Tension, Confusion Between Troops, Contractors in Iraq

[Barrett808]

Tension, Confusion Between Troops, Contractors in Iraq
Team Was Detained by Marines in Alleged Shooting

By Josh White and Griff Witte
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, July 10, 2005; Page A12

The feelings of helplessness began to creep in right away. The orange jumpsuit and flimsy sandals were too small, the silence eerie. Time passed slowly. Before long, Darrell Cleland knew there were exactly 197 cinder blocks in his tiny cell and 861 openings in the grate above his head.

Cleland, 28, used to escort prisoners in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as a platoon sergeant in the Marine Corps. Behind bars in May in Fallujah, Iraq, his Marine Corps brothers now his guards, Cleland suddenly identified with his former captives.

"I'm sure those guys at Gitmo were thinking the same thing: How long am I going to be here?" said Cleland, of Salem, Ohio, who had left the Corps in 2002 and joined Zapata Engineering, one of many security contractors working in Iraq.

Cleland and 15 other U.S. contractors were taken into custody by a Marine unit May 28, when military officials alleged that they fired at a Marine checkpoint as their convoy passed through Fallujah -- the first public accusation of that kind. It gave Cleland and his compatriots a rare glimpse of life as detainees, and the humiliation, fear and despair that come with it.

(more)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/09/AR2005070901175.html?nav=rss_nation

[leesa]

1. Well, there's a good hit of Karma.

[Ms. Clio]

8. "I was somewhere where they were putting Iraqis and terrorists."

Cleland, 28, used to escort prisoners in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as a platoon sergeant in the Marine Corps. Behind bars in May in Fallujah, Iraq, his Marine Corps brothers now his guards, Cleland suddenly identified with his former captives.

(snip)

The contractors were put on a bus, wearing darkened goggles. When the bus stopped, they were sequestered in a dusty holding pen surrounded by concertina wire and ordered to strip down to their underwear. Each was handed an orange jumpsuit, a Koran, a bottle in which to urinate and a prayer mat.

"Oh, I knew exactly where I was then," Devine said. "I was somewhere where they were putting Iraqis and terrorists."

[Pharlo]

2. If anyone is interested more can be found on

the role of private contractors in Iraq at

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/warriors/view/

[zanne]

6. Wow.

I just finished watching the whole thing. I got lost in it, y'know? Very powerful and so friggin' REAL.

[Pharlo]

7. Believe me,

I know exactly how you feel. Hit me the same way.

[Toots]

3. Well according to Bush* since they are not POWs they can be tortured

and not break Geneva Convention. On with the torture, it is the Amerikan way.....

[KeepItReal]

4. I have a hard time feeling sorry for these guys. They all got released.

The Marines didn't kill any of them, either.

So they can't go back to work as mercenaries in Iraq...tough break. There's always Afghanistan.

[damntexdem]

5. Yet more proof of how well ...

privatization works. ;-)

[Massachusetts]

9. Who benefits by this FIASCO?

These Guys???????????????????????????????

[LiberalFighter]

10. Is the bush family connected to Zapata Engineering?

[lovuian]

11. Yes from what I have heard they are!!!

Somebody was a Board member or something!!!

Bush has his own army ...... are they under the military or they on their OWN AGENDA!!!

[LiberalFighter]

12. Currently? I remember that the other useless bush started Zapata Oil