On May 18, 2004, we were told that the Pentagons sacked Brigadier General Rick Baccus as commander of Guantanamo Bay in October 2002 because the intelligence officers who wanted to use stronger methods to extract confession from the prisoners considered him as too soft. According to what we know, he went as far as "giving copies of the Koran to the detainees, adjusting their meals for Ramada and disciplining guards for screaming at prisoners". This shows the involvement of the Pentagon in allowing torture and abuses of prisoners in US military jails.
On May 22, 2004, the US authorities admitted that they are investigating the death of 37 Iraqi and Afghan detainees in US custody -32 in Iraq, 5 in Afghanistan. They already recognise that in eight cases it was murder even if the soldiers responsible are not known! And this comes in addition to the numerous known cases of torture and abuse in both countries. Not astonishing that Bush's approval rating is falling. He should loose all support but many Americans still think that foreigners are not to be treated as human beings. It was also revealed that some Iraqi prisoners were tortured and abused for fun and not to make them talk.
On July 2, 2004, Three US soldiers have been charged with manslaughter over the drowning of an Iraqi detainee in the northern city of Samara, the US army has announced. The soldiers allegedly forced the man to jump off a bridge near the Tigris River last January. A fourth soldier from the 4th Infantry Division is charged with assaulting a second Iraqi - who was allegedly also forced to jump but survived.
On August 14, 2004, a soldier, Spc. Megan Ambuhl, accused of abusing Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad has been arraigned on charges including maltreatment of subordinates, dereliction of duties and committing indecent acts with detainees. Ambuhl and three other soldiers charged in the case will face a pretrial hearing in a US military tribunal in Mannheim, Germany, on Aug. 23.
On August 24, 2004, the judge in the Abu Ghraib abuse hearings taking place in Germany rejected a move by defence lawyers to call Mr Rumsfeld as a witness. Judge James Pohl told lawyers for Sergeant Javal Davis they had not shown sufficient evidence of "a connection between this group and the authorities in Washington".
On Monday August 23, 2004, a military trial began for a Marine reservist who faces charges he delivered a karate kick to the chest of an Iraqi prisoner, Nagem Sadoon Hatab, who later suffocated from a crushed windpipe. The assault case against Reserve Sergeant Gary Pittman is the first court-martial known to be connected to the death of a prisoner in Iraq. The prisoner was suspected to be an official of Saddam Hussein's Ba'ath Party and part of the ambush of a US Army convoy that left 11 soldiers dead. Pittman, in civilian life a guard at a federal prison, could get more than three years in a military prison if found guilty of assault and dereliction of duty.
Twenty-seven military intelligence personnel were involved in abusing Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib jail, a US army report published on August 25, 2004, has found. Investigators found senior commanders at the jail knew about the abuses but failed to act. Seven soldiers have already been charged in the abuse scandal. General George Fay's report focused on the role of a military intelligence unit at the prison. "We discovered serious misconduct and a loss of moral values"; he added that the probe "revealed disturbing facts" about the behaviour of "a small number of soldiers" who served in Abu Ghraib prison. Four of the 27 incriminated personnel were civilian contractors working as interrogators. He said another eight, including two civilians, were aware of the abuse but failed to report it. It blamed the abuse on "misconduct (ranging from inhumane to sadistic) by a small group of morally corrupt soldiers and civilians, a lack of discipline on the part of leaders and soldiers". Senior commanders in Iraq were singled out for a "failure or lack of leadership".
On August 25, 2004, twenty-seven members of an intelligence unit at Abu Ghraib prison requested or condoned abuses of Iraqi prisoners there, a US army investigation found."We discovered serious misconduct and a loss of moral values," said General Paul Kern, the head of the investigation. Of the 27 individuals, 23 were members of the military personnel and four were contractors. Another eight, including two contractors, knew of abuse and failed to report it, Kern said. The summary blames the abuses on several factors: "misconduct (ranging from inhumane to sadistic) by a small group of morally corrupt soldiers and civilians, a lack of discipline on the part of leaders and soldiers," and a "failure or lack of leadership" by higher command in Iraq.
