GI in Iraq read Holocaust memoir to pick up torture tips

[yurbud]

I blame myself for our downfall in Iraq

By Tim Shipman in Washington, Sunday Telegraph
Last Updated: 12:56am BST 10/06/2007



Between January 2004 and January 2005, first at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison - by then cleaning up its act as the prisoner abuse scandal was breaking - and then in Mosul, north Babil, he tortured suspects, most of whom he says turned out to be innocent. He says that he realised he had entered a moral dungeon when he found himself reading a Holocaust memoir, hoping to pick up torture tips from the Nazis.

Mr Lagouranis told The Sunday Telegraph: "When I first got back I had a lot of anxiety. I had a personal crisis because I felt I had done immoral things and I didn't see a way to cope with that. I saw a psychologist. I had a lot to work through." He says that helped prevent him becoming "a totally broken human being".

***

"I didn't get actionable intelligence using the harsher methods, I got it using manipulation and lying and by promising them things I didn't deliver on. No one wants to give you intelligence if they think you are going to brutalise them."

***

In the book, Fear Up Harsh - a term for intimidating a detainee by shouting at him - he makes clear that torture has cost America its moral authority in Iraq by detaining innocent people and treating them badly. He writes: "My actions, combined with the actions of the arresting infantry who left bruises on their prisoners, and the actions of the officers who wanted to get promotions, repeated in microcosm all over this country, had a cumulative effect.

FULL TEXT:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/06/10/wirq110.xml

[derby378]

1. Am I supposed to have sympathy for this pathetic excuse for a soldier?

He needs to be imprisoned. NOW.

[yurbud]

2. I would prefer that we do like we did with the Nazis: top down

If Bush, Cheney, Gonzo, and Rummy, who designed the torture policy, aren't in jail, I'm not too eager to see this guy sent.

[maddezmom]

3. no sympathy

I give him credit for telling his story.