Were the tortured Iraqi prisoners later killed in a "mortar attack"?

[Junkdrawer]

Mortar Attack Kills 22 in Baghdad Prison

Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, April 20, 2004; 5:33 PM

A mortar attack on a prison near Baghdad today killed 22 Iraqi detainee and injured more than 90, the U.S. military said.

Military spokesmen said everyone killed at the Abu Ghraib prison, about 10 miles west of the capital, was classified as security detainees, meaning they were either former members of Saddam Hussein's Baathist government or people involved in attacks on U.S. forces.

Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, the chief U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad, said at a news briefing that the prison was hit with 18 mortar rounds early in the afternoon. Kimmitt said the Iraqi Red Crescent had been contacted for assistance at the scene.

The military also confirmed that on Monday the U.S. forces killed two press-credentialed employees of al-Iraqiya, a television station funded and operated by the U.S. occupation authority, after their vehicle failed to heed warning shots as it approached a base in the city of Samarra, north of Baghdad.

The three-person crew was filming police and civil-defense checkpoints in violation of photography restrictions in such areas, Kimmitt said. Although the troops fired warning shots into a nearby river as the crew filmed, the crew then got into a car and drove towards the base, ignoring subsequent warning shots, Kimmitt said. Troops then fired directly at the vehicle, killing two occupants and wounding a third, who also is an al-Iraqiya employee. An Iraqi police officer in the car was unhurt, Kimmitt said.

...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A26962-2004Apr20.html

When this story first came out, I'm sure the press treated it as a "no lost tears" kind of report. However, now that we know that this was the prison where torture had taken place and where misconduct was under official investigation at the time of the "attack", the possibility of a killing-the-witnesses type cleansing looms large.

[displacedtexan]

1. Good catch!

one of those things that makes one go hhhhhhhmmmmmmmmmmmm...

[Junkdrawer]

4. MaineDem caught it this morning, but posted it with an ambiguous title...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=1500492&mesg_id=1500492&page=

[KissMyAsscroft]

2. It's total BS and everyone with a brain knows it...

We are offing these guys. Everyone knows it. This is a war.

[stopbush]

5. And we're breaking the laws of war in the process. n/t

[KissMyAsscroft]

7. There are no laws in war...

There are laws on paper, but they are meaningless...which is why war is a last resort.

Who is going to hold us responsible for the torture? No one.

We will pay for it with retribution, and there are no "Geneva Convention" police, to take them into custody.

I believe in the idea of these documents and I agree that rules should be followed, but I'm not under any illusion that they are used for anything except to try and change public opinion.

[stopbush]

8. How silly. Of course there are laws in war.

It may take years to prosecute war criminals, but plenty have been brought to justice in the past and plenty will be brought to justice in the future.

And there are Geneva Convention police. Who do you think has Milosivic on trial?

The main laws of war are the Hague Convention of 1899 and their revision and extension in 1907, and a 1929 convention regulating the treatment of prisoners of war along with a Red Cross convention from the same year that deals with the treatment of wounded and sick members of armies in the field.

And yes, the rules are more than an "illusion" intended only to "change public opinion." There are active prosecutions of war criminals going on as I write.

[KissMyAsscroft]

12. Who brings the war criminals to justice?

The people who win the war.

[BeFree]

15. Who do you think will win this war?

The US or the Iraqis?

[KissMyAsscroft]

16. Well....

A better question is "Who will be tried for war crimes? Bush or Saddam?"

[chookie]

11. "We will pay for it with retribution"

Yup.

[chimpymustgo]

3. Wow. Good work. Will we ever know the truth?

nt

[Junkdrawer]

6. Please email to any friendly blog you can. n/t

[Junkdrawer]

9. Kick

:kick:

[Junkdrawer]

10. A kick for the "aw, it's not that bad" crowd...

:kick:

[camero]

13. Quite ironic

Now there are no witnesses to these war crimes. Our military is acting more and more like the mafia everyday. We need to get Bush and all the rest to the Hague and quick.

[Junkdrawer]

14. Make you wonder what is REALLY going on at Guantanamo Bay...

Amazing what grows in the dark...