U.S. troops sealed detainees in room filled with pepper spray.
By on Aug 14th, 2008 at 4:09 pm
U.S. troops sealed detainees in room filled with pepper spray.
Six U.S. sailors working as prison guards at Camp Bucca in southern Iraq have been charged with assault and are facing courts martial for allegedly sealing eight detainees in a pepper-spray filled cell. Two detainees also suffered “minor abrasions” after being beaten by the sailors, although no bones were broken. The assaults occurred on May 14, “after some guards had been spat at and had human waste thrown at them by detainees.”
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Whew! Good thing these scapegoats have been found and charged for what their COs told them to do.
August 14th, 2008 at 4:13 pmSounds like monkeys at the zoo…with crazy caretakers.
This action brought to you by Bushco, torturing and lying about it for 5 years.
August 14th, 2008 at 4:13 pmToday Iraq, tomorrow the U.S.A.
August 14th, 2008 at 4:13 pmDid they sign confessionals afterwards?
August 14th, 2008 at 4:14 pmBetter not be taken to one of our new Halliburton Detention Centers – you probably won’t be pepper sprayed, but I hear they do really shoddy electrical work – you might get shocked or zapped by a lot of volts of electricity if you try to turn a light on…
August 14th, 2008 at 4:16 pmI’m sorry, but these are some sick, twisted phuchs to come up with stuff like this.
There are times like these when I really am ashamed to be an American. Thanks, BushCo.
PEACE
August 14th, 2008 at 4:18 pmAh the never-ending glories of the Bush gangster regime.
O/T: Senator John McCain supports the Georgian genocide of the South Ossetians. And our corporate media, loves to lie and goose-step along with Bush, Cheney, Rice and McCain in their support of the imperial aggressor, President Saakashvili, leader of the Republic of Georgia.
If possible, watch the “Russia Today” news show, which is available on some PBS stations. It presents a different viewpoint from the American corporate media and Bush/Cheney/Rice/McCain. Check out their web site, http://www.russiatoday.com, for some graphic stories of Georgian slaughter of South Ossetians in the first few days of the Georgian invasion of South Ossetia. There seem to be American military, trainers and even some mercenaries working in the Republic of Georgia. Time to get the U.S. out of the Republic of Georgia.
August 14th, 2008 at 4:21 pmWhen are you going to get it through your head this is the work of a few bad apples? Repeat after me…this is not official policy, these people are working outside of the perameters of civilized nations, we do not torture. Bad apples!
August 14th, 2008 at 4:23 pmOK…I spelled parameters wrong…hit me with some o’ that spray!!!
August 14th, 2008 at 4:24 pmThis is what happens when their is no clear mission and no clear direction. When there is ambiguity, then there is chaos. Another point is that our military has lowered its standards for recruitments and now the recruiters are reaching into the bottom of the barrel. I’m not surprised that this happened. Erik Saar describes the chaos created by Rumsfeld and Bush and Cheney in his book “Inside the Wire”.
August 14th, 2008 at 4:24 pmI can understand how something like this can happen. I sure wouldn’t like to have someone throwing crap at me either but I imagine it happens daily in the primate building at any zoo in the country . . . and I doubt the zookeepers react in this way.
The sooner we get out of Iraq, the better. I really wonder why we have our troops functioning as prison guards anyway. Haven’t we been told how much better things are in Iraq and how many police and soldiers have been trained up?
I thought we were only engaging “the enemy” in the field and fighting alongside the Iraqis. Is it possible that we are being lied to . . . again?
August 14th, 2008 at 4:25 pmAnd at the bottom of the barrel you have…Bad Apples. Okay, now everybody sing!!!
August 14th, 2008 at 4:25 pmOval12345678 aka James K. Sayre Says:
If possible, watch the “Russia Today” news show, which is available on some PBS stations. It presents a different viewpoint from the American corporate media and Bush/Cheney/Rice/McCain. Check out their web site, http://www.russiatoday.com , for some graphic stories of Georgian slaughter of South Ossetians in the first few days of the Georgian invasion of South Ossetia.
August 14th, 2008 at 4:21 pm
From what I’ve heard, Russia Today is Russia’s version of Fox News. They report both sides of the story – Putin’s and Medvedev’s.
There was a story on NPR the other day about one of their reporters who was forced to resign after daring to talk about the casualties from the Russian bombing in Gori:
August 14th, 2008 at 4:26 pmhttp://www.theworld.org/?q=node/20092
“after some guards had been spat at and had human waste thrown at them by detainees.”
– - Pfffft, that happens to me every time I visit the primate house at the San Diego Zoo.
August 14th, 2008 at 4:26 pmThe ones fighting are the mercenaries from Blackwater – they’re the professionals, doncha know. (They may not fight alongside the Iraqis…but that’s another story.) No, no…the best thing to do with our troops is use them as guards against people who had nothing against us, before we started guarding them.
August 14th, 2008 at 4:27 pmThat is what you get when the ultimate criminal act is perpetrated by the USA. A war of agression comes with all its evil. WAR CRIMINALS!