Twenty-seven military intelligence personnel were involved in abusing Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib jail, a new US army report published on August 26, 2004, has found. Investigators found senior commanders at the jail knew about the abuses but failed to act. The report comes a day after another panel faulted Pentagon leaders over the abuse, but mainly blamed soldiers and their superiors at the prison. Seven soldiers have been charged in the abuse scandal until now.
On August 26, 2004, two US contractors implicated in the Abu Ghraib prison scandal have defended their work in Iraq, with one saying its employees were not involved in "horrendous" abuses listed the reports. "CACI said that none of the behaviour alleged in the Fay report, have been committed by CACI employees. Army Major General George Fay's said six private contractors from CACI and San Diego-based Titan were sent to the Justice Department for possible legal action following the sexual abuse and humiliation of Iraqi prisoners.
On September 3, 2004, Army criminal investigators will recommend that about two dozen soldiers face criminal charges or administrative punishment in connection with the deaths of two prisoners at an American detention center in Afghanistan in December 2002. The Afghanistan charges, which follow an inquiry that took more than a year to complete, would include negligent homicide, dereliction of duty, and failure to report an offense. The highest-ranking soldier facing punishment is a captain in a military police company. One sergeant has already been charged with assault and two other offenses. The charges, which were first reported by The Washington Post on Wednesday, would corroborate long-standing complaints from Afghan prisoners of forced nudity, sleep deprivation and, in some cases, beatings. These accusations, along with the accounts of prisoners, suggest that the military initially covered up the deaths with false public statements, sent a troubled military intelligence unit to Iraq, took 18 months to investigate two homicides, and, according to prisoners interviewed in May, continues to use on average Afghans coercive techniques intended for hardened terrorists.
The first British soldier to be charged with the murder of a civilian in Iraq has appeared in court on September 8, 2004. Trooper Kevin Lee Williams was granted bail during a brief hearing at Bow Street Magistrates' Court in central London. The 21-year-old member of the 2nd Royal Tank Regiment is charged with the murder of Hassan Said on or before August 3, 2003, in Ad-Dayr, south east Iraq. Hassan Abbad Said, also known as Hassan Abdul Said, is believed to have been shot while being arrested in the British zone of southern Iraq. Little is known about the incident in which he died.
A US Army specialist pleaded guilty Saturday September 11, 2004, to abusing inmates at Abu Ghraib prison, the first Military Intelligence soldier to stand trial in the scandal that has so far focused prison guard reservists. Spc. Armin J. Cruz, of Plano, Texas, pleaded guilty to conspiracy and to maltreatment of prisoners. The military judge, Colonel James Pohl, sentenced Cruz to eight months confinement, reduction in rank and bad conduct discharge. The prosecution alleged Cruz forced naked prisoners to crawl along the floor and later handcuffed the men together. Cruz would have received a year in prison. The 24-year-old soldier broke down in tears as he told the judge that the abuse occurred a month after a mortar attack killed his sergeant and another American soldier. Defense attorney Stephen P. Karns argued that Cruz was suffering from post traumatic stress syndrome. Chief prosecutor Maj. Michael R. Holley said Cruz was not forced to take part in the abuse and that his actions contributed "to the tarnishing of the reputation and the image of US forces." Cruz became the second soldier convicted so far in the prison scandal. In May, Spc. Jeremy C. Sivits pleaded guilty to four counts of abuse at his court-martial and was sentenced to a year in prison, reduction in rank and a bad conduct discharge. Six other enlisted soldiers from the 372nd Military Police Company, an Army Reserve unit based in Cresaptown, Maryland, face charges in the scandal.
