| Topic: |
Religions > Atheism |
| User: |
"Carol Lee Smith" |
| Date: |
18 May 2004 10:03:19 PM |
| Object: |
Army concealed involvement in abuse scandal |
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/WNT/Investigation/abu_ghraib_cover_up_040518-1.html
Cover Up
-----excerpt-----
Provance said Fay threatened to take action against him for failing to
report what he saw sooner, and the sergeant fears he will be ostracized
for speaking out.
"I feel like I'm being punished for being honest," Provance told ABCNEWS.
"You know, it was almost as if I actually felt if all my statements were
shredded and I said, like most everybody else, 'I didn't hear anything, I
didn't see anything. I don't know what you're talking about,' then my life
would be just fine right now."
In response, Army officials said it is "routine procedure to advise
military personnel under investigative review" not to comment.
The officials said, however, that Fay and the military were committed to
an honest, in-depth investigation of what happened at the prison.
But Provance believes many involved may not be as forthcoming with
information.
"I would say many people are probably hiding and wishing to God that this
storm passes without them having to be investigated [or] personally looked
at."
"Without faith we might relapse into scientific or rational thinking,
which leads by a slippery slope toward constitutional democracy."
-- Robert Anton Wilson
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| User: "stoney" |
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| Title: Re: Army concealed involvement in abuse scandal |
05 Jun 2004 08:15:57 PM |
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On Tue, 18 May 2004 22:03:19 -0500, Carol Lee Smith <human@csd.uwm.edu>,
Message ID:
<Pine.OSF.3.96.1040518215829.1673E-100000@alpha1.csd.uwm.edu> wrote in
alt.atheism;
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/WNT/Investigation/abu_ghraib_cover_up_040518-1.html
‘Definitely a Cover-Up’
Former Abu Ghraib Intel Staffer Says Army Concealed Involvement in Abuse
Scandal
By Brian Ross and Alexandra Salomon
ABCNEWS.com
May 18, 2004— Dozens of soldiers — other than the seven military police
reservists who have been charged — were involved in the abuse at Iraq's
Abu Ghraib prison, and there is an effort under way in the Army to hide
it, a key witness in the investigation told ABCNEWS.
"There's definitely a cover-up," the witness, Sgt. Samuel Provance,
said. "People are either telling themselves or being told to be quiet."
Provance, 30, was part of the 302nd Military Intelligence Battalion
stationed at Abu Ghraib last September. He spoke to ABCNEWS despite
orders from his commanders not to.
"What I was surprised at was the silence," said Provance. "The
collective silence by so many people that had to be involved, that had
to have seen something or heard something."
Provance, now stationed in Germany, ran the top secret computer network
used by military intelligence at the prison.
He said that while he did not see the actual abuse take place, the
interrogators with whom he worked freely admitted they directed the MPs'
rough treatment of prisoners.
"Anything [the MPs] were to do legally or otherwise, they were to take
those commands from the interrogators," he said.
Top military officials have claimed the abuse seen in the photos at Abu
Ghraib was limited to a few MPs, but Provance says the sexual
humiliation of prisoners began as a technique ordered by the
interrogators from military intelligence.
"One interrogator told me about how commonly the detainees were stripped
naked, and in some occasions, wearing women's underwear," Provance said.
"If it's your job to strip people naked, yell at them, scream at them,
humiliate them, it's not going to be too hard to move from that to
another level."
According to Provance, some of the physical abuse that took place at Abu
Ghraib included U.S. soldiers "striking [prisoners] on the neck area
somewhere and the person being knocked out. Then [the soldier] would go
to the next detainee, who would be very fearful and voicing their fear,
and the MP would calm him down and say, 'We're not going to do that.
It's OK. Everything's fine,' and then do the exact same thing to him."
Provance also described an incident when two drunken interrogators took
a female Iraqi prisoner from her cell in the middle of the night and
stripped her naked to the waist. The men were later restrained by
another MP.
Pentagon Sanctions Investigation
Maj. Gen. George Fay, the Army's deputy chief of staff for intelligence,
was assigned by the Pentagon to investigate the role of military
intelligence in the abuse at the Iraq prison.
Fay started his probe on April 23, but Provance said when Fay
interviewed him, the general seemed interested only in the military
police, not the interrogators, and seemed to discourage him from
testifying.
Provance said Fay threatened to take action against him for failing to
report what he saw sooner, and the sergeant fears he will be ostracized
for speaking out.
"I feel like I'm being punished for being honest," Provance told
ABCNEWS. "You know, it was almost as if I actually felt if all my
statements were shredded and I said, like most everybody else, 'I didn't
hear anything, I didn't see anything. I don't know what you're talking
about,' then my life would be just fine right now."
In response, Army officials said it is "routine procedure to advise
military personnel under investigative review" not to comment.
The officials said, however, that Fay and the military were committed to
an honest, in-depth investigation of what happened at the prison.
But Provance believes many involved may not be as forthcoming with
information.
"I would say many people are probably hiding and wishing to God that
this storm passes without them having to be investigated [or] personally
looked at."
(c) 2004 ABC News
Stoney
"Designated Rascal and Rapscallion
and
SCAMPERMEISTER!"
When in doubt, SCAMPER about!
When things are fair, SCAMPER everywhere!
When things are rough, can't SCAMPER enough!
/end humour alert
alt.atheism military veteran #11
{so much for the 'no atheists in foxholes' rubbish}
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