British soldiers and Iraqi prisoner abuse

The acquittal of Colonel Jorge Mendonca from war crimes charges in Basra was greeted by the British press with an air of indignation as to how such a smear could be levelled at British soldiers at all. The exercise was dismissed as a waste of time and money, while the Conservatives labelled it with the greatest insult of all – political correctness.

Nevertheless for anyone following the trial court martial, it is clear that there was substance to the grave charges that were pressed against seven British soldiers. They were answering charges regarding incidents surrounding a raid on a hotel in Basra, where detainees were alleged to have been “conditioned” or held in “stress positions”. Some would say tortured. The treatment resulted in the deaths of one of them, Baha Musa.

The proceedings started in Septmeber 2006 with Cpl Donald Payne confessing to being the country’s first war criminal. He pled guilty to the charge of inhumanely treating Iraqi civilians. It was a watershed moment which was also expected to have repercussions on the soldiers that were also with him at the time, and who according to witness testimonies, also took part in the beatings. There was also the question as to how far up the chain of command such procedures went, with British army testimony again indicating that the actions of Payne and others were approved from high up.

In previous trials of British soldiers, the reliability of evidence from Iraqi civilians has been called into question. In this trial though, British army personnel themselves put on record what they saw an inhumane treatment:

Private Lee, who is now attached to the Royal Engineers, told the court martial that Stacey laughed as Fallon and Crowcroft repeatedly punched and kicked the suspected insurgents.

He said of Fallon: "I saw him go up to individuals and punch and kick them as they fell to the floor. He would drag them up, put them back into stress positions and wait for them to fall and he would do it again and again."

He added that Crowcroft "did exactly the same."

When Pte Lee remarked that one of the detainees was holding his position well, Stacey kicked his feet from under him and the detainee fell to the floor, the trial heard.

Pte Lee said Stacey then stamped on the detainee's neck and punched him repeatedly.

He told the court later that day back at the barracks Crowcroft and Fallon were "showing off" about the bruises and cuts to their knuckles and feet which resulted from "beating up" the Iraqis.

BBC

Senior Aircraftman Scott Hughes told the court martial, at the Military Court Centre, Bulford Camp, Wiltshire, he was visiting a British detention centre in Basra where 11 Iraqi civilians were being held when he heard "loud noises" and "shouting".

When he went to investigate, he saw detainees with sand bags over their heads and arms outstretched.

SAC Hughes said he saw Cpl Payne attacking an elderly detainee, nicknamed "granddad" by the soldiers - later identified as Kifah Al-Matairi - and kicking him in the kidneys.
"He then put his fingers into his eye sockets and yanked his head up, it was as if he was gouging his eyes."

SAC Hughes said Cpl Payne had asked him: "Would you like to see the choir?"
Cpl Payne then went around the room kicking each detainee in the kidneys so each cried out in pain, SAC Hughes added.

He also told of the smell of excrement, sweat and urine in the building, saying he was told the prisoners had soiled themselves.

A day after his visit, SAC Hughes said he told his commanding officers what he had seen after hearing one of the detainees had died.

"I reported it because I had a conscience," he said.

"I had never really seen anything like that before. I did not know why I stayed that long. I was shocked."

Asked why he had not intervened, he replied: "They [the soldiers] were a lot bigger than me and I didn't know what their orders were."

BBC

There was also the appearance at the stand of Stuart Mackenzie who is said to be the soldier that faked the pictures of Iraqi prisoner abuse that got Mirror editor Piers Morgan the sack. It turns out that while the photos were mocked up, they were based on more than a little reality:

He claimed his unit was known as the "Grim Reapers" as they were the first to notch up a kill. One entry in his diary read: "Punched a policeman for not doing as told."

Another, recorded a short time later, referred to a civilian arrested then given "broken wrists, concussion and sore bollocks".

On another occasion Mr Mackenzie wrote: "A big Iraqi punched Mr [Craig] Rogers [leader of his section] and got filled in immediately by about 10 of us. He was battered from head to toe."

On another day in July, Mr Mackenzie wrote about three "Ali Babas", his term for suspected Iraqi criminals: "Beat them up with sticks and filmed it. A good day so far."

He also apparently wrote about the death of Mr Musa: "The fat bastard who kept taking off his hood and escaping from his plasticuffs (handcuffs) got put in another room. He resisted and he stopped breathing, then we could not revive him. What a shame."