An Army officer was fined $1700 on September 15, 2004, for an unauthorised discharge of a weapon while on tour in Afghanistan. Lieutenant Colonel David Pirie, 40, of the Royal New Zealand Engineers, pleaded guilty, at a court martial held at Trentham Military Camp, of firing a round at a practice range on July 23. He was charged with doing an act likely to prejudice service discipline. Pirie, who is leaving the New Zealand Defence Force to move to Australia after 22 years' service, was chief of staff and press officer of his Provincial Reconstruction Team at Bamiyan in Afghanistan. Officers over the rank of major charged with such offences automatically face court martial.
On September 21, 2004, the US military is investigating whether American soldiers abused an Afghan detainee so badly that he died last year at a special forces base in southeastern Afghanistan. The criminal case, the latest in a string of probes into alleged abuse of prisoners in US jails here, was opened over the weekend following a report that Afghan investigators concluded that the young militiaman may have been murdered. Citing a report by Afghan military prosecutors and witness statements, the newspaper said the men were held for 17 days at the special forces base in Gardez, the capital of Paktia province. Survivors said they were beaten.
On October 4, 2004, four US soldiers have been charged with murder in the asphyxiation death of an Iraqi general during questioning in Iraq last year. Chief warrant officers Jefferson Williams and Lewis Welshofer Jr, Sergeant 1st Class William Sommer and Specialist Jerry Loper could get life in prison without parole if convicted of the November 2003 death of Major-General Abid Hamid Mawhush, 57, in Qaim, Iraq. In May, the US army said the Iraqi general was asphyxiated by chest compression and smothering.
On November 2, 2004, a third US soldier, Megan Ambuhl, pleaded guilty of abuses at Abu Ghraib prison. He was demoted and fined.
On November 10, 2004, the US Army authorities decided to transfer the trial of three US soldiers involved in the Abu Ghraib scandal from Baghdad to Fort Hood, Texas. The reason is not known but there was a request in this way by the accused's lawyers. The accused are Sergeant Javal Davis, Spec. Sabrina Harman and Spec. Charles Graner.
On November 15, 2004, we were told that a US Marine was filmed while shooting and killing an unarmed wounded prisoner in a Falluja Mosque. The shooting is under investigation and the soldier was taken out of his unit.
The killer of a wounded and unarmed Iraqi by a US Marine will be the object of an inquiry, the military authorities said on November 16, 2004. "Justice will be done," they said. We will see. Amnesty International and the Red Cross denounced the killing.
On November 17, 2004, the apparent killing of a wounded Iraqi prisoner in a Mosque in Falluja is used as a propaganda tool in the entire Arab world. From the point of view of public relations, this is a blow and a big defeat for the American and a victory for the anti-American clan.
The bodies of four insurgents killed in Falluja last week were flown to a US military mortuary in Delaware for autopsies. This is part of the inquiry into the allegations that Marines killed more than one wounded prisoners.
On November 24, 2004, a US soldiers, Staff Sergeant Shane Werst, was arrested and jailed on murder charges. He is accused of killing an Iraqi civilian, Naser Ismail, in Balad on January 3, 2004.
On December 4, 2004, a military judge ordered the former commander of the US prisons in Iraq, Brigadier General Janis Karpinski, to testify at the trial of a soldier, Sergeant Javal Davis, who said he was ordered to abuse prisoners at Abu Ghraid prison in Iraq.
On December 8, 2004, we were told that a US tank company commander, Captain Rogelio Maynulet, accused of killing a critically wounded Iraqi, will be court-martialled. He could be condemned to 20 years in prison if found guilty.
On December 8, 2004, we were told that at least four members of a special operations task force in Iraq have been disciplined following an investigation of the abuse of prisoners. They received administrative punishments. Their names were not released.
