Torture Victims Testified Today

[tomkertes]

From the NYT

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/11/national/12cnd-abus.html

The Army reservist accused of being the ringleader in abusing detainees at Abu Ghraib prison once jumped on a cast on a detainee's wounded leg, the detainee testified today, so hard that the leg did not heal straight.

The reservist, Specialist Charles A. Graner, watched as another soldier urinated on the detainee, the detainee testified, and made another detainee eat from a prison toilet.

[spanone]

1. Those Iraqis just don't appreciate the nuance of democracy.

[Pawel K]

2. If you don't make them eat shit we will clearly be attacked

I'm being sarcastic for anyone that isn't sure. ;)

[jukes]

3. anybody seen some cheerleaders

up to *that*?

[MasonJar]

4. The ringleaders are gwb, cheney, rumsfield and gonzales..throw

in ashcrass and rice too.

[Solly Mack]

5. You know, I was once a cheerleader and we didn't do anything

remotely like that.

[Just Me]

6. This is a revolting outrage,...

,...and the neoCONimperialists are responsible, too!!! The whole freakin' chain-of-command should be pulled into this absolute horror!!

[TahitiNut]

7. Reuters: "Iraqi Victim Says US Torture Worse That (sic) Saddam"

Iraqi Victim Says U.S. Torture Worse That Saddam
Tue Jan 11, 2005 06:11 PM ET

By Adam Tanner

FORT HOOD, Texas (Reuters) - A former inmate at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison forced by U.S. guards to masturbate in public and piled onto a pyramid of naked men said on Tuesday even Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein did not do such things.

The inmate testified at the court martial of reservist soldier Charles Graner, accused ringleader of guards who engaged in the abuse, which prompted outrage when pictures of the sexual humiliation were published around the world.

"I couldn't believe in the beginning that this could happen, but I wished I could kill myself because no one was there to stop it," Hussein Mutar, who was sent to Abu Ghraib accused of car theft, said in videotaped testimony.

"They were torturing us as though it was theater for them," he said, as the prosecution wound up its case against Graner on assault, dereliction of duty and other charges that could bring him up to 17 1/2 years in prison.

An obviously ill-at ease Mutar added: "I was extremely emotional because (even) Saddam didn't do this to us."

<snip>

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=domesticNews&storyID=7297499

[struggle4progress]

8. Abu Ghraib inmate tells of beatings and rape threats

By Demetri Sevastopulo in Washington
Published: January 12 2005 00:40 | Last updated: January 12 2005 00:40

A Syrian detainee formerly imprisoned at Abu Ghraib on Tuesday told a military court that US soldiers at the notorious Baghdad prison repeatedly beat prisoners, forced them to eat from toilets and threatened to rape them.

Ameen al-Sheikh, testifying in the court martial of Specialist Charles Graner, a low-level soldier accused of abusing prisoners, said Spec Graner was the “primary torturer” at Abu Ghraib. He said Spec Graner tortured him with beatings and by forcing him to eat pork and drink alcohol against his religion.

“Graner represents people who are sick minded,” said Mr al-Sheikh. “ hurt his country, hurt his people and I think he will receive his punishment” <snip>

http://news.ft.com/cms/s/e4ddaad6-6431-11d9-b0ed-00000e2511c8,dwp_uuid=c1a5b968-e1ed-11d7-81c6-0820abe49a01.html


At court martial, Abu Ghraib detainees describe brutal beatings, humiliation

<snip> "They tortured us as though it was a theater for them, laughter," said Hussein Matar, an Iraqi who was jailed at the prison near Baghdad for allegedly stealing a car.

He spoke of suffering harsh beatings, and being made to strip naked and masturbate in front of others before being hurled onto a pile of prisoners. <snip>

"Saddam (Hussein) did not do this to us," he said in the deposition played Tuesday at the court martial of Specialist Charles Graner, who is alleged to have instigated the abuses in late 2003. <snip>

http://www.turkishpress.com/world/news.asp?id=050111222152.hgbkhmr8.xml


US Guard 'Whistled, Sang and Laughed During Abuse'

A Syrian inmate at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq testified in a videotape played for a US jury today that Army Specialist Charles Graner merrily whistled, sang and laughed while brutalising him and forced him to eat pork and drink alcohol in violation of his Muslim faith.

Amin al-Sheikh, in video evidence to Graner’s court-martial at Fort Hood, Texas, said the soldier threatened more than once to kill him and told him to thank Jesus for keeping him alive. The inmate also said he listened through his cell wall as Graner and other Americans forced a Yemeni prisoner to eat from a toilet.

Asked if Graner appeared to enjoy hurting him, al-Sheikh said through an interpreter: “He was laughing... He laughed. He was whistling. He was singing.” <snip>

http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=3989561


Guards say Abu Ghraib abuses went beyond photos
Md. reservists testify at start of Graner trial

By Gail Gibson
Sun National Staff

January 11, 2005


FORT HOOD, Tex. -- Two Army Reserve troops at the center of the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal faced off in a military courtroom yesterday, with one describing from the witness stand harsh treatment by his fellow soldier that went beyond what the world saw in photographs.

Pvt. Ivan L. "Chip" Frederick described for the first time how Spc. Charles A. Graner Jr. allowed a hooded and handcuffed inmate to walk directly into a 6-foot-tall pole and, another time, elbowed in the head a detainee who was trying to help U.S. soldiers track two escapees from the troubled Iraq prison.

Testifying at the first contested trial in the far-reaching scandal, Frederick said Graner showed off a photograph he had taken of an Iraqi detainee baring her breasts and, during an incident documented in widely circulated pictures, boasted to his wartime girlfriend that masturbating detainees were a gift for her birthday. <snip>

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/ny-usghra0112,0,4600440.story?coll=ny-nation-big-pix


Abuse whistle-blower feared cover-up
Soldier bypassed commanders before telling what he saw
By JOHN W. GONZALEZ
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle

FORT HOOD - A soldier who blew the whistle on detainee abuses at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq testified Monday that he waited weeks to report what he knew and bypassed his chain of command for fear the incidents would be covered up.

Sgt. Joseph Darby said he went straight to the Army's Criminal Investigation Division with compact discs of photographic images that defendant Spc. Charles Graner Jr. had shared with him a year ago. Darby said he delayed reporting the abuses because the guards depicted were his friends and fellow soldiers.

"It was hard for me to turn in people who I had such a camaraderie with," he said. <snip>

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/2986615