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August 03, 2004
It's Mardi Gras Time in Abu Ghraib
As hearings on whether or not some of the soldiers involved with the notorious Abu-Ghraib photos should be court-martialed get underway, we learn that the three army commanders implicated in the case of two Iraqis forced to jump of a bridge into a river --killing one-- have been granted immunity. Lest you think they got off scot-free, rest assured that they received reprimands, the technical term for a "tsk-tsk" letter.
The defense attorneys for the lower-ranked soldiers involved in the incident, who could actually face some jail time since they are not ranked high enough to be excused, pardon, granted immunity, claimed that this was all fault of the Iraqis, that they were alive and were faking death just to get American soldiers in trouble. So the family told them to go ahead and dig up the grave. That's where we're at, folks, in operation hearts and minds. Two unarmed men were pushed off a bridge and the family has to dig up the remains of their son. Here's the key passage from the AP piece:
The defense attorneys said insurgents have frequently faked deaths to embarrass U.S. forces and get soldiers into trouble.Family members, however, say Zaidoun Hassoun drowned that night and his body was found downriver 13 days later. The survivor, Marwan Fadel Hassoun, 23, has told The Associated Press he tried to save his cousin's life as soldiers watched and laughed from the bridge above.
An uncle, Nizar Fadhel al-Samarrai, told the AP that Army investigators never showed up to confirm the death of his nephew, though the family was prepared to exhume the body to prove it.
"The investigators told us a forensic doctor would be brought from the United States to conduct an autopsy but this has not happened," he said by telephone from Iraq on Thursday. "They requested a fatwa (religious edict) from local religious authorities to say there's no problem with opening the grave. We got one around seven months ago. But since then, there has been no contact from them at all."
Army investigator Sgt. Irene Cintron testified that it was too dangerous to exhume the body, and she relied on the word of family members and members of the Iraqi Civil Defense Force.
Meanwhile, Lynndie England's lawyers practice blame deflection of their own, comparing their client's actions to Mardi Gras festivities:
"She's as stressed as anyone would expect of a 21-year-old young lady who faces 30 years in prison for photographs you'd see at Mardi Gras or spring break, but not here," said her lead lawyer, Richard Hernandez."Of course she regrets things," he added. "Every one of us regrets things in our teens and 20's."
Posted by zeynep at August 3, 2004 10:52 PM
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Comments
Faked deaths!? Now why didn't I think of that? Why I'll bet the military wouldn't mind if we all thought that most of those probably 12,000+ Iraqi deaths just since the beginning of the American occupation were faked. That would sure make things a whole lot less messy for the military, but it wouldn't really change much on the ground in Iraq. But if I had thought of faking my own death in 1966, I wonder if that would have been good enough to get me a 4-F rating from the Selective Service Commission?
As far as the Mardi Gras is concerned I've never been there, but I've seen plenty of pictures and I've never seen anything like Abu Ghraib on the streets of New Orleans. Lawyers Say The Funniest Things. It could be a new game show on television or a new board game at Macy's.
I see things didn't change much while I was away. What a surprise!!
Sincerely,
Old & In The Way
Posted by: Phil Cicchi at August 4, 2004 03:08 AM