OMG -- NYRB article on "Torture in Iraq" (Human Rights Watch report)

[highplainsdem]

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/18414

The New York Review of Books
Volume 52, Number 17 · November 3, 2005


Torture in Iraq
By Human Rights Watch

The following article is an excerpt, in somewhat modified form, from "Leadership Failure: Firsthand Accounts of Torture of Iraqi Detainees by the US Army's 82nd Airborne Division," a report issued by Human Rights Watch on September 25, 2005. The full report is available at hrw.org /reports/2005/us0905.

<snip>

Residents of Fallujah called them "the Murderous Maniacs" because of how they treated Iraqis in detention. They were soldiers of the US Army's 82nd Airborne Division, 1st Battalion, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, stationed at Forward Operating Base Mercury (FOB Mercury) in Iraq. The soldiers considered this name a badge of honor.<2>

<snip>

The torture of detainees reportedly was so widespread and accepted that it became a means of stress relief for soldiers. Soldiers said they felt welcome to come to the PUC tent on their off-hours to "fuck a PUC" or "smoke a PUC." "Fucking a PUC" referred to beating a detainee, while "smoking a PUC" referred to forced physical exertion sometimes to the point of unconsciousness. The soldiers said that when a detainee had a visible injury such as a broken limb due to "fucking" or "smoking," an Army physician's assistant would be called to administer an analgesic and fill out the proper paperwork. They said those responsible would state that the detainee was injured during the process of capture and the physician's assistant would sign off on this. Broken bones occurred "every other week" at FOB Mercury.

<snip>

The soldiers believed that about half of the detainees at Camp Mercury were released because they were not involved in the insurgency, but they left with the physical and mental scars of torture. "If he's a good guy, you know, now he's a bad guy because of the way we treated him," one sergeant told Human Rights Watch.

<snip>

Wish I could quote more. This is a very long article.

There was a topic here earlier about a Sunday Herald article by Neil Mackay quoting a bit of this, but it was a much shorter article than the one in NYRB, and I didn't see the URL for the full report there, which this article has.

[triguy46]

1. And with the leadership of the 2 fine senators from Oklahoma

this type of outrage will continue. What christian leadership we have.

Good article, thanks for the post.

[nonny]

2. Full article link

There is a space in the link to the article -- that is why it won't work.
Here is the corrected link.

http://hrw.org/reports/2005/us0905/

[EST]

3. Hmmm-shades of winter soldiers.