Mr Knowles added: "You and your colleagues from the Grim Reapers beat the Iraqis relentlessly, just like all the other Iraqis we have read about in your diary, didn't you?"

Mr Mackenzie replied: "I do not wish to answer that question."

"Do you think you should be prosecuted for the things you have written about in your diary: punctured lungs, broken ribs?" Mr Knowles asked.

"No. I have not said that this has happened. If I cannot remember them, I cannot say they happened," Mackenzie replied.

Times and PA

By looking at these testimonies, it’s clear that the irritation of the British press and the Conservatives as to the necessity of this trial was misplaced.

There is also the question of whether these soldiers were acting on their own initiative, or whether these actions had been sanctioned by superiors. In this regard senior military men were called as witnesses:

Major Antony Royce, called as a witness by the judge in the case, told the court that he was instructed by those higher up the chain of command in Basra to use “conditioning techniques”, including putting prisoners in stress positions and hooding them, to prepare detainees for tactical questioning.

He said that the advice had come from a senior army legal adviser. Such techniques are against both the Geneva Convention and the Army’s own rules of engagement.

Major Royce, formerly The Queen’s Lancashire Regiment’s internment review officer, said that Colonel Jorge Mendonca, the former commanding officer of the QLR who is one of the soldiers on trial, had himself seen the Iraqi prisoners being “conditioned” at the regiment’s detention centre. “He asked why it was taking place,” Major Royce said. “I explained that I had cleared it with the chain of command. He was happy that the chain of command and legal advisers had given us that clearance.”

The Times

The logic then seems to be that as this abuse was British army policy, the soldiers cannot be blamed for following orders (as odious a moral position as that is). It is shocking to see that there has been very little analysis in the country as to what has come forward from this trial. It exposes the dark practices of our forces in Iraq, and gives lie to the idea that prisoner abuse was the practice of a few rogue elements.

The collapse of these charges follows the acquittal last year of British soldiers who threw an Iraqi boy to his death into a river, but received no sanction thanks to a fog of war argument.

In this current case, where is the justice for Baha Musa who lost his life, and the others who were abused? Cpl Payne has put his hands up to inhumane treatment, but denies even manslaughter, never mind murder. Who then is to blame for his death?

Comments

[scotsguy]

Gotta love you!,ive just read an article you did on the M.A.B,as regards racism in scotland.
You convenietly forget to mention,as to why there has been a reported rise in racist incidents....im thinking radicals tarnishing the good name of a certian religion.

And you wonder why people are pissed off?... I offcourse abhor all incidents of racism...but unlike you,i see the root cause.

Go preach to the converted radicals my friend,that in turn,may filter down to the streets.....you get my drift?

Im a scot,just like you,ex-army too,proud to have fought in the first gulf war.

When radicals start blowing people up around the world,and then bring there cause to the west.
We have to respond,you guys are incapable of bringing the radicals to heel,saddam,osama,etc...So the west steps in,and sorts out the junior jihadis!!...

And all you do is cry wolf!...(and the radicals continue to basterdize your religion)course your too busy finger pointing to be bothered by that!.

You seem to have a bee in your bonnet as regards british soldiers...and all things non to your like-ing.

You my friend,present a very one sided view,no-one needs to tarnish your religion,other followers of your religion are doing an excellent job of it...suicide bombers and the like.

Your conspiracy theories are without substance,and make you look a fool..

Thousands of soldiers come from scotland.....you think any of them would vote for you and the snp...i think not.

[Sohaib]

OK Scotsguy, now that you've got that off your chest, anything to comment on the actual topic?

[Osama]

He did Sohaib - he said it was a conspiracy theory, despite the testimony from British army personnel themselves that abuse did go on and it was sanctioned from high up.

[scotsguy]

Whats this..a double act!,the blind leading the blind!

No one culture has shot itself in the foot,more than yours,notice i use the word culture,not religion.

I mean how can a religion be so misconstrued,as to lead others/radicals into blowing people up,and causing general mayhem worl-wide?

And you wonder why non muslims are pissed off with you guys?

The uk/usa and the muslim world sat and watched for many years,as 1,7 million muslims died,blindly following saddam hussain,into his meglomaniac dess pot follies.

