US guard jailed for one year over prisoner abuse in Iraq

[bejohnson]

US guard jailed for one year over prisoner abuse in Iraq (http://www.infobeat.com/index.cfm?action=article&id=284102)
Wednesday, May 19


BAGHDAD, May 19, 2004 (AFX-UK via COMTEX) -- US soldier Jeremy Sivits was sentenced in a court martial to the maximum term of one year in jail for his role in the abuse of Iraqi prisoners.

Sivits, a 24-year-old military policeman, was given a bad conduct discharge.

He was demoted from the rank of specialist to the lowest rank of private in the US army, which he will keep until he is discharged from the army after completing his jail sentence.

Sivits had pleaded guilty to charges relating to the abuse and humiliation of Iraqi detainees in the notorious Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad.

newsdesk@afxnews.com

ppy/pfm/hc/pav

Copyright 2004. AFX News Ltd
I wish they could have given him more.

[Bobenis]

I agree. Give them all more!

[t00lb0x]

Originally posted by bejohnson
I wish they could have given him more.

Ditto.

[Tivon]

It's bad enough we are at war with other humans.
One year sounds rather light, but at the same time
I have no love for the people those guards are holding
behind bars.

[Maro]

Originally posted by Tivon
It's bad enough we are at war with other humans.
One year sounds rather light, but at the same time
I have no love for the people those guards are holding
behind bars.

Do you mean Iraqis in general? 905 of the prisoners held there were released without charge. Most of them were caught during sweeps but were innocent.

BTW, what happens to the "Civilian" Interrogators.

Nothing probably

:Nope

[Bobenis]

Agreed...most of those troops were detained during sweeps and they were not allowed any sort of hearing. Until then, as in US Law and especially the Geneva Convention, they are innocent until proven otherwise.

[Tivon]

We are to nice... just let them go without blah blah this or blah blah that. Got to prove this and prove that in a time of war. You know any other place in the world would have just killed them outright no questions asked.

[Maro]

Originally posted by Tivon
We are to nice... just let them go without blah blah this or blah blah that. Got to prove this and prove that in a time of war. You know any other place in the world would have just killed them outright no questions asked.

And that is a good thing?

If you become like your enemy, you are no better

[Tivon]

Originally posted by Maro
And that is a good thing?

If you become like your enemy, you are no better

I would do what it takes to survive regardless.

[Powderboy]

If you become like your enemy, you are no better [/B]

i have yet to see any pictures of American pow's or civilians being humilated in a non violent way. now on the other hand, i have seen(and heard first hand accounts) of our soldiers being tortured and raped to near death.

on a similar note, the local paper did a piece interviewing several former pow's from wwII to vietnam to desert storm. odd thing is, the consensus among them can be summed up in a comment made by a member of our greatest generation....'considering the situation, i believe the treatment they(the iraqi prisoners in the infamous photos) received was fair.'

and then i see sen. john mccain on cspan ripping rumsfield and a few multiple star generals a new one. i wonder how mccain feels when he goes home at night, i wonder if he feels ill to his stomach, i wonder what he is going to say when he runs into another former pow from the vietnam or wwII era.

[Maro]

Originally posted by Tivon
I would do what it takes to survive regardless.

Why would a guard have to survive?

[Tivon]

Originally posted by Maro
Why would a guard have to survive?

That's not the point.:rolleyes:

[Bobenis]

The point is we are talking about what the guards did and what they got for their actions. It was not enough.

[Tivon]

Originally posted by Bobenis
The point is we are talking about what the guards did and what they got for their actions. It was not enough.

You might think so.. But I feel they should have been given a metal of honor.

I know it sounds bad... Like I said once before "I have no love for the people they guarded". You know someday one of those 905 people will kill another American.

Sure we can't have guards taking pictures like they did. I'm not crazy, if we just killed them then there would be a problem here.

*But then we would be bad like them* = B.S., we are all BAD!:devil

[Bobenis]

So you think they were all guilty without knowing their stories hey? For all you know they could have been detained because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Maybe you would not feel the same if someone close to you was arrested and had this done to them even after you knew they were innocent. I am not saying they are innocent but you are condoning torture?

A medal of Honor??? LOL.