On December 10, 2004, a US soldier, Staff Sergeant Johnny M. Horne, pleaded guilty to killing a severely wounded Iraqi teenager in what he described as mercy killing. Three other soldiers of the same unit -Company C, 1t Battalion, 41t Infantry Regiment- will also appear before a court martial on charge of murdering Iraqis in Sadr City in August 2004. Human rights groups have repeatedly condemned the illegal killings of civilians and wounded fighters by US soldiers. It looks like the US believes that to bring freedom and democracy to Iraq they first have to kill as many Iraqis as they cam. Amnesty International goes as far as saying that killing like the one in Falluja must be treated as war crimes and the soldiers involved should be brought to justice.
On December 11, 2004, in Baghdad, an American soldier, Staff Sergeant Johnny M.Horne Jr., was sentenced to three years n prison for killing a wounded 16-year old Iraqi during heavy fighting in Sadr City. He pleaded guilty to one count of unpremeditated murder and one count of soliciting another soldier to commit unpremeditated murder. He will receive a dishonourable discharge, be reduced to the rank of private and forfeiture of all pay. The boy was badly hurt and Horne decided to "put him out of his misery."
On January 9, 2005, Sergeant 1t class Tracy Perkins who ordered his soldiers to throw Iraqis in the Tigris River in Samara was sentenced to six months in military prison but he will not be discharged. An Iraqi, Zaidoun Hassoun, drowned.
On January 14, 2005 a US military judge condemned Staff Sergeant Jonathan J.Alban-Cardenas to one year in prison for killing a badly wounded Iraqi. He is the second soldier condemned for the "mercy killing" of the 16-year-old Iraqi.
On January 18, 2005, three British soldiers appeared in front of a Court Martial for abusing detainees in Iraq in 2003. "Shocking and appalling" photos were shown to the jury. Not all of them were made public because of the nature of their content. The photos published show a bound Iraqi being dangled over a loading dock by a forklift, another being kicked and both of them striped and obliged to simulate a "homosexual" sexual act. The three soldiers have been identified as Lance Corporal Darren Larkin, Corporal Daniel Kenyon and Lance Corporal Mark Cooley.
On January 22, 2005, a US soldier, Charley L. Hooser, was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the fatal shooting of an Iraqi translator in Baghdad and filling a false report about it. He was condemned to three years in prison, reduction in rank and a bad conduct discharge. Another soldier, Rami Dajani, was convicted of making a false statement.
On February 4, 2005, we were told that seven British paratroopers are to be charged with murder and violent disorder in Iraq. Some of them will soon appear before a court martial. The killing of Nadhem Abdullah occurred in Uzayr, eastern Iraq, on May 11, 2003. At least other nine investigations are in progress and this tends to show that torture and killing were not isolated cases as we have been told until now. It dies not necessarily means that abuses were the rule but only that it was widely spread and this could not have occurred without the knowledge of the higher military authorities or at least to the commanding officers on the battle fields.
A charge of forcing Iraqi prisoners to strip has been dropped against a British soldier at a court martial on February 2, 2005. L/Cpl Darren Larkin has already admitted one assault. Two other men are accused of abusing Iraqis at a Basra aid camp in 2003. They deny the charges. A charge against Cpl Daniel Kenyon of aiding and abetting Larkin was also dropped. He still faces other charges. L/Cpl Mark Cooley denies "simulating" punching and kicking captives, and also placing a bound Iraqi on the forks of a forklift truck. Cpl Kenyon still faces four charges, including aiding and abetting unknown soldiers to force Iraqi prisoners to simulate sex acts. The dropping of the remaining charge against L/Cpl Larkin followed a key witness changing his evidence on Wednesday.
On February 4, 2005, US soldier who stomped on Iraqi prisoners at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison has been sentenced to six months in jail and discharged from the army. Sgt Javal Davis admitted stepping on the hands and feet of handcuffed prisoners and falling with his full weight on top of them. Davis, 27, had faced up to eight-and-a-half years in prison but he made a plea deal with prosecutors. He also pleaded guilty to making a false statement to the army after photographs of naked and abused prisoners at Abu Ghraib were made public last year. Davis was a guard at the Abu Ghraib prison for three months in late 2003. He is the seventh person to be sentenced over the abuses - six of them admitted their guilt and one, Charles Graner -regarded as the ringleader of the abuse scandal- was sentenced to 10 years in jail last month was convicted in a court martial. Two other US soldiers face trial.
