Army Investigating Video Alleging More Iraq Prison Abuses

[Ian David]

The U.S. Army's Criminal Investigation Division has begun an investigation into this video, which was first posted on IraqSlogger last week.

The clip, originally linked via a now defunct account on YouTube, purports to show a former guard from Abu Ghraib talking about torture techniques employed at the American-run prison. The man also recounts the gang rape of a female teenage detainee, in which one guard "pimped" the girl to others for $50 each. As he recalls, "I think at the end of the day he'd made like 500 bucks before she hung herself."

According to chief of public affairs Christopher Grey, "CID Special Agents are looking into the matter and take this issue very seriously. I am not able to provide you with any further details of our activity at this time due to investigative reasons."

At this point, there is no way to confirm if the video is a true representation or not. The video has no publicly-identifiable source at this point, the primary subject appears almost completely in shadow, and the footage has obviously been edited down into a concise 3-minute package.

Previous soldier/atrocity items have caused great media stir, only later to be proven hoaxes. As Grey noted, "We have seen situations where people post videos and pictures on the Internet pretending or leading people to believe they are U.S. soldiers, when in fact they were not even in the military or they never served in OIF or OEF."


More:
http://www.iraqslogger.com/index.php/post/1079/US_Army_Investigating_New_Torture_Allegations

[John Q. Citizen]

1. That reminds me. What ever happened to the photographic records orderd released

on the torture?

[Kelvin Mace]

2. As I recall, they were released on a Friday

and completely ignored by the media who decided that war crimes (especially ones they helped foster by promoting the war) weren't "newsworthy" anymore. You can see them on Salon.com

That said, this video doesn't pass the smell test for me. As bad as SOME American soldiers have been, I can't see someone bragging about gang-raping a woman, then commenting on her hanging herself. A quick search of the news stories and reports has not turned up any female suicides of prisoners. It might not get reported in the US media, but it would overseas and in the Arab press.

Now, if you wanted to claim that this is a hoax, and it was perpetuated by the Army as a means of discrediting reports of prisoner abuse, you wouldn't find me unduly skeptical.