Lawyer: U.S. General Knew of Iraqi Abuse

AP ^ | May 23 2004

[Leroy S. Mort]

WASHINGTON (AP) - The commander of the military police company assigned to the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad has said he will testify that the top U.S. general in Iraq was present during some interrogations at the prison and witnessed some of the abuse, according to a published report.

The Washington Post, in a story first released on its Web site Saturday night, said a military lawyer stated at an open hearing April 2 that Capt. Donald J. Reese told him that Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez and other senior military officers were aware of the abuse at the prison.

The military lawyer, Capt. Robert Shuck, is assigned to defend Staff Sgt. Ivan L. ``Chip'' Frederick II of the Army Reserve's 372nd Military Police Company. Frederick is one of seven members of that company facing criminal charges for abusing Iraqi inmates. Reese is the company commander.

The Post said a transcript of the April hearing at Camp Victory in Baghdad shows Capt. John McCabe, the military prosecutor, asking Shuck, ``Are you saying that Captain Reese is going to testify that General Sanchez was there and saw this going on?''

``That's what he told me,'' Shuck replied, according the transcript cited by the Post. ``I am an officer of the court, sir, and I would not lie. I have got two children at home, I'm not going to risk my career.''

Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, the senior military spokesman in Iraq, told the Post that Sanchez was unavailable for comment Saturday night but would respond later.

The transcript marks the first allegation that Sanchez or other senior military officers were aware of the prisoner abuse while it was happening. Prison officials have blamed the abuse on low-level military police, some of whom have maintained they were just following orders.

Shuck also said at the April hearing, according to the Post, that Capt. Carolyn A. Wood, supervisor of the military intelligence operation at Abu Ghraib, was ``involved in intensive interrogations of detainees, condoned some of the activities and stressed that that was standard procedure, what the accused was doing.''

[Leroy S. Mort]

Yeah right. I don't believe this for a second. The Post tries to tar Sanchez with hearsay. When is Capt. Reese's trial?

[swilhelm73]

The transcript marks the first allegation that Sanchez or other senior military officers were aware of the prisoner abuse while it was happening.

That's strange. I seem to recall the W Post making exactly such allegations from the day the story broke. Guess I've been trapped in an alternate dimension or something.

[america-rules]

Who cares.

These were thugs and murders who should have been shot the third day if they didn't talk !

The only mistake was the idiots taking pictures.

[Damagro]

What this story doesn't say speaks volumns about the agenda the media is pushing that there is or was a coverup. The media ignored this story when it was released in January that there was an investigation. The media waits till they have pics 4 months later and scream coverup. It's all BS

[JLS]

Exactly the reason these soldiers are being punished is the pictures. It is ok to roughly treat them to get information. It is not ok to use them in your personal sex videos. I doubt very much any General knew or approved of these idiots having sex with each other in front of prisoners they were to be guarding.

[Ruth A.]

This is allegedly, right? My, my, the title makes it sound like a done deal.

[DoughtyOne]

Lawyer says, "Sun is not hot." Scientists rethinking everything... Film at eleven.

So now anything some yahoo attorney says is news? Can the media stoop any lower without implanting themselves in the product they have been excreting for years? I think not. I think they're about to drown in it.

[jaykay]

General Sanchez may have used women and dogs to intimidate a Muslim enemy. For this he would be despised. Once upon a time General Pershing used pigs to intimidate a Muslim enemy. For this he was revered.

General Pershing was in charge of a U.S. garrison in the Philippines in 1911. It seems his soldiers were subjected to a series of terror attacks by Filipino Muslims.  Pershing did not try to put together a "road map." Nor did he set up study groups to find out why the Muslims hated the Americans. Nor did he offer them a series of "good will gestures." Nor did he put up a giant wall to keep them out. Instead, he captured fifty of those Muslim terrorists. He then had them dig their own graves. He then tied all up to posts execution style. He then dipped fifty bullets in pig's blood. You see, Muslims murders may not have a problem with soaking their hands into Jewish blood but NO WAY do they want anything to do with the skin, blood or 'guts' of a pig. Should they be contaminated by any of these pig parts, they will go to Muslim Hell, not Muslim Paradise! And so, on the count of three, all but one of those Paradise-seeking Islamists were shot dead! Their bodies were them wrapped in the skins of freshly-killed pigs and dropped into the giant hole. Above them were poured the entrails and other  porcine remains. You may ask, "Why was one Muslim spared?" The answer is simple. This sole surviving Muslim was released and sent back to his fellow 'mujahedin' to report what he had just witnessed. For the next 42 years there was not a single Muslim attack!

If they don't like the fraternity hazing from General Sanchez, maybe they would like a modern version of Black Jack Pershing.

[A Simple Soldier]

That myth has been debunked for years. Never happened. And if he had done those things, he would have been tried as a war criminal.