August 14th, 2008 at 4:27 pmFolks, please don’t blame our troops for this. I am not defending what they did, but realize that you do get hardened after a while. There is not always a lot of clear definition as to what you can and cannot do. I did a lot of things in Baghdad that I am not proud of today, and I still carry a lot of guilt for that. But at the time, I honestly thought I was doing the right thing. These troops will be punished under UCMJ, but it will not address the larger problem.
August 14th, 2008 at 4:30 pmAh, this crowd doesn’t care about being called NAMES! Call the War Criminals all you like. Their response will be, ‘SO?’
The only thing that will hurt them is to shut off the money spigot that is this senseless war. (But the more senseless it is, the harder it is to get out of it, and the more money they’ll make.) Don’t even try to get the law after them. They must be stripped of their wealth to make them impotent. We have to cut off their Samson Hair.
August 14th, 2008 at 4:31 pmThese six are Just one more example of the systemic problems.
100,000 detainees are held without charges, without lawyers, and without an independent judicial process in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Tens of thousands of Iraqis are in abusive preventive detention facilities where human rights are violated routinely.
August 14th, 2008 at 4:33 pmChris L – you realize that some of the things you did you were not proud of. That is quite a brave admission. But tell us, what is it about being in that situation that otherwise would tell you this is an unacceptable thing to do?
August 14th, 2008 at 4:34 pmChris L Says:
Folks, please don’t blame our troops for this.
August 14th, 2008 at 4:30 pm
_______
We’re not – it’s this administration that’s doing that. They’re blaming a few “bad apples” for the environment of detainee abuse and torture that was created by a bunch of lawyers at the very highest levels of our administration.
August 14th, 2008 at 4:40 pmBunny2 Says:
I know. Isn’t it better than the torture and rape rooms that Sadam ran for a few decades?
August 14th, 2008 at 4:35 pm
______
Nope. Torture is just as evil, no matter who’s doing it.
August 14th, 2008 at 4:41 pmGeeDubs Says:
Chris L – you realize that some of the things you did you were not proud of. That is quite a brave admission. But tell us, what is it about being in that situation that otherwise would tell you this is an unacceptable thing to do?
######
Have children begging you for food everywhere you go, constantly. Realize you will get punished if you give them food. Then have children through grenades and rig explosives to kill you. You begin to distrust all children. Then when they approach your vehicle, you don’t know if they are coming to beg, coming to sell you something, or coming to stick an electronic transmitter on your vehicle. You have a few seconds to decide. We used to throw D size batteries at kids all the time. We would kick cars that got too close (my humvee didn’t have doors or a roof), and shoot rounds through windows as warnings. When we first arrived, we began confiscating any money that had Saddam’s face on it. We would literally search people’s homes and vehicles and take whatever money we found to get it out of circulation. When the military decided to use the Baghdad Airport as a base, my unit was assigned the task of clearing all of the houses on RTE Irish. We would ask the family to come outside, allow them to get their belongings, then bulldoze their house to the ground to clear the area for the US military. Just understand, this changes your frame of mind completely, and the way you see the world. Many of the things I did there, I believed in at the time. Time magazine recently ran a cover story about me, and the problems that this led to. Needless to say, I think differently now. But at the time, I would have done the same thing these guys did.
August 14th, 2008 at 4:45 pmChris L – you realize that some of the things you did you were not proud of. That is quite a brave admission. But tell us, what is it about being in that situation that otherwise would tell you this is an unacceptable thing to do?
As I read Chris’ post, I was actually empathizing with him because I have the same feelings about my service in Vietnam. What happens is that you get hardened to your surroundings and you no longer view your adversary as human. It is a dark side of war and it gets ingrained as a means of personal survival.
This is one reason why you hear some say that those who take a country to war have usually not personally fought in one. That is clearly the problem we have with Deserter GDumbya and 5-deferment Darth Cheney.
While these guards must bear the consequences of their actions, the larger issue and the greater responsibility rests with those who needlessly put them in this situation.
August 14th, 2008 at 4:49 pmBunny2 Says:
I know. Isn’t it better than the torture and rape rooms that Sadam ran for a few decades?
August 14th, 2008 at 4:35 pm
Justification of nation’s moral decline via comparison of another’s is not a worthy argument by nations.
August 14th, 2008 at 4:53 pmleftcoast Says:
Justification of nation’s moral decline via comparison of another’s is not a worthy argument by nations.
####
I always have trouble explaining this to my children. They find out about some other kid that gets to do whatever, and suddenly they think it is OK for them as well. Just because someone else makes the wrong choice does not excuse you for making the same wrong choice. I always see people excusing the actions of Bush, because “Clinton did it too.” Isn’t that why Bush was elected, because he promised to not be just like Clinton?
August 14th, 2008 at 4:59 pmTripleKick 11 Says:
demonstrating once again the similarities between the american extreme left and the enemy; both love to spit and crap on our troops.
######
Speaking from personal experience, most of the hatred of troops I’ve seen has been coming from the right.
August 14th, 2008 at 5:02 pmTripleKick 11 Says:
demonstrating once again the similarities between the american extreme left and the enemy; both love to spit and crap on our troops.
