(UK) Soldiers viewed all Iraqis as 'scum', Baha Mousa inquiry hears

[sabra]

Source: Guardian UK

Intelligence officer says officers did not know rules on treatment of prisoners and one tried to mount 'arse-covering exercise' after Baha Mousa's death

An officer of the regiment detaining Baha Mousa, a Basra hotel worker, when he was beaten to death said his soldiers held the view that "all Iraqis were scum", it was disclosed today.

One officer tried to mount an "arse covering" exercise after Mousa's death, while others expressed ignorance of basic rules covering the treatment of prisoners, the public inquiry into the incident heard.

A military intelligence officer, identified only as SO (staff officer) 17, told the inquiry she was "amazed" at questions senior officers asked her about how prisoners should be treated.

Hooding, stress positions, noise-producing equipment and sleep deprivation were prohibited in a Joint Intelligence Committee document in 1972, the inquiry heard. They were banned by Edward Heath, then prime minister, after their use in Northern Ireland.

...

Lieutenant Colonel Nicholas Mercer, the army's most senior legal adviser in Iraq, told the inquiry last month that the way Iraqi detainees were intimidated and hooded by British soldiers was "repulsive". He was shocked, he said, adding that it was "a bit like seeing pictures of Guantánamo Bay for the first time".

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/apr/27/baha-mousa-inquiry-soldiers

[Crowman1979]

1. Well it isn't the first time the british army has treated native people as inferiors.

I could give examples, but they would be too numerous to mention.

[thereismore]

2. And this is news how. Ragheads, Hajjis, sandn.....s. Kill, kill, kill. nt

:grr:

[defendandprotect]

3. Think we all understand you can't do damage to another human being ...

without doing severe damage to yourself --

Just the simple conditions of war can drive soldiers into stress extreme enough

to create PTSD --

When we add other layers of cruelty, brutality, savagery -- as our own military is

being taught, how do we expect them to hold onto their humanity?