One of three soldiers accused of abusing Iraqis, Cpl Daniel Kenyon has said he was given no training on detaining civilians. He described the situation at the Basra aid camp as unprofessional and said captured looters were beaten with sticks. The Gulf War veteran, who denies five charges, was highly regarded and had been recommended for promotion, the court martial in Germany heard. A charge against L/Cpl Mark Cooley was dropped earlier for legal reasons. The abuse allegedly took place after a mission to round up Iraqi looters who were stealing humanitarian aid from Camp Bread Basket in Basra in May 2003.
On February 10, 2005, a British army corporal accused of mistreating prisoners in Iraq has told a court he "blew his top" when he saw detainees forced to simulate oral sex and stopped the incident immediately. "It was beyond belief really," Corporal Daniel Kenyon said on Thursday, adding that he had sharply chastised soldiers standing around and photographing the abuse. Asked why he had not reported the incident, Kenyon said that he thought there was little point given that his superiors apparently approved of the mistreatment of the detainees, looters rounded up at a supply depot called "Camp Breadbasket". "I don't think they would have been interested, to tell you the truth," said Kenyon. "What I want the court to understand is how Breadbasket was being run. My section was squeaky clean and Breadbasket was one dirty infection," he said.
On February 11, 2005, a British army corporal has defiantly rejected accusations he abused and sexually humiliated prisoners in Iraq. Kenyon, fought to control his emotions as he gave evidence in a trial that caused revulsion last month when photographs were released apparently showing Iraqis caught in an anti-looting operation being abused and sexually humiliated by British soldiers. He is charged with aiding and abetting others who made detainees simulate sex acts and with failing to report the offences to superior officers. Two other soldiers, lance corporals Mark Cooley and Darren Larkin are also accused of mistreating prisoners in the incident. Larkin has pleaded guilty. Cooley pleads not guilty. Kenyon said he had not witnessed the abuse until he came out of a warehouse and saw soldiers had forced two men to strip and simulate oral sex. He said he put a stop to the abuse as soon as he saw it and had reprimanded his men twice. But he said he saw little point in reporting the incident as commanders at Camp Breadbasket, the supply depot where his unit was temporarily based, had tolerated and even ordered suspected looters rounded up in the sweep to be beaten.
On February 23, 2005, two British soldiers have been convicted of abusing Iraqi detainees in a case that was widely known as Britain's "Abu Ghraib." A military jury of seven British officers convicted Lance Corporal Mark Cooley of disgraceful conduct of a cruel kind for driving a forklift with a bound Iraqi dangling from its prongs and for pretending to punch a detainee. Corporal Daniel Kenyon, the most senior soldier involved, was found guilty of three charges, including aiding another soldier in an assault on a detainee, failing to report both the forklift incident and that soldiers under his command had forced prisoners to simulate having sex. A third soldier, Lance Corporal Darren Larkin, who had been photographed standing in his boxer shorts on top of a bound Iraqi detainee, previously pleaded guilty to assaulting a detainee. Several other charges against the men, all members of the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, were dropped during the five-week court-martial at a British base in Osnabrück, Germany. Ultimately, no British soldier was directly held accountable for sexually humiliating prisoners. The soldiers who forced the Iraqis to strip and pose sexually were never identified, despite an investigation that lasted 20 months. The three soldiers are to be sentenced later on. On Friday February 25, the three British soldiers were expelled from the army and jailed after a trial over prisoner abuse. The case came to light when another soldier was arrested with photographs depicting scenes of mistreatment including some in which soldiers had apparently forced naked Iraqi detainees to simulate sodomy and oral sex. The chief of the British Army and the Defence Secretary Hoon have apologised to the Iraqi nation after three soldiers were jailed and thrown out of the military for abusing civilian prisoners.
