Soldier's video diary of abuse to be broadcast

May 12, 2004 - 4:26PM

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Washington: A US soldier's video diary showing her disdain for Iraqi detainees who died in her charge is to be broadcast by a US network tomorrow in a further escalation of the prisoner abuse scandal that has shaken the Bush administration and provoked world outrage.

CBS, which two weeks ago broadcast the first pictures of Iraqi prisoners being abused in the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad, said today its 60 Minutes II program would show video footage depicting conditions both there and at Camp Bucca, another US-run prison in southern Iraq.

Photographs of Iraqi prisoners being sexually humiliated, threatened by dogs and piled into pyramids as grinning American soldiers look on have been published round the world, dealing a major setback to US attempts to stabilise Iraq.

The Pentagon has said it has more pictures and video of abuse that defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has warned may be even more shocking.

MORE
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/05/12/1084289738928.html

Iraqi prisoners 'shot by guards'
By Alec Russell in Washington
(Filed: 13/05/2004)


An American soldier's video diary detailing the chaos at a jail in Iraq was broadcast last night as Washington conceded the prisoner abuse scandal had been a "body blow" for the country.



The woman soldier described the jail as out of control with guards shooting prisoners to maintain order.

"I hate it here," said the soldier, who has not been named. "We shot two prisoners today. One got shot in the chest for swinging a pole against our people on the feed team. The other got shot in the arm. We don't know if the one we shot in the chest is dead yet."

The film about Camp Bucca prison, in southern Iraq, was broadcast on the CBS programme, 60 Minutes II, which first revealed the abuse.

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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/05/13/wtort13.xml&sSheet=/portal/2004/05/13/ixportaltop.html

The dateline is also May 13, 2004. As far as I know, it is May 12th today, so where was this broadcast?

the soldier said she was pissed because the Iraqis were being spoiled with better food. I only heard white rice before I turned the channel.

anyone know
from the website there's video I'm going back to see it.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/05/11/60II/main616849.shtml


Her videotape shows she didn't like Camp Bucca, or the people under her control: "These people get fed better than we do. Every day, they eat white rice, chicken. Every day we eat MREs. They are suck f****** a**holes. They f*** guys for pleasure and they f*** women for breeding. Excuse my language. I've been around a lot of people who cusses every day."

Throughout the tape, she records her annoyance at the thousands of Iraqi prisoners under the control of several MP units at Camp Bucca. She was an MP, a military police officer, and part of a small group guarding 7,000 prisoners.

“This is the compound, the ones that always break out. They have ... usually about three a week that breaks out. And of course, every time that I'm working, they never do it," she says on the videotape. "‘Cause they're scared of me. I actually got in trouble the other day because I was throwing rocks at them."

They interviewed England (who was pretty convincing actually in her saying that everything she did was ordered from above)... and they show clips from the video diary you mentioned. Odd stuff... The soldier is complaining about her food not being as good as the prisoners, and one chilling comment about 2 prisoners dying... that that was 2 fewer for her to worry about.

Girman says there was chaos, yelling and screaming, and thousands of rocks were flying: "Rocks being tossed at us. At one point, I got hit. I lost vision. As a matter of fact, I think it was Tim who said 'Are you OK?' I said 'I'm fine,' and that's when I started seeing the EPWs coming out the gate. They were actually starting to come out of the compound. And I tapped the specialist in front of me on the Kevlar, gave him a sector of fire. And he shot."

One EPW, an enemy prisoner of war, was hit in the leg. The others retreated. The following week, there was another riot during feeding that ended badly.

"You wanna know the worst thing that happened in that camp? That an EPW died. We had to shoot an EPW. … That was very hard for me to take," says Girman. “And the reason is it was hard for me to take is because it should never have got to that point. We did what we had to do... but it should never have got to that point."

Girman and Canjar's families say they tried to bring attention to the problems at Camp Bucca.

They say they called Donald Rumsfeld's office repeatedly, and sent letters, emails and faxes to the White House, and to several senators, including Arlen Specter, Rick Santorum, Joe Lieberman and Carl Levin nearly a year ago.

The letters say that the "camps are in complete disarray with no reasonable voice of leadership..."

The letters also described the camp atmosphere "as a b-rated movie, filled with incompetence..."

The families say no one called back.

http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/60II/main3475.shtml

From the 60 Minutes II transcript of the homemade movie soundtrack:

"If we shoot any more of the Iraqis, or attack
any of them, they're gonna supposedly come in
and attack the camp," she says on tape. "But
we'll believe that when it actually happens,
because we've already killed another Iraqi just
last night when I was working. So I don't know
what's going on..."

Looks like there was a bit more than simple fraternity pranks, or "humiliation" and "a little softening up" going on there.

U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, center left, accompanied by U.S. Brig Gen. Janice Karpinski, left, tours Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison on the outskirts of the capital Baghdad in this July 20, 2003, file photo. (Photo: AP Photo/Pool)




Lt. Cpl. William Blackmon of St. Louis, Mo., from Kilo Company of the 3rd Battalion, 24th Marines, stands guard with a machine gun at a position at the entrance of the Abu Ghraib prison on the outskirts of Baghdad, Iraq, Tuesday, May 4, 2004. (Photo: AP)



A Iraqi prisoner looks through the bars of her cell in the Abu Ghraib Prison on the outskirts of Baghdad, Iraq, Saturday, May 8, 2004. The woman said she was a high school teacher and wife of prominent Ba'ath Party member, and that American forces arrested her several months ago while they were looking for her husband. There are currently five women at the prison, held in separate indoor cells. (Photo: AP Photo/John Moore)