WP: Army Investigates Wider Iraq Offenses

[kskiska]

Cases Include Deaths, Assaults Outside Prisons

Tuesday, June 1, 2004; Page A01

Over the past year and a half, the Army has opened investigations into at least 91 cases of possible misconduct by U.S. soldiers against detainees and civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan, a total not previously reported and one that points to a broader range of wrongful behavior than defense officials have acknowledged.

The figure, provided by a senior Army official, extends beyond the much-publicized abuse of detainees in military-run prisons to include the mistreatment of dozens of Iraqis in U.S. custody outside detention centers. It covers not only cases that resulted in death but also those that involved nonlethal assaults. It also includes as many as 18 instances of U.S. soldiers in Iraq allegedly stealing money, jewelry or other property.

Previous statistics cited by Army officials have tended to avoid an aggregate number of misconduct cases or have given a lower figure for alleged mistreatment of detainees and civilians outside detention facilities. Officials also have not previously disclosed the number of investigations into reports of soldiers stealing from Iraqis.

Taken together, the 91 cases indicate misconduct by U.S. troops wider in type and greater in number than suggested by the focus simply on the mistreatment of Iraqis held at the Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad. The majority of the cases under investigation occurred in Iraq, although the Army has not provided an exact accounting of all the locations.

President Bush and other senior administration officials have sought to explain the abuses at Abu Ghraib as reflecting the aberrant behavior of a few low-ranking soldiers last fall, graphically exposed in photographs and an internal Army report that emerged a month ago. But the Army's list of investigations appears to bolster the contention of others, including the International Committee of the Red Cross, that misconduct by U.S. forces has been more extensive -- and its consequences more damaging -- than can be blamed on the troubled actions of a small group.

more…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A4807-2004May31.html

[NNN0LHI]

1. 91 cases? I thought it was just 6 cases a few days ago? Hmm n/t

[tlcandie]

2. Ya, just a handful ...

Ummm how big are those hands? :eyes:

[PaDUer]

3. We want those photos/videos

released to the public instead of having them sweep them under the rug.

[Disturbed]

4. War Crimes

What is a war crime?
By Tarik Kafala
BBC News Online


Article 147 of the Fourth Geneva Convention defines war crimes as: "Willful killing, torture or inhuman treatment, including... willfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health, unlawful deportation or transfer or unlawful confinement of a protected person, compelling a protected person to serve in the forces of a hostile power, or willfully depriving a protected person of the rights of fair and regular trial, ...taking of hostages and extensive destruction and appropriation of property, not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly."


This, international lawyers say, is the basic definition of war crimes.

The statutes of The Hague tribunal say the court has the right to try suspects alleged to have violated the laws or customs of war in the former Yugoslavia since 1992. Examples of such violations are given in article 3:

* Wanton destruction of cities, towns or villages, or devastation not justified by military necessity
* Attack, or bombardment, by whatever means, of undefended towns, villages, dwellings, or buildings
* Seizure of, destruction or willful damage done to institutions dedicated to religion, charity and education, the arts and sciences, historic monuments and works of art and science
* Plunder of public or private property.

The tribunal defines crime against humanity as crimes committed in armed conflict but directed against a civilian population. Again a list of examples is given in article 5:

* Murder
* Extermination
* Enslavement
* Deportation
* Imprisonment
* Torture
* Rape
* Persecutions on political, racial and religious grounds.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/1420133.stm

*Seems that Congress is derelect in their madate again. Rumsfailed, Gen. Meyers and Gen. Sanchez lied under oath to the Sentate. Why are there not charges forthcoming? Why is BushCo not being charged with War Crimes?

[PaDUer]

5. That's right...

they're all guilty and should be brought to justice. The people should be in the streets..All we're seeing is snowjobs! Congress is sitting on their butts collecting fat paychecks!

[stevedeshazer]

6. Just a few bad apples, right?

Right.

[Snazzy]

7. Some more from the article

...

But 10 other homicides had no such justification. Only one case so far has resulted in disciplinary action, with a soldier being demoted and discharged after shooting a prisoner who was throwing stones at a detention center northwest of Baghdad last Sept. 11. Another homicide case, involving a contractor employed by the CIA, has been turned over to the Justice Department.

Investigations into the other eight homicides remain open amid evidence the dead detainees were assaulted before or during interrogation sessions.

Of the alleged prison assaults that did not result in death, disciplinary action has been reported in two cases. One is the main Abu Ghraib case, in which seven military police reservists have been charged. In the other case, three military intelligence soldiers were alleged to have sexually assaulted a female detainee at Abu Ghraib in October. Investigators failed to confirm the assault, but the three soldiers were faulted for being in the prison's female wing without permission, fined several hundred dollars each and demoted.

Of the 49 cases of alleged misconduct outside detention facilities, three involved deaths, 28 centered on assaults in which soldiers allegedly kicked or punched Iraqi civilians or fired weapons to frighten them, and 18 dealt with thefts that occurred during raids on houses or other operations in Iraq. The theft cases were first reported yesterday by the New York Times.

....

[Snazzy]

8. and see the WP sidebar about the dates on the photos

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x593887


----

I note that significant news stories seem to buried under a storm of crap.....

Read these two please.

[Snazzy]

9. I take that back...

Interesting, always, to watch the DU self-correcting LBN notion of what's important.

I show up, and it's (yeah, to me) a bunch of BS for the whole front page. Give it a few minutes and it's already sorta righted itself.

Was briefly worried that somebody was pulling some wool given the holiday thing (and somebody probably was).

Anyway, a democratic consensus of what is LBN is both interesting and gives me warm fuzzies or some friggen thing.

Cheers.

[Karenina]

10. This is merely the TIP

of the iceberg...