Iraq News

US soldier jailed for prison abuse

21/10/2004

US army reservist who pleaded guilty to five charges of abusing prisoners at Abu Ghraib jail near Baghdad has been sentenced to eight years in prison.
Sgt Ivan Frederick admitted conspiracy, dereliction of duty, maltreatment, assault and committing an indecent act.
The judge ordered a reduction in rank to private, a forfeiture of pay and a dishonourable discharge from the army.
Sgt Frederick, 38, the highest-ranking soldier found guilty of abuse, admitted forcing detainees to masturbate.
The prosecutor, Major Michael Holley, told the court it had been a simple case of right and wrong.
"He's an adult and capable of telling, as we learned, the difference between right and wrong," he told the court.
"How much training do you need to learn that it's wrong to force a man to masturbate?"
But Frederick's lawyer, Gary Myers, said he would appeal against the "excessive" sentence.
"Punish him, yes. But please try to understand the defence's point of view that there is corporate responsibility," he said.
"We discovered that he has no abhorrent tendencies."
Two other reservists, Sgt Javal Davis and Specialist Charles Graner, also face hearings this week.
In total, seven military police and an intelligence officer have been charged in connection with the abuse.
'Stripped naked'
Sgt Frederick, a military policeman and a prison officer at a state jail in Virginia, told the court he knew what he was doing.
"I was wrong about what I did and I shouldn't have done it," he said.
"I knew it was wrong at the time because I knew it was a form of abuse."
He described life inside the prison, saying prisoners were stripped naked, dressed in women's underwear and otherwise physically and mentally abused.
He admitted forcing a group of detainees to masturbate while other soldiers watched and took pictures, and described watching a fellow soldier jumping on prisoners' hands and feet.
He said he could have stopped the abuse but did not, and instead punched one prisoner who had apparently attacked a female soldier. The prisoner needed resuscitation.
'Humiliation'
At Sgt Frederick's hearing, an Iraqi man took the stand and said that Sgt Frederick had made him masturbate in front of the other prisoners.
"I was crying. I wanted to kill myself," he said.
He said he and other prisoners then had to sleep naked with bags on their heads in cells flooded with water, adding that he still felt humiliated by the ordeal.
Sgt Frederick has reportedly agreed a deal with prosecutors to plead guilty to some charges and be acquitted on others.
The US says it has made efforts to improve conditions at the prison since the abuses came to light.
More than 2,000 people are still being held there indefinitely without charge.
Despite questions about how high-up the chain of command these abuses were sanctioned, no senior army officials outside the prison have been held responsible and there have been no high-level resignations.

BDWN

Britain to send troops to Baghdad area

Thursday, Oct 21, 2004

Geoff Hoon in the Commons Thursday. British troops will be sent to central Iraq from the country's south, U.K. Defence Minister Geoffrey Hoon said Thursday.
He said the 850 soldiers and support staff would be deployed to the Baghdad area for weeks, not months.
They will free up a U.S. formation in the area, which will go on the offensive against terrorists. The U.S. had earlier asked for British help.
"This deployment is limited in scope, time and space," he told the House of Commons.
British troops had been based in the Basra area in Iraq's south, which is relatively calm. The soldiers will go into the more troubled area around Baghdad.
The soldiers will help suppress terrorists, kidnappers and criminals, Hoon said, and will make it easier to hold the elections set for January.
"It is right that the United Kingdom should contribute to these objectives," he said.
Many MPs in the governing Labour Party had opposed the move.
Critics had said the move was intended to help U.S. President George W. Bush in his election fight by showing a U.S. ally was backing the American plan for Iraq.Foreign Secretary Jack Straw had dismissed that idea.
Hoon said the decision was based on a recommendation from the chiefs of staff, and that there is "a compelling military operational justification" for the redeployment.
He pointed out that Britain has about 8,000 soldiers in Iraq, down from 46,000 during the 2003 invasion of the country.

BDWN

UK agrees to US request to redeploy 850 troops in Iraq

2004-10-21 21:42:05

LONDON, Oct. 21 -- British Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon told the British Parliament Thursday that the government has agreed to a US request to send 850 British troops to relieve American forces in the more volatile areas of Iraq.
Hoon's announcement came after British Prime Minister Tony Blair faced a revolt on Wednesday from lawmakers who demanded a parliamentary vote on a US request to redeploy British troops in Iraq.
The British government confirmed Monday that US military commanders asked Britain on Oct. 10 to redeploy a limited number of British ground forces to relieve US forces and "allow them in turn to participate in further operations elsewhere in Iraq to maintain the continuing pressure on terrorists."
Britain now has about 9,000 troops deployed in Iraq.

