Navy Documents Detail Iraqi Abuse Claims
/Marine Claims he was Ordered to Execute Iraqi's Under the Threat of Death
The documents portray a series of abuse cases stretching beyond the Abu Ghraib prison where photos surfaced this year of U.S. troops forcing prisoners -- often naked -- to pose in humiliating positions. The files document a crush of abuse allegations, most from the early months of the U.S. occupation of Iraq, that have swamped investigators. The approximately 10,000 files include investigation reports from the Naval Criminal Investigative Service and witness interviews. All names have been blacked out in the documents, which were released under a federal court ruling ordered the government to comply with a Freedom of Information Act petition filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, the Center for Constitutional Rights and other organizations. "This kind of widespread abuse could not have taken place without a leadership failure of the highest order," said ACLU Executive Director Anthony D. Romero. Some of the documents include the alleged executions of Iraqis. The Navy found the allegations to be "unsubstantiated" and closed the investigation. It remains unclear whether any other military branches are investigating. In one of the reports, a Marine reported that a fellow officer said he and two others had been ordered to executive three Iraqi "enemy prisoners of war." "The executions allegedly took place in early April 2003 while the unit was temporarily based at an abandoned Iraqi pharmaceutical factory south of Baghdad," according to the NCIS document, dated June 26, 2003. The Marine said he was threatened with death if he did not carry out the order. The bodies of dead Iraqis were allegedly dumped in a hole, the document said. [more]
The documents portray a series of abuse cases stretching beyond the Abu Ghraib prison where photos surfaced this year of U.S. troops forcing prisoners -- often naked -- to pose in humiliating positions. The files document a crush of abuse allegations, most from the early months of the U.S. occupation of Iraq, that have swamped investigators. The approximately 10,000 files include investigation reports from the Naval Criminal Investigative Service and witness interviews. All names have been blacked out in the documents, which were released under a federal court ruling ordered the government to comply with a Freedom of Information Act petition filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, the Center for Constitutional Rights and other organizations. "This kind of widespread abuse could not have taken place without a leadership failure of the highest order," said ACLU Executive Director Anthony D. Romero. Some of the documents include the alleged executions of Iraqis. The Navy found the allegations to be "unsubstantiated" and closed the investigation. It remains unclear whether any other military branches are investigating. In one of the reports, a Marine reported that a fellow officer said he and two others had been ordered to executive three Iraqi "enemy prisoners of war." "The executions allegedly took place in early April 2003 while the unit was temporarily based at an abandoned Iraqi pharmaceutical factory south of Baghdad," according to the NCIS document, dated June 26, 2003. The Marine said he was threatened with death if he did not carry out the order. The bodies of dead Iraqis were allegedly dumped in a hole, the document said. [more]
