Notes from the Abyss

The report on the 800th MP brigade lists enough awful things to cover more than fifty pages. A few of the carnival freak-show highlights:

The 800th MP (I/R) units did not receive Internment/Resettlement (I/R) and corrections specific training during their mobilization period. Corrections training is only on the METL of two MP (I/R) Confinement Battalions throughout the Army, one currently serving in Afghanistan, and elements of the other are at Camp Arifjan, Kuwait. MP units supporting JTF-GTMO received ten days of training in detention facility operations, to include two days of unarmed self-defense, training in interpersonal communication skills, forced cell moves, and correctional officer safety.

Read that first sentence again: The MP's in charge of prisoners did not recieve training in handling prisioners. Yuck.

Get's better. When they say the JTF-GTMO forces recived training in all that good stuff... JTF-GTMO are the Joint Task-Force Guantanimo Bay security guards. That's right, the Guantanimo Bay prisioners have better guards than prisioners in Iraq.

The units that remain are generally understrength, as Reserve Component units do not have an individual personnel replacement system to mitigate medical losses or the departure of individual Soldiers that have reached 24 months of Federal active duty in a five-year period.

Well, the guards might be untrained, but at least there aren't too many of them.

We reviewed numerous photos and videos of actual detainee abuse taken by detention facility personnel, which are now in the custody and control of the US Army Criminal Investigation Command and the CJTF-7 prosecution team.

My roomate asks: "What were them motherfuckers doing with the videotapes?"

The US Army Criminal Investigation Command (CID) ... uncovered numerous photos and videos portraying in graphic detail detainee abuse by Military Police personnel on numerous occasions from October to December 2003.

Some "potential susptects" have already rendered "full and complete confessions." Others are invoking their Article 31 rights: Article 31 of the Uniform Code is the military 5th Amendment.

Let's skip straight to the bottom of the ninth:

I [Maj. Gen. Antonio M. Taguba, Investigating Officer] MAKE THE FOLLOWING SPECIFIC FINDINGS OF FACT:

5. (S) That between October and December 2003, at the Abu Ghraib Confinement Facility (BCCF), numerous incidents of sadistic, blatant, and wanton criminal abuses were inflicted on several detainees. This systemic and illegal abuse of detainees was intentionally perpetrated by several members of the military police guard force (372nd Military Police Company, 320thMilitary Police Battalion, 800th MP Brigade), in Tier (section) 1-A of the Abu Ghraib Prison (BCCF). The allegations of abuse were substantiated by detailed witness statements (ANNEX 26) and the discovery of extremely graphic photographic evidence.

6. (S) I find that the intentional abuse of detainees by military police personnel included the following acts:

• a. (S) Punching, slapping, and kicking detainees; jumping on their naked feet;
• b. (S) Videotaping and photographing naked male and female detainees;
• c. (S) Forcibly arranging detainees in various sexually explicit positions for photographing;
• d. (S) Forcing detainees to remove their clothing and keeping them naked for several days at a time;
• e. (S) Forcing naked male detainees to wear women’s underwear;
• f. (S) Forcing groups of male detainees to masturbate themselves while being photographed and videotaped;
• g. (S) Arranging naked male detainees in a pile and then jumping on them;
• h. (S) Positioning a naked detainee on a MRE Box, with a sandbag on his head, and attaching wires to his fingers, toes, and penis to simulate electric torture;
• i. (S) Writing “I am a Rapest” (sic) on the leg of a detainee alleged to have forcibly raped a 15-year old fellow detainee, and then photographing him naked;
• j. (S) Placing a dog chain or strap around a naked detainee’s neck and having a female Soldier pose for a picture;
• k. (S) A male MP guard having sex with a female detainee;
• l. (S) Using military working dogs (without muzzles) to intimidate and frighten detainees, and in at least one case biting and severely injuring a detainee;
• m. (S) Taking photographs of dead Iraqi detainees.

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