So I guess the Cambodians deserved their torture by the hands of the US troops in Vietnam under Nixon's secret Operations Menu campaign? Killling women and children? Or maybe the Polish under the control of Stalin?

Kill them? Ok...lol.

[Maro]

Originally posted by Tivon
You might think so.. But I feel they should have been given a metal of honor.

I know it sounds bad... Like I said once before "I have no love for the people they guarded". You know someday one of those 905 people will kill another American.

Sure we can't have guards taking pictures like they did. I'm not crazy, if we just killed them then there would be a problem here.

*But then we would be bad like them* = B.S., we are all BAD!:devil

I like you Tivon but that is a crass thing to say.


:Nope :Nope

[mrman_3k]

You know with all this talk of the Geneva Convention, have any of you heard of the Mecca Convention?

[Tivon]

Originally posted by Maro
I like you Tivon but that is a crass thing to say.


:Nope :Nope

I know people think they have an answer to everything and that the world should be full of nice peace loving humans. The reality is that we are always fighting someone or something. Blind love and sympathy for people that would kill you in a heartbeat does not calculate with me. Some people would say that is because I don’t have J.e.s.u.s in my life. Then again, J.e.s.u.s died on a cross. As you can already tell the harmony of my logic does not become over ruled in the sympathy and weakness or mortal pain and suffering. I’m not on this earth to say things that make people like me. I will hold onto my prejudices because they are my choices. Without hate there would not be a world of color, only black and white. A world without pain and suffering is not the Earth I know. You live in a world of control; often limited to the choices they give you. You are falsely protected in your bubble of police and justice. The next time you look into the eyes of a man that is going to take your life be sure to pray for him because I’m not a man made of miracles and will kill to save my own kind. People these days walk around dreaming a dream while the real people in control are playing you as cattle. Ask yourself, why are we really in the Middle East? “Oh, lets find those bad weapons on the other side of the world”. You don’t just walk into a foreign land and give spankings without a resistance. Because of the media today we are forced feed an image of police actions aimed fully to sooth the public eye. We are there to kill the bad guys, but we need police evidence to prove to the world that we have a right to kill our enemies first. These are high standards when no one else is doing it. I know that these images of men being toyed with only fuel the fires of the enemy and this is good news. Maybe now they will not give up so easy to the USA and fight to the death with honor, as they should have from the start. Anyway you look at this no one is right. All I know is they are playing this game for keeps and you should not be so caring as to what happens to a combatant in the battles of war. I look at this as a waste of another good soldier that was burned by the backstabbing media.

[Tivon]

Originally posted by Bobenis
So you think they were all guilty without knowing their stories hey? For all you know they could have been detained because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Maybe you would not feel the same if someone close to you was arrested and had this done to them even after you knew they were innocent. I am not saying they are innocent but you are condoning torture?

A medal of Honor??? LOL.

So I guess the Cambodians deserved their torture by the hands of the US troops in Vietnam under Nixon's secret Operations Menu campaign? Killling women and children? Or maybe the Polish under the control of Stalin?

Kill them? Ok...lol.

These people where in the battlefield. What possibly story would you like to hear?

“My camel ran off and got a gun. I was trying to stop it then you guys showed up and killed my family camel. Dam you Americans for killing my gun shooting camel! With him we could have won the war!”

Yah, The Medal of Honor for best torturer of 2004. I pray it’s not the purple heart..eww

[Bobenis]

The issue of the world becoming one or a better place will never surface until the human race is long gone due to your type of mentality as a collective. We are the most ignorant beings on the planet and it will show with our soon and eventual extinction. I contribute by trying to be good to all others, no matter of color, race, or spicies. That is my choice but I would gladly give my life to if it meant the human race was wholely destroyed.

Also, if you know so much about what battle is, why are you not over in Iraq fighting then?

[Tivon]

Originally posted by Bobenis
The issue of the world becoming one or a better place will never surface until the human race is long gone due to your type of mentality as a collective. We are the most ignorant beings on the planet and it will show with our soon and eventual extinction. I contribute by trying to be good to all others, no matter of color, race, or spicies. That is my choice but I would gladly give my life to if it meant the human race was wholely destroyed.

Also, if you know so much about what battle is, why are you not over in Iraq fighting then?

