chain as it lies. As in Abu-Ghraib, the memo by Alberto Gonzales to the President clearly states how high up responsibility for acts like this go.

particularly when they report wrongdoing.

I think I got it now!

If someone disagrees with the Authority figures they are labeled as insane and sent off to a mental institution.

It wasn't until the soldiers' families began to compare notes that they realized that the war was FUBAR and that their government had been lying to them.

:puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :scared: :scared: :scared: :scared: :scared: :scared: :scared: :scared: :scared: :scared: :scared: :scared: :scared: :scared: :scared: :scared: :scared: :scared: :scared: :scared: :scared: :scared: :scared: :scared: :scared: :scared: :scared: :scared: :scared: :scared: :scared: :scared: :scared: :scared:

The one sane enough and strong enough to label the abuse is sent off to therapy.

snip>
A mortar attack at Abu Ghraib in September 2003 killed two soldiers, including Mr. Cruz's boss and best friend, 26-year-old David Travis Friedrich. Mr. Cruz took five pieces of shrapnel and was awarded the Purple Heart, but those who know him say his emotional wounds never healed.

He had recurring nightmares and hallucinations. He relived the blinding white light of the blast, the sight of his friend's shredded body, the emptiness in his eyes as he died.

Mr. Cruz testified that he asked a senior sergeant for counseling after the attack, but it was denied. Soldiers who served with Mr. Cruz at Abu Ghraib, and court documents, support that assertion. He has since been diagnosed and is being treated for post-traumatic stress disorder.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/030505dnmetcruz.42520.html

That was a month before he committed the crimes he's doing time for now.

how often the therapist thought: this is bullshit, this guy SAW stuff

The article is down on the WP site, and I really want to know the name of the jerk who tried to silence the whistleblower.

Try the link again. It's working now.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A8873-2005Mar4.html?sub=AR
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A8873-2005Mar4_2.html

...he says from now on, will be said to have come from someone suffering from psychiatric disorders. They could do this to anybody.

but that seems to be the all purpose tactic nowadays. You get declared "mentally ill" if you try to report any abuse that you see in Bush's America. If you try another person to try to get someone to listen to you, they refer back to the other person you tried to talk to. That person then tells them you are "mentally ill" with a wink and a nod. You get branded. By the time the truth you were trying to tell comes out, you have been destroyed. I can relate in my own way.

the sick fucks that named their own mental illness are still out there among the Iraqis, unaccountable.

And who destroyed the DVD?

sorry if this is a dupe, I looked. I am sickened by this report...this is so Russian old style...

Saturday, March 5, 2005; Page A15

An Army intelligence sergeant who accused fellow soldiers in Samarra, Iraq, of abusing detainees in 2003 was in turn accused by his commander of being delusional and ordered to undergo a psychiatric evaluation in Germany, despite a military psychiatrist's initial judgment that the man was stable, according to internal Army records released yesterday.

The soldier had angered his commander by urging the unit's redeployment from the military base to prevent what the soldier feared would be the death of one or more detainees under interrogation, according to the documents. He told his commander three members of the counterintelligence team had hit detainees, pulled their hair, tried to asphyxiate them and staged mock executions with pistols pointed at the detainees' heads.

In another case detailed in the Army files, soldiers in a Florida National Guard unit deployed near Ramadi in 2003 compiled a 20-minute video that depicted a soldier kicking a wounded detainee in the face and chest in the presence of 10 colleagues and soldiers positioning a dead insurgent to appear to wave hello. The video was found in a soldier's computer files under the heading "Ramadi Madness," and it initially prompted military lawyers to recommend charges of assault with battery and dereliction of duty for tampering with a corpse.

The unit's commander told Army investigators he was concerned about the images becoming public and promised to take steps to "minimize the risk of this and other videos that may end up in the media."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A8873-2005Mar4?language=printer

Isn't this wrong?
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=8306112&dopt=Abstract

bad behavior as a new benchmark for ours.

It's OK if you're a Neocon Fascist.