Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: Torturare "per divertimento" o "per noia"

Sunday Herald
02 October 2005
Torture of Iraqis was for 'stress relief', say US soldiers
By Neil Mackay, Investigations Editor
FOR the first time, American soldiers who personally
tortured Iraqi prisoners have come forward to give testimony
to human rights organisations about crimes they committed.
Three soldiers -- a captain and two sergeants -- from the
82nd Airborne Division stationed at Forward Operating Base
(FOB) Mercury near Fallujah in Iraq have told Human Rights
Watch how prisoners were tortured both as a form of stress
relief and as a way of breaking them for interrogation sessions.
These latest revelations about the torture of Iraqi
detainees come at a time when the Bush administration
thought it could draw a line under the scandal of Abu Ghraib
following last week's imprisonment of Private Lynndie
England for her now infamous role in the abuse of prisoners
and the photographing of torture.
The 82nd Airborne soldiers at FOB Mercury earned the
nickname "The Murderous Maniacs" from local Iraqis and took
the moniker as a badge of honour.
The soldiers referred to their Iraqi captives as PUCs --
persons under control -- and used the expressions "f***ing a
PUC" and "smoking a PUC" to refer respectively to torture
and forced physical exertion.
One sergeant provided graphic descriptions to Human Rights
Watch investigators about acts of abuse carried out both by
himself and others. He now says he regrets his actions. His
regiment arrived at FOB Mercury in August 2003. He said:
"The first interrogation that I observed was the first time
I saw a PUC pushed to the brink of a stroke or a heart
attack. At first I was surprised, like, 'This is what we are
allowed to do?'"
The troops would put sand-bags on prisoners' heads and cuff
them with plastic zip-ties. The sergeant, who spoke on
condition of anonymity, said if he was told that prisoners
had been found with homemade bombs, "we would f*** them up,
put them in stress positions and put them in a tent and
withhold water . . . It was like a game. You know, how far
could you make this guy go before he passes out or just
collapses on you?"
He explained: "To 'f*** a PUC' means to beat him up. We
would give them blows to the head, chest, legs and stomach,
pull them down, kick dirt on them. This happened every day.
To 'smoke' someone is to put them in stress positions until
they get muscle fatigue and pass out. That happened every day.
"Some days we would just get bored so we would have everyone
sit in a corner and then make them get in a pyramid. We did
that for amusement."
Iraqis were "smoked" for up to 12 hours. That would entail
being made to hold five-gallon water cans in both hands with
out-stretched arms, made to do press-ups and star jumps. At
no time, during these sessions, would they get water or food
apart from dry biscuits. Sleep deprivation was also "a
really big thing", the sergeant added.
To prepare a prisoner for interrogation, military
intelligence officers ordered that the Iraqis be deprived of
sleep. The sergeant said he and other soldiers did this by
"banging on their cages, crashing them into the cages,
kicking them, kicking dirt, yelling".
They'd also pour cold water over prisoners and then cover
them in sand and mud. On some occasions, prisoners were
tortured for revenge. "If we were on patrol and caught a guy
that killed our captain or my buddy last week . . . man, it
is human nature," said the sergeant -- but on other
occasions, he confessed, it was for "sport".
Many prisoners were completely innocent and had no part in
the insurgency, he said -- but intelligence officers had
told soldiers to exhaust the prisoners to make them
co-operate. He said he now knew their behaviour was "wrong",
but added "this was the norm". "Trends were accepted.
Leadership failed to provide clear guidance so we just
developed it. They wanted intel [intelligence]. As long as
no PUC came up dead, it happened."
According to Captain Ian Fishback of the 82nd Airborne
Division, army doctrine had been broken by allowing Iraqis
who were captured by them to remain in their custody,
instead of being sent "behind the lines" to trained military
police.
Pictures of abuse at FOB Mercury were destroyed by soldiers
after the scandal of Abu Ghraib broke.
However, Fishback told his company commander about the abuse
and was told "remember the honour of the unit is at stake"
and "don't expect me to go to bat for you on this issue if
you take this up". Fishback then told his battalion
commander who advised him to speak to the Judge Advocate
General's (JAG) office, which deals with issues of military law.
The JAG told Fishback that the Geneva Conventions "are a
grey area". When Fishback described some of the abuses he
had witnessed the JAG said it was "within" Geneva Conventions.
Fishback added: "If I go to JAG and JAG cannot give me clear
guidance about what I should stop and what I should allow to
happen, how is an NCO or a private expected to act
appropriately?"
Fishback, a West Point graduate who has served in both
Afghanistan and Iraq, spent 17 months trying to raise the
matter with his superiors. When he attempted to approach
representatives of US Senators John McCain and John Warner
about the abuse, he was told that he would not be granted a
pass to meet them on his day off.
Fishback says that army investigators were currently more
interested in finding out the identity of the other soldiers
who spoke to Human Rights Watch than dealing with the
systemic abuse of Iraqi prisoners.
Colonel Joseph Curtin, a senior army spokesman at the
Pentagon, said: "We do take the captain seriously and are
following up on this."
Fishback has now been removed from special forces training
because of the army investigation.

