Military Police Officer Tells Court She Saw Sergeant Kick Prisoner Who Died

[NNN0LHI]

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBCU06LADE.html

Military Police Officer Tells Court She Saw Sergeant Kick Prisoner Who Later Died

FORT BLISS, Texas (AP) - A military police officer testified Tuesday that she saw a fellow sergeant kick a chained detainee in the knees days before the prisoner died in U.S. custody in Afghanistan.

Sgt. Keri Patterson told the military court that Sgt. Christopher W. Greatorex and another officer took turns hitting the detainee, known as Habibullah, as he stood in an isolation cell with his hands chained to the ceiling at Bagram Airfield.

Greatorex, a reservist with the 377th Military Police Company in Ohio, is charged with abusing Habibullah and then lying about it. Habibullah died days later, in December 2002.

According to a 2004 military report, Habibullah died of a pulmonary embolism apparently caused by blood clots formed in his legs from beatings.

[Judi Lynn]

1. This is a savage display of Bushian arrogance.

From the article:

Patterson said she was working at the isolation unit when she watched Greatorex and Sgt. Darin Broady. She said Broady also gave Habibullah "a kind of kung-fu kick" to the abdomen as the man shouted "Allah" several times. A third officer was also present, she said, but she could not recall his name.

Patterson acknowledged that she should have reported the incident, but instead wrote in a log only that the prisoner had been reprimanded.

Greatorex is one of nine soldiers who have been charged in the abuse cases. At issue in many of those cases has been the use of the knee strikes, known as a common peroneal strike.

An Army lawyer for Greatorex argued in a pretrial hearing that another soldier was the guilty party, and that this was a case of mistaken identity. The lawyer, Capt. Juan Roman, has said Greatorex is often confused with the other soldier.
(snip)

It's a truth that the prisoners who have received these "peroneal strikes" would have to have their leges amputated, if they survived their _Bush-blessed beatings. They are turned to pulp, and useless for anything but agony.

They probably crave death after the relentless torture starts. What kind of people would approve this? People like MEpublicans who stretch their "Camp Guantanamo" shirts over their swollen bellies.