On February 26, 2005, the head of the British Army has ordered an inquiry into the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by three British soldiers near Basra in May 2003. General Sir Michael Jackson, who has apologised to the people of Iraq, said lessons needed to be learned.
The commander of Australian forces in Iraq said on February 27, 2005, that a preliminary inquiry into the shooting of an Iraqi woman by Australian troops has found the troops' actions appear justified. The Australian soldiers shot at a car after it refused to stop on its approach to a checkpoint. A woman in the car received a bullet wound to the head, while a child was injured by broken glass. The woman was later located in an Iraqi hospital and transferred to an American military hospital in Baghdad's Green Zone, where she is in a serious condition.
Two British soldiers, Cpl Daniel Kenyon and L/Cpl Mark Cooley, convicted of abusing Iraqi civilians are appealing against their convictions. They were found guilty at a court martial in Germany and dismissed from the Army. After Cooley, 25, was jailed for two years and Kenyon, 33, for 18 months their lawyer suggested that they had been made "scapegoats". The abuse, near Basra, came to light when so-called trophy photographs of the incidents were developed. A third soldier, L/Cpl Darren Larkin was sentenced to nearly five months after pleading guilty to assault after he was pictured standing on top of an Iraqi. Britain's top soldier, General Sir Michael Jackson, said he had been "appalled" by the case and apologised on behalf of the Army to the people of Iraq.
The US Army said on March 24, 2005, it has reopened an investigation into the suspected bludgeoning death of a key Iraqi scientist, Mohammad Munim al-Izmerly, in American custody, a chemist who allegedly experimented with poisons on prisoners in the days of Saddam Hussein. He is the only known weapons scientist among at least 96 detainees who have died in US custody in Iraq.
Despite Army investigators recommendations, US army commanders have decided not to prosecute 17 US soldiers implicated in the deaths of three prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2003 and 2004, according to a new accounting released Friday by the Army. Investigators had recommended that all 17 soldiers be charged in the cases that included charges of murder, conspiracy and negligent homicide. None of the 17 will face any prosecution but one did receive a 'letter of reprimand' and another was discharged after the investigations. In one of the three cases in which no charges are to be filed, the commanders determined the death to be "a result of a series of lawful applications of force." In the second, the commanders decided not to prosecute due to "lack of evidence" and in the third case it was determined the soldier involved had not been well informed of the rules of engagement.
A US Army tank company commander told a military court Wednesday March 30, 2005, that he shot a gravely wounded, unarmed Iraqi man ``to put him out of his misery,'' saying the killing was ``honourable.'' Captain Rogelio ``Roger'' Maynulet, 30, described the events that led him to fire twice upon the Iraqi, maintaining that the man was too badly injured to survive. Prosecutors at the court-martial say Maynulet violated military rules of engagement by shooting an Iraqi who was wounded and unarmed. Maynulet is being court-martialed on a charge of assault with intent to commit murder in the May 21, 2004, killing near Kufa, south of Baghdad. He has pleaded not guilty to the charge, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, and his lawyers have argued that his actions were in line with the Geneva Conventions on the code of war.
On March 31, 2005, a military court has found a US army captain guilty of killing a wounded Iraqi man in central Iraq last year. Captain Rogelio Maynulet, 30, said he shot the man, who had been wounded in a clash with US soldiers, in order to end his suffering. The court based in Wiesbaden, Germany, found Maynulet guilty of assault with intent to commit manslaughter. The panel will later discuss a sentence for the charge, which carries a maximum of 10 years in prison.
A military court today dishonourably discharged a US Army captain on April 1, 2005, but spared him from a prison sentence as punishment for the mercy killing of a wounded Iraqi man. The jury of four lieutenant colonels and two majors could have sentenced Capt. Roger Maynulet to as much as 10 years in prison. They found him guilty Thursday of felony assault with intent to commit voluntary manslaughter. With the sentence and the court-martial, the tank commander's five-day trial and nearly 10-year career came to an end. He had earned more than a dozen awards, including a Bronze Star and meritorious service medal.