[dadokane]

FYI. From Snopes: Its truth undetermined.

Origins: The desire for simplistic solutions to complex problems has spawned several widely-circulated messages of late which seek to transform a fight against terrorism to the easily-manageable level of a horror film or a comic strip.

Today's popular notion is the concept that a pig is to a Muslim as a crucifix is to a vampire — simply arm yourself with a porker, and you can use it to render even the most fanatical terrorist helpless, sending him cowering in fear lest he come into contact with anything porcine.

Urban Legends Reference Pages: Rumors of War (Pershing the Thought) http://www.snopes.com/rumors/pershing.htm

There was an instance where bullets/rifles were so-greased in India and troops refused to handle weapons, but i don't have time to research it for ya.

[jaykay]

if he had done those things, he would have been tried as a war criminal.

In 1911? Pre Geneva Convention, Scamnasty International, Ted Kennedy, etc...

[jaykay]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/936888/posts - In fact, Islam does not teach that people are barred from heaven if they're buried with pig entrails, said Raeed Tayeh, public affairs director of Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation in Washington. He called the notion "a lie, a fable."

"This is just a sad commentary on the ignorance of people who are entrusted to represent Americans, that they would pass around such offensive, distasteful and slanderous garbage," he told the Boston Globe.

---

Muslim spokesmouths and the Boston Globe of course are the souls of honesty and integrity. Trust them in all things, lol.

The reaction from the mouth is telling I think. They don't want us to be wise to this potential advantage.

[familyop]

Aside from the fact that the left/liberal media are abusing the information for political gain regardless of what is best for defense, there are interesting things about the case with regards to conservative policy perspective.

Capt. Carolyn A. Wood posted her interrogation rules, which were inconsistent with those later issued by Lt. Gen. Ricardo S.Sanchez.

We're getting closer to the truth, folks, but will we ever see it? No one has accused Wood, yet, to my knowledge. And the whole thing is just too weird and civilian-like. IMO, the left/liberal press will continue to abuse the information they have, selectively leaking it little by little. But they won't tell us everything they know.

IMO, if we knew all relevent information about the case, some military personnel policies brought to us by the Democrats would be scrapped. It would backfire on them.

[Leroy S. Mort]

Once upon a time General Pershing used pigs to intimidate a Muslim enemy. For this he was revered.

Interesting legend, but unfortunately unsubstantiated.

[A Simple Soldier]

Yep. Articles of War, precursor to the UCMJ were in effect. We would have tried him.

And I do know that innumerable atrocities were commited by our own forces back then and seldom was anything ever said and few if anyone ever charged or convicted. Doesn't make them right or legal. The mechanisms to root them out just did not exist.

[jaykay]

Hmm, Articles of War. So maybe it did happen and they covered their tracks. Or maybe Pershing somehow spread the rumor. The story originated somehow.

[mewzilla]

Gen. Kimmitt has issued a statement that flatly denies this report.

[lucysmom]

There was an instance where bullets/rifles were so-greased in India and troops refused to handle weapons, but i don't have time to research it for ya.

That was a precipitating factor in the Sepoy Rebellion.

The Indian soldiers were dissatisfied with their pay as well as with certain changes in regulations, which they interpreted as part of a plot to force them to adopt Christianity. This belief was strengthened when the British furnished the soldiers with cartridges coated with grease made from the fat of cows (sacred to Hindus) and of pigs (anathema to Muslims). The British replaced the cartridges when the mistake was realized; but suspicion persisted, and in Feb., 1857, began a series of incidents in which sepoys refused to use the cartridges.

http://www.bartleby.com/65/in/IndianMu.html

[kabar]

The Post said a transcript of the April hearing at Camp Victory in Baghdad shows Capt. John McCabe, the military prosecutor, asking Shuck, ``Are you saying that Captain Reese is going to testify that General Sanchez was there and saw this going on?''

``That's what he told me,'' Shuck replied, according the transcript cited by the Post. ``I am an officer of the court, sir, and I would not lie. I have got two children at home, I'm not going to risk my career.''

Look for Capt. Reese to quickly disassociate himself from that statement. Capt Reese needs to describe what he meant by "saw what was going on" and when he was there. Sanchez replaced the entire chain of command at the prison and initiated the investigations. This is more disinformation and character assassination.

[Robert Teesdale]

There was an instance where bullets/rifles were so-greased in India and troops refused to handle weapons, but i don't have time to research it for ya

Sepoy Mutiny. The British Army had a supposed choice of pig tallow or beef tallow on their cartridges... one offended the Muslims, the other the Hindus. In fact they used neither, but it was enough to help spark a bloody mutiny.

One British commander captured 100 or so mutineers. Had them brought out and hung, ten at a time. Demonstrated a resolve I wish we still had.