Pentagon Report Details Abuse of Iraqi Detainees

WASHINGTON (AP) -- U.S. special operations forces fed some Iraqi detainees only bread and water for up to 17 days, used unapproved interrogation practices such as sleep deprivation and loud music, and stripped at least one prisoner, according to a Pentagon report on incidents dating to 2003 and 2004.

http://www.wtol.com/Global/story.asp?S=5042114

This is ridiculous.

Nothing can

:kick:

...is edited articles as the source, here's the full AP report and links to the NYT report it was based on (below AP clip):

Pentagon Details Abuse of Iraq Detainees

Saturday June 17, 2006 1:01 AM

AP Photo NYET357

By LOLITA C. BALDOR

Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - U.S. special operations forces fed some Iraqi detainees only bread and water for up to 17 days, used unapproved interrogation practices such as sleep deprivation and loud music and stripped at least one prisoner, according to a Pentagon report on incidents dating to 2003 and 2004.

The report concludes that the detainees' treatment was wrong but not illegal and reflected inadequate resources and lack of oversight and proper guidance rather than deliberate abuse. No military personnel were punished as a result of the investigation.

The findings were included in more than 1,000 pages of documents the Pentagon released to the American Civil Liberties Union on Friday under a Freedom of Information request. They included two major reports - one by Army Brig. Gen. Richard Formica on specials operations forces in Iraq and one by Brig. Gen. Charles Jacoby on Afghanistan detainees.

While some of the incidents have been reported previously and reviewed by members of Congress, this was the first time the documents were made public. Many portions of the report were blacked out, including specific names and locations such as the identities of the military units involved....

(more at link)

<http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-5892365,00.html>

<http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/16/washington/16cnd-formica.html?_r=1&hp&ex=1150516800&en=acf27838dad5f8cf&ei=5094&partner=homepage&oref=slogin>

<http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/17/washington/17formica.html?hp&ex=1150603200&en=5943f444831cfd1e&ei=5094&partner=homepage>

(Here's the NYT original article that I think the AP article is based on)

Inquiry Finds Use of Abusive Interrogation Techniques in Iraq

By ERIC SCHMITT
Published: June 16, 2006

WASHINGTON, June 16 — American Special Operations soldiers employed a set of harsh, unauthorized interrogation techniques against detainees in Iraq during a four-month period in early 2004, long after approval for their use was rescinded, according to a Pentagon inquiry released today.

The investigation is the last of 12 major inquiries to be made public in reviewing allegations of detainee abuse by American personnel in Cuba, Afghanistan and Iraq,, and it is the first to focus on Special Operations forces, who operate with more latitude than other military units. It detailed harsh treatment that continued at isolated operations bases even after the abuses first surfaced at the Abu Ghraib prison.

Special Operations interrogators gave some detainees only bread or crackers and water if they did not cooperate, according to the investigation by Brig. Gen. Richard P. Formica of the Army. . One prisoner was fed only bread and water for 17 days. Other detainees were locked up for as many as seven days in cells so small they could neither stand up nor lie down, while interrogators played loud music that disrupted their sleep.

The inquiry also determined that some detainees were stripped naked, drenched with water and then interrogated in air-conditioned rooms or outside in cold weather. General Formica said it appeared that technique was used in the case of one detainee who later died during questioning by Navy Seals in Mosul in 2004, but he reported that he had no specific allegations related to that death.

(more at link)

<http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/16/washington/16cnd-formica.html?_r=1&hp&ex=1150516800&en=acf27838dad5f8cf&ei=5094&partner=homepage&oref=slogin>

WASHINGTON — U.S. special operations forces fed some Iraqi detainees only bread and water for up to 17 days, used unapproved interrogation practices such as sleep deprivation and loud music and stripped at least one prisoner, according to a Pentagon report on incidents dating to 2003 and 2004.

The report, with many portions blacked out, concludes that the detainees' treatment was wrong but not illegal and reflected inadequate resources and lack of oversight and proper guidance more than deliberate abuse. No military personnel were punished as a result of the investigation.

<snip>

"Both the Formica and the Jacoby report demonstrate that the government is really not taking the investigation of detainee abuse seriously," said Amrit Sing, an ACLU attorney. Sing questioned why the two reports only focused on a limited number of incidents. In particular, she said there have been numerous documents showing that special operations forces abused detainees, and yet Formica only reviewed a few cases.

Ordered more than two years ago, the Formica review recommended changes including better training, new standards for detention centers and updated policies for detainee operations.

His final report is dated November 2004 but was just released to the ACLU in its unclassified, censored form on Friday. According to a senior defense official, all eight of Formica's recommendations for changes and improvements in detention policies were implemented shortly after he completed the report.

more:
http://www.insidebayarea.com/argus/news/ci_3949107

...thrilled to hear that, if they still have ears to the sensibility to understand words by this point.

More information in this thread.

PB

After all there are no Rules in this Civil War or Crusade.

Nothing they do, no matter how horrendous, is unlawful or illegal in anyway, shape or form. :eyes: