| Topic: |
Politics > Politics-USA |
| User: |
"caquixote" |
| Date: |
19 May 2004 07:18:30 PM |
| Object: |
Re: Abu Ghrab prision run only by a general and six low ranking enlisted? |
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/WNT/Investigation/abu_ghraib_cover_up_040518-
1.html
COVER-UP!!!
"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."
"Running Dog" <Running Dog@WeScalpUm.net> wrote in message
news:7jrna0l749vjcifqto8it8q8ufeq4s20rb@4ax.com...
That seem to be what is presented but you don't jump from low ranking
enlisted to a general in any military organization. Where were the
senior NCOs and lower ranking officers and what were they doing.
How come we have heard nothing about them? You don't have personal on
duty 24/7 you have shifts and someone set up those shifts and assigned
personal to them that would be their direct supervisor and If he/she
did not know what was going on he/she should be court-martialed also.
There should also have been some officers there below the rank of
general.
There must have been more than those six or seven low ranking enlisted
knowledgeable of what was going own but I bet they are the only ones
who get any jail time.
Consider the military mind. An officer's career is ruined that is
considered as bad as spending years in a federal pen. That's how
officers look at it so officers seldom go to jail for the same crimes
that enlisted do. That is to ensure order and discipline in the lower
ranks. Therefore same crime but different punishments for different
ranks. Lets take the Jury like members on a court-martial. An enlisted
person can ask for a number of enlisted on that Jury. However; if a
private is being court-martialed there will not be privates on the
Jury it will he high ranking NCOs. Why high ranking NCOs. Well they
have to look after their future careers and will likely look dis
favorably towards another enlisted.
In other words the Military justice system favors officers and the
higher the rank the greater favor.
.
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