August 14th, 2008 at 4:58 pm
______
As opposed to the extreme right, who sends them into battle at the drop of a hat, doesn’t give them a clear objective for “victory,” doesn’t equip them with body armor or adequate vehicles, extends their tours, stop-losses them when they try to retire, cuts back on their health benefits when they return, puts them in decrepit facilities like Walter Reed when they’re injured, denys them pay raises, and opposes paying adequately for their education when they finally return home.
August 14th, 2008 at 5:07 pm#20 Dr. Hussein Matt:
“Always remember, they hate us for our freedoms (Tm).”
Try:
“they hate us for our freedoms ™.”
It will come out like this:
“they hate us for our freedoms ™.”
HTH.
Cheers,
August 14th, 2008 at 5:22 pmDid the good soldiers get the idea from enhanced interrogation things they were told not to do – nudge, nudge, wink, wink ??
Also, one point that seems to have been lost at Abu Ghraib – the people involved in the prisons in Iraq are often reservists who, in civilian life, are prison guards in the USA.
My point is that 1) they supposedly know how to deal with stressful situations that may arise in detention facilities and 2) what abuses happen in the USA prisons from these same folk ?
August 14th, 2008 at 5:26 pmTanqueray Says:
I know about llamas spitting and monkeys flinging their poo, so what does this say about the adherents to the Religion of Peace?
#######
Religion has nothing to do with it. Prisoners in the US do the same thing. Why do you hate Muslims?
August 14th, 2008 at 5:33 pmThe trolls fling poop at us all day. Maybe we should pepper spray them.
August 14th, 2008 at 5:50 pmBunny2 Says:
I know. Isn’t it better than the torture and rape rooms that Sadam ran for a few decades?
This would be a better argument had we closed them down instead of simply putting them under new management
August 14th, 2008 at 6:00 pmTripleKick 11 Says:
Something really stupid I mean what were the chances. Showing again that conservative morons really are the stupidest bipedal carbon based lifeforms on the planet. Good luck with that lobotomy Tripledick. It sure couldnt do you any harm
August 14th, 2008 at 6:03 pmCongratulations Tanqued, this is the single stupidest comment I’ve seen all day. Let me get my pepper spray.
August 14th, 2008 at 6:08 pmTripleKick 11 Says:
tp apologists rush to the defense of those who throw crap at our troops. No surprise. How typical of your anti-American movement
August 14th, 2008 at 6:22 pm
______
We’re not defending “those who throw crap at our troops,” we’re fighting intolerant bigoted Islamophobes who throw intolerant crap at 1/6th of the planet.
August 14th, 2008 at 6:29 pmTripleKick 11 Says:
tp apologists rush to the defense of those who throw crap at our troops. No surprise. How typical of your anti-American movement
Tripledickey is another complete moron with no conception of actual ethical values. Stupdity and brainwashing the only values he ever shows. Another un-American piece of garbage that anyone who wants our country to emulate the values we associate WITH our country makes stupid cowardly morons like him spend even more time cowering under his mommys bed.
August 14th, 2008 at 6:36 pmAnyone seen yet the holding cells planned for the mass arrests in Denver later this month? There are no bathrooms, no phones, no medical facilities, nothing but chain link cages topped by barbed wire rolls on a concrete floor in a warehouse.
So say you got arrested for protesting — and got dumped in one of these holding areas and you had to take a dump… I don’t know about you but if I can’t find a toilet soon, I feel more than sick.
Say you were held there for 12, or 24 or even more hours, what would you do when you needed to eliminate?
Our country is so fubared that even Obama isn’t going to be able to fix it.
August 14th, 2008 at 6:41 pmTanqueray Says:
I know about llamas spitting and monkeys flinging their poo, so what does this say about the adherents to the Religion of Peace?
Ralph? Arn? Anyone?
Well moron I know about rape and torture so what does it say about Chistianity that the BTK killer was a leader in his Christian church? To those of us with an acutal functioning cerebral cortex the asnwer to both those questions are NOTHING. I am begging you to rent a brain cell. I know it will die of lonliness but at least you will know what it was like to have had one
August 14th, 2008 at 7:48 pmChrisL,
Thank you for your service to our country. It is an obomination that you and all the other brothers and sisters in our services have been used as pawns by the reichwing. You sound like you have been able to deal with the affects of this travesty very well. I only hope that somehow you and others afflicted by the ravages of this unneccesary conflict will be able to continue on with your lives with some normalcy.
Sincerely, Thank you.
RC
August 14th, 2008 at 8:53 pmBadmoodman Says:
“after some guards had been spat at and had human waste thrown at them by detainees.”
- – Pfffft, that happens to me every time I visit the primate house at the San Diego Zoo.
___________
Pshaw… happens to me every time I get near a gang of GOOPers…
August 14th, 2008 at 9:06 pmDr. Hussein Matt Says:
Always remember, they hate us for our freedoms (Tm).
Funny you should mention this. When the war first begun, I read Russia invaded Georgia because Russia said Georgia was getting too westernize.
I was WTF?
August 15th, 2008 at 1:36 amtom@29
mcchimpy never fought in a war either; this is why he’s quick with tossing bombs.
August 15th, 2008 at 1:45 am