MP Files Suit Against Pentagon Over Guantanamo Beating

[Rose Siding]

A U.S. military policeman who was beaten by fellow MPs during a botched training drill at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, prison for detainees has sued the Pentagon for $15 million, alleging that the incident violated his constitutional rights.

Spec. Sean D. Baker, 38, was assaulted in January 2003 after he volunteered to wear an orange jumpsuit and portray an uncooperative detainee. Baker said the MPs, who were told that he was an unruly detainee who had assaulted an American sergeant, inflicted a beating that resulted in a traumatic brain injury.

Baker, a Persian Gulf War veteran who re-enlisted following the Sept. 11 terror attacks, was medically retired in April 2004. He said the assault left him with seizures, blackouts, headaches, insomnia and other psychological problems.
...
The Pentagon first said that Baker's hospitalization following the training incident was not related to the beating. Later, officials conceded that he was treated for injuries suffered when a five-man MP "internal reaction force" choked him, slammed his head several times against a concrete floor and sprayed him with pepper gas.
...
As he was being choked and beaten, Baker said, he screamed a code word, "red," and shouted: "I'm a U.S. soldier! I'm a U.S. soldier!" The beating continued, he said, until the jumpsuit was yanked down during the struggle, revealing his military uniform.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-gitmo18jun18,0,5373171.story?coll=la-home-nation

[BattyDem]

1. An MP gets the shit kicked out of him ...

but they're treating prisoners well? Yeah ... right. :eyes:

[Melodybe]

3. I saw this movie right? A Few Good Men, anyone

I guess Rumfield thinks we can't handle the truth.

Poor guy, I hope he gets his money.

[UpInArms]

2. background info:

Former Soldier Disputes Army Denials That He Was Beaten During Training Exercises In Cuba

http://www.lex18.com/Global/story.asp?S=1891343&nav=EQlpNN9R

A Georgetown resident and former Kentucky National Guardsman is angry that the military is denying his claims that he suffered brain injury while being severely beaten by U.S. soldiers during a training exercise at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in January 2003.

In a story with international implications first broken by LEX 18's Leigh Searcy on Monday, Sean Baker says that while serving as a member of the 438th Military Police company in Guantanamo Bay during Operation Iraqi Freedom, he was ordered to pose as the enemy for a training exercise. Baker said he received a severe brain injury because of the subsequent beating he received.

Baker claims that he was ordered to put on one of the orange jump suits worn by the detainees. "At first I was reluctant, but he said 'you'll be fine...put this on.' And I did," said Baker.

"I was on duty as an MP in an internal camp (at Guantanamo Bay) where the detainees were housed," said Baker.

Baker says an officer in charge issued the order because he wanted the training to be as real as possible. Baker says what took place next happened at the hands of four U.S. soldiers - soldiers he believes didn't know he was one of them - has changed his life forever.

...more...

G.I. Attacked During Training

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/11/02/60II/main652953.shtml

CBS) Pictures from Abu Ghraib prison tell a story that has shocked the world.

There are no pictures of what happened in the prison camp at Guantanamo last year. But Correspondent Bob Simon has a shocking story -- and it's not about what Americans did to foreign detainees. It's about what Americans did to a fellow American soldier, Sean Baker.
Sean Baker has seizures an average of four times a week. 60 Minutes Wednesday went to see him a few weeks ago in a New York hospital.

Baker, a National Guardsman, was working last year as a military policeman in the Guantanamo Bay prison when other MPs injured him during a training drill. It was a drill during which Baker was only obeying orders.

<huge snip>

"And when I said the word ‘Red,’ he forced my head down against the steel floor and was sort of just grinding it into the floor. The individual then, when I picked up my head and said, ‘Red,’ slammed my head down against the floor," says Baker. "I was so afraid, I groaned out, ‘I’m a U.S. soldier.' And when I said that, he slammed my head again, one more time against the floor. And I groaned out one more time, I said, ‘I’m a U.S. soldier.’ And I heard them say, ‘Whoa, whoa, whoa,' you know, like he wanted to, he was telling the other guy to stop."

Bloodied and disoriented, Baker somehow made it back to his unit, and his first thought was to get hold of the videotape. "I said, 'Go get the tape,'" recalls Baker. "'They've got a tape. Go get the tape.' My squad leader went to get the tape."

Every extraction drill at Guantanamo was routinely videotaped, and the tape of this drill would show what happened. But Baker says his squad leader came back and said, "There is no tape."

...more...

[Voltaire99]

4. Lovely people.

Really, they are.

[KTM]

5. Pummeled MP sues Pentagon ... impersonating unruly Guantanamo detainee

Pummeled MP sues Pentagon
Soldier was impersonating unruly Guantanamo detainee in training

"A U.S. military policeman who was beaten by fellow MPs during a botched training drill at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, prison for detainees has sued the Pentagon for $15 million, alleging that the incident violated his constitutional rights.

Spec. Sean Baker, 38, was assaulted in January 2003 after he volunteered to wear an orange jumpsuit and portray an uncooperative detainee. Baker said the MPs, who were told that he was an unruly detainee who had assaulted an American sergeant, inflicted a beating that resulted in a traumatic brain injury."

<snip>

"The Pentagon first said that Baker's hospitalization after the training incident was not related to the beating. Later, officials conceded that he had been treated for injuries suffered when a five-man MP "internal reaction force" choked him, slammed his head several times against a concrete floor and sprayed him with pepper gas.

Baker said he had put on the jumpsuit and squeezed under a prison bunk after being told by a lieutenant that he would be portraying an unruly detainee. He said he was assured that MPs conducting the "extraction drill" knew it was a training exercise and that Baker was an American soldier. "

Pummeled MP sues Pentagon > San Fransisco Chronicle


This was a TRAINING accident. A few bad apples my ass !! :mad:

[Robbien]

9. Brain damage is just abuse?

I wonder what qualifies as torture these days if this case is only abuse.

[mbperrin]

12. Hmmmm....I thought that Alberto said that organ damage

WAS torture! Or does the brain not count as an organ?

[libodem]

10. thank God this story is getting out

it is one of the most important ways to prove the inhumane treatment that goes on there.

[tinymontgomery]

6. The Charlotte Observer

this morning had one article about Durbin apologizing and then on the next page this article. They should have put them next to each other so people could see what Durbin was talking about.

[yojon]

7. But maybe he had orange chicken and two kinds of

fruit. Don't understand what he is bitching about...

[WhiteTara]

14. Welcom yojon to DU

and I'm sure you'll find the sarcasm button soon
:hi:

[lovuian]

8. In other words military is beating the prisoners and harming

them thats the excercise... this is the truth thats going on there!!!

[Leafy Geneva]

11. Exactly! That's what they're being TRAINED to do!

[WhiteTara]

15. I agree and welcome to DU

:hi:

[Eloriel]

13. Good for him. I remember this horrific story.

I wish he could bankrupt them and put them out of business. Oh, wait, that'd be us he'd be bankrupting. :evilgrin: