| Some marines linked to abuses { December 15 2004 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active) http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0412150297dec15,1,741523.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hedhttp://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0412150297dec15,1,741523.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed
IRAQ IN TRANSITION DETAINEES
Some Marines linked to abuses Punishments disclosed after ACLU lawsuit
By Richard A. Serrano, Tribune newspapers: Los Angeles Times. Staff writer Mark Mazzetti contributed Published December 15, 2004
WASHINGTON -- Some Marines in Iraq conducted mock executions of juvenile prisoners last year, burned and tortured other detainees with electrical shocks, and warned a Navy medic they would kill him if he treated any injured Iraqis, according to military documents made public Tuesday.
The latest revelations of prisoner abuse, obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union in a lawsuit against the government, involved previously unknown incidents in which 11 Marines were punished. The military indicated it investigated 13 other cases, but deemed them unsubstantiated. Four investigations are pending.
The new documents are the latest in a series of reports, e-mails and other records that the ACLU has obtained to bolster its contention that the abuse of prisoners goes far beyond the handful of soldiers charged with abusing detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.
The mistreatment occurred as early as May 2003, months before the first allegations of abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison were recorded.
In the case that drew the most severe punishment, a 1-year prison sentence for a Marine, a detainee allegedly was shocked with an electric transformer and forced to dance.
In Adiwaniyah, a Marine was convicted of allegedly ordering four juvenile Iraqi looters to kneel and then firing a pistol "to conduct a mock execution."
In Karbala, a Marine allegedly held a 9 mm pistol to the back of a detainee's head while another Marine took a picture.
A detainee in Mahmoudiya suffered second degree burns and blisters on the back of his hands when "a Marine guard squirted alcohol-based sanitizer" on him.
Navy investigators, who found other allegations unsubstantiated, interviewed medics who were dispatched to Iraq last year. Two of them spoke about being intimidated by Marines.
One medic said he was cautioned not to talk to others about prisoner abuse. Another medic said, "Several Marines told me that if I provided medical services to any Iraqi military or civilian personnel, that they [the Marines] would kill me."
However, the medic later said "there was a wounded Iraqi POW who needed his dressings changed" and that some Marines "actually called my attention to him to make sure he received treatment."
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