A British soldier, Trooper Kevin Williams, accused of murdering an Iraqi civilian has been cleared on April 7, 2005, after prosecutors offered no evidence. Trooper Williams was accused of killing lawyer and father-of-nine Hassan Abbad Said near Basra on 3 August 2003. Trooper Williams had maintained he was protecting himself and a colleague, believing their lives were at risk. Earlier hearings were told he was on patrol with other soldiers when they discovered six Iraqis moving a cart containing heavy machine gun ammunition. Three of the men were detained while a fourth - Mr Said - ran off. Trooper Williams and Corporal Jeffrey Blair chased him into a private courtyard.
The court martial of a British Territorial Army soldier, Private Stuart Mackenzie, alleged to have faked photographs that were published in the Daily Mirror to show the abuse of an Iraqi prisoner was discontinued on April 21, 2005. The photos published in the Mirror on May 1 last year appeared to show British troops torturing an Iraqi detainee. In one picture a soldier was seen urinating on a hooded man while in another the hooded man was being hit with a rifle. They were immediate doubts over the pictures authenticity. The Royal Military Police launched an investigation and discovered that the lorry shown in the photos had never been used in Iraq, while doubts were also raised over the uniform of the soldier. The newspaper issued an apology two weeks later and sacked editor Mr Morgan.
On April 22, 2005, a Marine who killed two suspected insurgents in Iraq may face a court-martial proceeding. Prosecutors say Lt. Ilario Pantano used too much force against the unarmed men. But some veterans and members of Congress have come to his defence.
The former US commander in charge of the Iraqi prison at the centre of the abuse scandal has been demoted on the orders of President George W Bush on May 6, 2005. Army Reserve Brigadier General Janis Karpinski has been reduced in rank to colonel. She was found guilty of dereliction of duty and accused of concealing a past shoplifting arrest, the army added. General Karpinski is the highest-ranking US soldier to be disciplined over prisoner abuse at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison. General Karpinski has insisted she had been made a "convenient scapegoat" for decisions sanctioned above her and that she did not have final authority over the prison. She headed the military police unit that ran the facility when inmates were maltreated.
On May 26, 2005, the US Marine Corps dismissed charges against a Marine, Lt Ilario Pantano, accused of murdering suspected Iraqi insurgents. He had been accused of unjustifiably gunning the two men to death in April 2004. The prosecution said Lt Pantano had intended to make an example of the men by shooting them more than 60 times. The Marine Corps said that after investigating the incident it had decided to drop all the charges.
On Friday May 27, 2007, a US military jury found Navy SEAL Andrew Ledford innocent of charges stemming from a 2003 incident in which his platoon beat a suspected Iraqi insurgent before handing him over to the CIA where he died in custody. The death of Manadel al-Jamadi is one of at least three suspected abuse cases involving CIA interrogators the US Justice Department is examining.
An Indiana national guardsman pleaded guilty Monday July 25, 2005, to negligent homicide in the shooting death of an Iraqi police officer, a crime he was accused of attempting to cover up by shooting himself in the stomach. Cpl. Dustin Berg, 22, who had been charged with murder, testified that he felt he did not properly assess the threat that he faced and acted rashly.
Eleven American soldiers serving in Iraq have been charged with mistreating
detainees while on operations in the Baghdad area, the US military has said
on July 28, 2005. The charges related to reports that the soldiers had assaulted
a suspected insurgent. The soldiers are from a National Guard unit, the 184th
Infantry. These are part-time soldiers based in California and on their first
deployment to Iraq. The abuses were allegedly carried out while the soldiers
were on an operation, not in a detention facility. However, the Los Angeles
Times newspaper has reported allegations that the troops used a stun gun to
administer electric shocks to the suspected insurgent.