Acts of cruelty that disgraced a nation


Unbelievable... the crimes of a military but they're only scratching at the surface. Men in uniform have been trained to act in this manner by their dehumanizing training. I hate the fucking military.
The pictures are even more unbearable to see but we must be witnesses to this cruel behavior to condemn it: http://dailytelegraph.news.com.au/story.jsp?sectionid=1258&storyid=2534076


By MICHAEL SEAMARK

January 20, 2005

A BRITISH soldier lashes out with his fist at an Iraqi civilian trussed up in a cargo net.

Another prisoner is hoisted off the ground on the prongs of a forklift truck operated by his grinning tormentor.

These shocking photos and many more like them are the images that have shamed a nation and form the basis of a court martial that has been dubbed Britain's Abu Ghraib.

The 22 images also show a soldier wielding a wooden pole, standing with both feet on an Iraqi lying bound and helpless on the floor. Others, too obscene to print, included Iraqi civilian captives being forced to simulate sex acts with one another.

Their crime: stealing food just days after the war in Iraq ended.

The sordid details of what happened at Breadbasket Camp in May 2003 emerged at the court martial in Osnabruck, Germany, where three members of the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers face a series of charges relating to the incidents.

Prosecutor Lieutenant Colonel Nick Clapham told a seven-man panel of senior officers: "'It can't be said that these photographs depict images that are anything other than shocking and appalling."

On trial are 33-year-old Corporal Daniel Kenyon, Lance Corporal Mark Cooley, 25, of Newcastle, and Lance Corporal Darren Larkin, 30, of Oldham.

All three, who fought in the war, face possible imprisonment and being dismissed from the army in disgrace if they are convicted.

Lt-Col Clapham said the alleged abuse happened two weeks after "the President of the United States famously disclosed an end to major combat operations".

The army, plagued by nightly thefts of food and humanitarian supplies from the camp, instigated Operation Ali Baba to capture and deter the Iraqi civilian looters.

Camp quartermaster Major Dan Taylor organised soldiers in groups of four and six, armed with SA80 assault rifles and long wooden poles used to support camouflage netting, to patrol the perimeter early in the morning.

If they captured looters, they were told they should "work them hard" on menial tasks, including returning the stolen property.

Lt-Col Clapham said apprehending the looters was legal, but he accepted that their temporary detention was illegal under the Geneva Convention.

Corp Kenyon's section "received three or four Iraqis" and took them to a warehouse complex inside the camp. It was there, said Lt-Col Clapham, that the physical and sexual abuse took place.

It came to light when another member of the regiment, Fusilier Gary Bartlam, 20, returned home to Tamworth, Staffordshire, and put a roll of film into a local photo shop.

Shop assistant Emma Blackie and colleague Kelly Adney alerted civilian police when they saw the contents.

The prosecutor accepted that the order by Major Taylor to work the prisoners hard was unlawful.

"But had these defendants done nothing more than what that order had envisaged they would not be facing the charges that they face today. We say that these charges are running way outside of that order," he said.

"In no way did that order envisage conduct of the type you have heard me describe."

He told the panel there was no doubt the incidents had taken place, "what you have to decide is what role, if any, these defendants played".

Lieutenant Colonel Nicholas Spencer, one of the army's senior legal advisers, told the court martial he and a team of lawyers went to the Gulf specifically to brief soldiers on how to deal with prisoners of war and civilians.

There was "epidemic and psychotic looting" across Iraq at the end of the war but soldiers were told civilians were to be treated "with the utmost humanity and dignity".

He said: "Once a person has been temporarily detained he should either be released or handed over to the Royal Military Police or equivalent as soon as possible.'

The court martial continues.

The Daily Telegraph

This report was published at www.dailytelegraph.com.au