Wednesday, August 11, 2004
Oregon national guard unit witnessed torture while in Iraq
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A team of Oregon Army National Guard troops "frustrated and infuriated" after witnessing the torture and abuse of prisoners in Iraq earlier this summer, has turned to The Oregonian in Portland to get their story told. This has led Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) to demand that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld investigate whether the soldiers were improperly ordered by superior officers to leave a detention area after they intervened to stop Iraqi guards from beating handcuffed prisoners.
An editorial in The Oregonian (Click for QuikCap) today supported that move, adding that "the U.S. must demand human-rights accountability."
Wyden, meanwhile, has promised to protect from retaliation the Guardsmen who served as sources for the Oregonian's bombshell report on Sunday.
A guardsman who witnessed the day's events, Capt. Jarrell Southall, had provided the newspaper with a written account of the episode. The newspaper, led by reporter Mike Francis, also interviewed other Guardsmen who did not wish to have their names used. Fifteen photos of what the soldiers found also appeared in the paper.
The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad has also confirmed the incident.
The story stems from an incident on June 29, the first full day of Iraqi sovereignty after the handover of power. A guardsman peering inside a walled compound at the Iraqi Interior Ministry through a rifle scope saw security officers beating bound and blindfolded prisoners. The guardsman radioed for help, saying (according to one soldier) that if no assistance arrived he would begin shooting the jailers one by one.
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