Three soldiers – a captain and two sergeants – from the 82nd Airborne Division stationed at Forward Operating Base (FOB) Mercury near Fallujah in Iraq have told Human Rights Watch how prisoners were tortured both as a form of stress relief and as a way of breaking them for interrogation sessions.
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The soldiers referred to their Iraqi captives as PUCs – persons under control – and used the expressions “fu[b][/b]cking a PUC†and “smoking a PUC†to refer respectively to torture and forced physical exertion.
One sergeant provided graphic descriptions to Human Rights Watch investigators about acts of abuse carried out both by himself and others. He now says he regrets his actions. His regiment arrived at FOB Mercury in August 2003. He said: “ The first interrogation that I observed was the first time I saw a PUC pushed to the brink of a stroke or a heart attack. At first I was surprised, like, ‘This is what we are allowed to do?’â€
The troops would put sand-bags on prisoners’ heads and cuff them with plastic zip-ties. The sergeant, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said if he was told that prisoners had been found with homemade bombs, “we would f*** them up, put them in stress positions and put them in a tent and withhold water … It was like a game. You know, how far could you make this guy go before he passes out or just collapses on you?â€
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However, Fishback told his company commander about the abuse and was told “remember the honour of the unit is at stake†and “don’t expect me to go to bat for you on this issue if you take this upâ€. Fishback then told his battalion commander who advised him to speak to the Judge Advocate General’s (JAG) office, which deals with issues of military law.
The JAG told Fishback that the Geneva Conventions “are a grey areaâ€. When Fishback described some of the abuses he had witnessed the JAG said it was “within†Geneva Conventions.
Fishback added: “ If I go to JAG and JAG cannot give me clear guidance about what I should stop and what I should allow to happen, how is an NCO or a private expected to act appropriately?â€
Fishback, a West Point graduate who has served in both Afghanistan and Iraq, spent 17 months trying to raise the matter with his superiors.
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Fishback says that army investigators were currently more interested in finding out the identity of the other soldiers who spoke to Human Rights Watch than dealing with the systemic abuse of Iraqi prisoners.
http://www.sundayherald.com/52035
I'm sure the moral majority is to blame somehow or that if you asked gbaji it never really happened and that everything was perfectly legal.
Still was kind of interesting to read.