BDWN

Gunmen kill four in bus attack

Thursday October 21

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Gunmen have fired on a bus carrying workers to Baghdad airport, killing four people and wounding 11 in a brazen assault on Iraqis helping to revive a vital link in the country's reconstruction.
Security sources said two cars of armed men stopped the bus as it was driving on the highway to the airport, on the western outskirts of the capital, shortly after 7 a.m. (5 a.m. British time).
The daylight attack on a major road came as London announced it would redeploy some of its troops from their relatively safe base in the south of the country to an area nearer Baghdad which carries much greater security risks.
Defence Minister Geoff Hoon said the relocation of 850 troops followed a request from the U.S. military and would see an armoured battalion moved near Baghdad to relieve U.S. forces.
In the Baghdad attack, one assailant threw at least two hand grenades into the packed bus and then three gunmen opened fire on the vehicle from outside, strafing it with bullets in a well-planned attack, the British security sources said.
"The bus was riddled with bullet holes. There was broken glass everywhere," said an airport employee who asked not to be named. She said most of the passengers were office workers. An official at Iraqi Airways said many of them were women and confirmed at least one woman was killed in a shot to the head.
Staff at Yarmouk hospital in central Baghdad said they had received 11 wounded, some of them in critical condition. The Interior Ministry confirmed the attack but was seeking details.
Insurgents have previously attacked buses taking people to work at U.S.-run bases, but Thursday's assault appeared to target people only very loosely associated with the Americans.
Baghdad's airport, formerly a huge military base, now has next to no U.S. presence and is protected by an independent British contractor. Thousands of Iraqis work there, mostly for the relaunched Iraqi Airways or for cargo companies.

ABU GHRAIB COURT MARTIAL

At a U.S. camp near the airport, a military judge was expected to deliver a verdict and possibly pass sentence on Staff Sergeant Ivan Frederick, who has pleaded guilty to five charges of sexual and physical abuse of detainees at Abu Ghraib jail last October and November.
On Wednesday, Frederick, 38, the most senior enlisted man so far implicated in the scandal, admitted forcing at least three prisoners to masturbate and at one point hitting a detainee so hard in the chest that he needed to be resuscitated.
Witnesses also told the court on Wednesday that the CIA sometimes directed abuse at the prison, and that orders were received from the military command to toughen interrogations.
The evidence, from an officer and a chief warrant officer who served at the jail, is among the strongest so far in the Abu Ghraib trials pointing to more senior involvement in the abuse and direct orders from above to "break" detainees.
The Pentagon has said the abuses that took place were the work of a few "bad apples" acting on their own initiative.
In Baghdad, the husband of Margaret Hassan, a senior British-Iraqi aid worker abducted on her way to work this week, appealed for her release.
"She's not involved in politics or religion," Tahsin Hassan, a retired engineer, told her kidnappers through reporters. "She's Iraqi. She's working for a humanitarian organisation and I ask you to release her."
Hassan, director of operations for the Australian branch of CARE in Iraq, was shown on a video broadcast on Tuesday looking shaken and alarmed. Her kidnappers have made no demands.
Her husband said she had been travelling with a driver and an unarmed security guard when she was seized, and that he understood at least one of the four or five gunmen who took her was wearing an Iraqi police uniform.
Addressing parliament, Defence Minister Hoon said the troop relocation would last "weeks rather than months".
"This deployment is a vital part of the process of creating the right conditions for the Iraqi elections to take place in January," Hoon said.
He gave no precise details about when the Black Watch battalion would move or to where, saying only they would be heading north. He said they would remain under the operational command of British military chiefs, not Americans.
Officials said the force would be deployed to the west of Baghdad.

BDWN

Six police stations open in Samarra

21/10/2004

SAMARRA, Iraq – Police here are much safer now, following the construction of six new fortified police stations.
Engineers assigned and attached to the 1st Infantry Division built one station a day for six days beginning Oct. 11, and spread them evenly throughout the city.
The stations cost about $100,000 apiece, according to Sgt. 1st Class Armondo Cadena, a combat engineer and platoon sergeant with C Company, 1st Battalion, 26th Infantry Regiment. Much of that money went to ensuring security. “They will withstand rocket-propelled grenades, car bombs, and mortars,” Cadena said.
It took only five or six hours to finish each station, according to Sgt. Charles Miller, a heavy equipment operator with B Company, 216th Engineer Battalion.
“They were built from scratch,” he said. “They each have four conexes that were built at FOB Speicher by carpenters from our company, then hauled here with all the concrete.”
While it was important to give the police a place to work and Samarra residents a place to report problems, the overriding concern was for the officers’ well-being.
“It’ll be safer for the Iraqi police,” Miller said. “The buildings are strong with bunkers and barriers. You can’t just drive right up to them.”
But when the buildings went up, the police were supplied with more than concrete and a roof.
“Everything was put in – brooms, desks, chairs, paper. They had everything ready to go,” Miller said.
The construction was part of an ongoing 1st Infantry Division effort to rebuild Samarra. Work is underway on several other projects, including schools, hospitals and street repair.

BDWN