 By Neil Mackay, Investigations Editor
Torturare per noia o per divertimento..già!
Più che altro per anni di frustrazioni che una certa immaturità
poi lascia sfogare quando ce n'è l'occasione.
Basta vedere la l'England, piccola quasi nana, bruttarella
probabilmente con una situazione economica non facile,
chissà per quanti anni ha dovuto ingoiare rospi ed alla prima
occasione in cui si è sentita intoccabile ha dato sfogo a tutte
le sue repressioni. Lo stesso discorso vale, molto probabilmente
per i "compari". Certo non è detto che serva lo steso mix
per ottenere gli stessi risultati, e quindi basta meno
perchè dei ragazzini di provincia facciano branco e prendano
di mira una ragazzina marocchina. In questo caso basta la
noia di provincia e la mancanza di capacità dei genitori.
Insomma sono meccansimi che la psicologia dovrebbe
imparare a riconoscere e a "disinnescare" prima che si
manifestino o che vengano messi in atto. C'è poi
sempre la necessità che la gente maturi e che quindi sia capace
di convivere con i propri problemi e non li scarichi sugli
altri. Il guaio è che crescono le conoscenze mentre diminuisce sempre
più la maturità psicologica.
Ciao! 

 Ciao!
Parole d'oro. E che ne diresti della galera senza sconti per 
sfregiatori e torturatori? Fa maturare in fretta...
Am.

 torturatori? Fa maturare in fretta...
Ecco il solito fascista ;-)
Ciao! 

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Non direi.  Certe posizioni sono bipartisan in molti paesi (vedi 
Tolleranza Zero di Blair) e non piu' un comodo monopolio della destra 
(anche fascista, che ha la tortura nella sua storia, e quindi ha poco 
da insegnare).
Am.

la tortura nella sua storia, e quindi ha poco da insegnare).
Invece il comunismo di Stalin o di Fidel o di Pol Pot in fatto di
tortura non ha niente da insegnare a nessuno, vero? :)
*LOL*
-Stefano

 Tolleranza Zero di Blair)
Hai parlato di bipartisan...ora citami uno di sinistra ;-)
Ciao! 

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Amico, una sinistra come quella di Blair con boom economico e sussidi 
alla disoccupazione come quelli inglesi, qui ce la sogniamo proprio.
Riprovaci, la prossima volta avrai piu' successo, furbacchio'...
Am.

 Riprovaci, la prossima volta avrai piu' successo, furbacchio'...
Io ho solo riportato l'opinione di molta gente di sinistra.
Ciao!

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Ah, capisco...
Triste, eh?
Am.

 Triste, eh?
No, Firnze ;-)
Ciao!