"We'd Put the Prisoner in a Shipping Container.We Would Bring In the Dogs"

AMY GOODMAN: Tony, can you talk about the use of dogs?

TONY LAGOURANIS: We were using dogs in the Mosul detention facility which was at the Mosul airport. We would put the prisoner in a shipping container. We would keep him up all night with music and strobe lights, stress positions, and then we would bring in dogs. The prisoner was blindfolded, so he didn't really understand what was going on, but we had the dog controlled. He was being held by a military police dog handler on a leash, and the dog was muzzled, so he couldn't hurt the prisoner. That was the only time I ever saw dogs used in Iraq.

<snip>

AMY GOODMAN: Did you use hypothermia as a means of interrogating?

TONY LAGOURANIS: We did. Yeah, we used hypothermia a lot. It was very cold up in Mosul at that time, so we -- it was also raining a lot, so we would keep the prisoner outside, and they would have a polyester jumpsuit on and they would be wet and cold, and freezing. But we weren't inducing hypothermia with ice water like the SEALS were. But, you know, maybe the SEALS were doing it better than we were, because they were actually even controlling it with the thermometer, but we weren't doing that.

<snip>

AMY GOODMAN: You said that you engaged in abuse, specifically what did you feel was your most egregious abuses that you engaged in?

TONY LAGOURANIS: Well, as I said, in Mosul, I was using dogs and hypothermia, I was using sleep deprivation, isolation, dietary manipulation, you know, that's all abuse, according to the army field manual, the army doctrine and certainly according to the Geneva Conventions.

<snip>

AMY GOODMAN: What did you determine?

TONY LAGOURANIS: That like 98% of these guys had not done anything. I mean, they were picking up people for the stupidest things like -- there's one guy they picked up, they stopped him at a checkpoint, just a routine stop, and he had a shovel in his trunk, and he had a cell phone in his pocket. They said, well, you can use the shovel to bury an IED, you can use the cell phone to detonate it. He didn't have any explosives in his car, he had no weapons, nothing. They had no reason to believe that he was setting IED’s other than the shovel and cell phone. That was the kind of prisoner they were bringing us.

Read Interview At:http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/11/15/1632233

scenario is, it was like a breath of fresh air to hear the truth from someone who was there. This torture has got to stop!

next person to "strap one on". Fearless leader has a lot of explaining to do...

One was that when he spoke of what he had done and witnessed he wouldn't look up - he looked down and away. He wasn't involved in some of the worst that was done, and he seems to be dealing with a lot of guilt.

The reports that he made and filed were ignored or 'misplaced' because the officer who came to interview him in Chicago told him over the phone that he hadn't seen any of his reports and asked him why he hadn't filed any.

He seems to be one of the good guys. He realized that 98% of the people who were ending up in the prisons were farmers, etc., and he was trying to use more humane methods for dealing with them after a while. It bothered me that when he would tell officers that people had no reason to be detained and that the officers would ignore him and send them to one of the prisons anyway.

And that he and his Mother are receiving hateful phone calls and that he fears retribution from the Navy Seals and Marines that he referenced in his reports and interviews.

mentioned to my husband that I bet he has nightmares. The segment about IDing dead bodies got to me. :-( I sincerely hope he stays safe and I think he's a patriot for speaking up.

seemed to hold as much weight as the words. At times he seemed confused by the very words coming out of his mouth as if he was having a "visit" from another person from a million miles away that he couldn't bear to recognize or acknowledge. That person being his experiences in Iraq.

Chilling.

I too noticed this Dem Now! interview and posted link and excerpts exactly 1 minute before you... though it's funny we chose totally different segments of the interview to highlight, maybe we can merge the threads... moderater?

2 problems with his story from an Iraq vet

1. There is no airport in Mosul
2. I am also intel and I know of no MOS that would have an MI soldier identifying corpses. We have people that do this job, his job skill would not be one that does that. This isn't like cooks and truck drivers being used as infantry. Civil Affairs or S-5 does this, not intel.

Don't shoot me or call me names, I don't want a repeat of the ongoing Jimmy Massey situation.

Edit: Interrogators are in the MOS series 97B used to be 97E, I was a 96B myself and 97B's would not be far enough away from the FOB to do what he is claiming. His level of clearance would be a serious security risk to have off the FOB at anytime. I never saw our interrogators leave the FOB in the year I was there.

Iraq - Mosul - Airport Details

Do you know any additional information about
this airport? Click here to tell us!


Airport Code
:
OSM

Airport name
:
Mosul

Runway Length
:
8600 ft.

Runway Elevation
:
910 ft.


City
:
Mosul

Country
:
Iraq

Country Abbrev.
:
IQ

World Area Code
:
634

GMT Offset
:
-3.0


Longitude
:
43° 10' 0" E

Latitude
:
36° 15' 0" N

Mosul Airport

Mosul Airport is located approximately 350 kilometers North of Baghdad, just south of the City of Mosul. The airbase is served by a 8,700 foot long runway. According to the "Gulf War Air Power Survey, there were 8 hardened aircraft shelters at Mosul as of 1991.

There is Ikonos imagery coverage of Mosul Airport from February 19, 2002 in Space Imaging's Carterra Archive.

Camp Diamondback

In mid-April 2003 Mosul airport was the temporary headquarters for several hundred US special forces and marines. Marines and Sailors of the 26th MEU (SOC) were ordered into the Mosul International Airport in Northern Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. About 50 helicopters shuttled up to 5,000 troops of the 101st Airborne Division from the outskirts of Baghdad to Mosul's airport, and trucks ferried them into Iraq's third largest city. The Marines and Sailors continued to build up this forward operating base to serve as a logistics hub in the near future for continued infrastructure assistance for the free people of Iraq.

Camp Diamondback, a 500-soldier base camp similar to what US forces occupy in the Balkans, is apparently located at Mosul Airport. The soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division out of Fort Bragg, North Carolina at Camp Diamondback at Mosul were attacked with mortar fire regularly.

In June 2003 the 101st Airborne Division approved a contract for an internet service site for each battalion, and built an MWR center, established a PX (from which the brigades draw items to establish satellite PXs), and begun construction of more permanent base camp facilities at Mosul Airfield, one of the 101st Airborne Division's largest fixed bases.
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/iraq/mosul-airbase.htm


Russian 1:200,000 scale map of Mosul Airbaseas of 1985.


Tactical Pilotage Chart of the Mosul Airbase


Mosul is served by a main runway measuring 8,700 feet.

Maybe you could go on Democracy Now! to refute the interview. Any thoughts on other torture stories. Any thoughts on the countless lies by the Bush War Criminals?

wouldn't make such a silly mistake.

You know a by-product of Intelligent Design. Faith Based intelligence?


"MOS series 97B used to be 97E, I was a 96B myself and 97B's" -Maybe this is a football play. Hike!