Then the uk/usa sorted the twat out,because islamic countries couldnt organise a piss up in a brewery!,mankind was indeed done a favour by his swift demise.

Included in that no is the 5000 women and kurdish kids he gassed to death way back in 1988.

We aint in iraq for the oil..we are in iraq to teach the islamic world a lesson,you mess with the west,we take your country,...end of...now deal with it!

Next you will be telling me the taliban were a bunch of stand up guys....check this website out,and see how the taliban elevated woman www.rawa.org

They hung them...

I see you have many leftie links on your blog,the sad thing there is,there in it for different reasons than you,you just dont like seeing fellow muslims being killed,they on the other hand,dont like war..any war.

Big bad radicals..tarnishing your cultures good name...Boo-hoo..

[kris]

I see the PR campaign is going well in Scotland Osama!

It is a pity that there seems to be little common ground. Too bad that little bit can't apparantly be expanded upon by moderates on both sides.

I'm not here to defend the indefensible; but you seem to paint yourself in that corner.

I await with hope that one day there will indeed be a Mohammad Luther King and the march of the million, moderate Muslims with their Socialist Worker placards saying, with respect to Islamo-fascism as we all did with the war, "Not in MY name".

[joe90]

So, if only there had've been an Iraqi Martin Luther King, then Iraq wouldn't have been subjected to unprovoked aggression (the same crime Hitler is guilty of and of which there is no greater crime for a human being to commit) by Bush and Blair - and the million innocent defencless Iraqis they have butchered to date, would still be alive?

But hold on, isn't Martin Luther King an American, and isn't it the US military who have butchered a million Iraqis to date since they illegaly invaded Iraq?

Why don't the Yanks themselevs practice what MLK preached to his fellow Americans - why is it left to their victims?

So if the messege of MLK ,who was American, doesn't do anything to restrain American military violence abroad, how is anybody else supposed to believe in his philosophy and practce it if the Yanks don't?

How come it's only Bush and Blair who are the moderates?

Is it because Bush and Blair, the Butchers of Baghdad and Beruit, are the only ones guilty of murdering 100s of 1000s of innocent defenceless Iraqis and Afghanis - and the only ones guilty of the same crimes as Hitler?

Of course,
anybody who disagrees with Bush and Blair (and Hitler) are extremists! That's exactly what Goebbels used to say as well.

Where's is all the Iraqi WMD then, and more importantly, where are all the western mass-media scare stories about this non-existent threat to our very existence and western civilisation as we know it?

[joe90]

Tony Blair's Race-Hate PR Campaign going well in Britian -
- reporting on British terrorists relegated to The Burnley Express
http://www.burnleytoday.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=12&ArticleID=2080965>Explosives case: jury could not reach verdict

Don' read all about it!
The biggest bomb-making factory ever found on the UK mainland - no overhead helicopters - no on-the-scene frantic reporters or photographers - no interviews with bemused locals etc - nothing!

[aineliva]

Ok, I do see Osama what you are saying in this post. I think I can also understand why Scotsguy has lost his verbal rag.

And my question is; if we ask our troops to wage war in a responsible way, and to be held responsible for their actions, who, is asking the insurgents/terrorists (not sure how to describe anonymous killers - of their own people as well as soldiers) who asks them to observe the Geneva convention etc? rules of engagement?

We have two groups here, one, who ostensibly are waging war according to rules laid out for them; (we hope) and the other group who are simply waging war, and for who each and every dead body, and that includes their own, they will claim victory and martyrdom. They believe or appear to believe that the victory is in the body-count.

My belief is that when you are faced with that type of thinking the only way is to remove the troops. Now. And leave these people to continue their idea of war among the indigenous population. I wonder what would happen then.

At least we do have a system that allows justice to be achieved, in a court of law and not at the point of a gun.

I do, of course, expect response from the usual suspects; however, (big grin) but a debate with a lower decibel rate would be far more productive, than merely taking a stance and then arguing that in the face of any other stance, we are in the right and have god on our side. As we know no-one is in the right, and God seems to be letting us get on with it.

[Unimpressed]

Fantastic post Joe. Scotsguy is a rambling idiot and an apologist for murder and terrorism. People like this, including the british killers of Mr.Musa are irredeemable and ought to shot on sight.