Everything has its end.

[Bobenis]

To a point. The universe will never end, it just keeps expanding. After we are long gone, the planet will contine to thrive and rebuild. We have only been here for not even 300,000 years. The dinosaurs were here for over 10 million along with so many other spicies that are still here today. Just cause everythig has an end does not mean one has to be void of compassion.

[Tivon]

Originally posted by Bobenis
To a point. The universe will never end, it just keeps expanding. After we are long gone, the planet will contine to thrive and rebuild. We have only been here for not even 300,000 years. The dinosaurs were here for over 10 million along with so many other spicies that are still here today. Just cause everythig has an end does not mean one has to be void of compassion.

I have compassion. Just not for those people that want to kill me.:D

[Bobenis]

But that is where compassion matters most. Not compassion for one's self but rather for others and their faults.

[Tivon]

Originally posted by Bobenis
But that is where compassion matters most. Not compassion for one's self but rather for others and their faults.

That just sounds ******ed to me. Might as well build the bomb for them.:Nice

[Bobenis]

You just haven't reached a state in your life where you do understand it. You might later..might not. One of your many lives you will however.:thumb

[egarrard]

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0521-03.htm

The Washington Post showed excerpts of videos and more pictures from the notorious Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad showing "savage beatings" and of soldiers "appearing to delight in the abuses."

A picture on the front page of the Post showed a prisoner in an orange jumpsuit cowering in front of an unmuzzled dog being held back by a soldier.

Another showed a naked prisoner smeared with what appeared to be excrement being forced to walk in front of a baton-wielding guard.

In another, a US soldier is shown with his right fist braced as though he is about to strike one of a pile of bound and hooded prisoners on the ground.

Another picture shows a prisoner wearing a blanket and a hood, slumped over a railing to which he is handcuffed.

A sixth picture shows a prisoner in underwear, with cuffs around his hands and one ankle, stood on two boxes with his back to a wall.

One video put up on the Post website shows naked inmates being dragged across the floor. It said another showed a US soldier who "slaps the man across his left cheek so hard that the prisoner's knees buckle."

Sworn statements given to US army investigators by the detainees in January gave graphic detail of the abuse.

The detainees described being ridden like animals by prison guards, sexually fondled by female soldiers and forced to retrieve food from their toilets.

"They forced us to walk like dogs on our hands and knees," said Hiadar Sabar Abed Miktub al-Aboodi, who was identified as detainee No. 13077.

"And we had to bark like a dog, and if we didn't do that they started hitting us hard on our face and chest with no mercy.

"After that, they took us to our cells, took the mattresses out and dropped water on the floor and they made us sleep on our stomachs on the floor with the bags on our head and they took pictures of everything."

Many detainees said they were forced to strip naked on their arrival at the prison and remained naked for several days, with some forced to wear women's underwear.

One detainee said he witnessed a US Army translator having sex with a boy of between 15 and 18 at the prison.

Another detainee described how US Army Specialist Charles Graner and other US soldiers sodomized another detainee with a phosphorescent light. Graner was also accused of throwing detainees' meals into toilets and then saying "Eat it!"

The detainees provided the names of three US soldiers, two of whom -- Graner and Sergeant Javal Davis -- are among the US soldiers facing courts martial for the abuse of prisoners.

Another detainee said he was kept naked for five days, forced to kneel for four hours with a hood over his head, badly beaten, forced to crawl as he was spat upon, and finally sodomized by a US soldiers with a nightstick.

Another detainee described how US soldiers forced him and several other detainees to form a human pyramid.

Al-Zayiadi described how he was forced to stand on a box wearing a blanket and a hood with electric wires sticking out of his body, in what has become one of the iconic photographs of the scandal.

He said one soldier "came and put electrical wires on my fingers and toes and on my penis, and I had a bag over my head."

Meanwhile, a private contract translator at Abu Ghraib prison has been accused of sexually humiliating prisoners, The Wall Street Journal said.

The man helped hold down three detainees who were "nude, handcuffed to each other and placed in sexual positions," a US official who reviewed a classified portion of an army investigation told the daily.

Once a prison guard, always a prison guard...

[Tivon]

I think they where told to do those things.