American Civil Liberties Union : Newly Released Investigative Files Provide Further Evidence Soldiers Not Held Accountable for Abuse

American Civil Liberties Union : Newly Released Investigative Files Provide Further Evidence Soldiers Not Held Accountable for Abuse: "January 24, 2005 | FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | Contact: media@aclu.org

Special Forces, Including TF 6-26, Implicated in Numerous Incidents; Abuse Not Confined to Abu Ghraib

NEW YORK- Investigative files released today by the American Civil Liberties Union suggest that the Army failed to aggressively investigate allegations of detainee abuse. Some of the investigations concern serious allegations of torture including electric shocks, forced sodomy and severe physical beatings.

"Government investigations into allegations of torture and abuse have been woefully inadequate," said ACLU Executive Director Anthony D. Romero. "Some of the investigations have basically whitewashed the torture and abuse. The documents that the ACLU has obtained tell a damning story of widespread torture reaching well beyond the walls of Abu Ghraib."
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In one instance involving TF 20, an elderly Iraqi woman reported having been sodomized with a stick, but an investigation into the allegation was closed on the basis of a "sanitized copy of the unit 15-6 investigation," which has not been released. In another case involving Special Forces Group ODA 343, investigators found that there was probable cause to believe that three members of the group had committed the offenses of murder and conspiracy and that a commander was an accessory after the fact. However, no action was taken against the commander or two of the soldiers. The remaining soldier received only a written reprimand. ...
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... U.S. forces barged into Khadim’s house in the middle of the night, dragged him away from his family, killed him, and stuffed his body under some mats behind the refrigerator ..
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"In Abu Ghraib prison, he witnessed a female soldier he believed to be U.S. Army Military Police make a detainee jump up and down and then roll left to right on the ground in what he believed to be 150 degree Fahrenheit temperature . ...
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... In sworn statements, private contractors report having witnessed numerous instances of abuse of male and female detainees, including forced sodomy, electric shocks, cigarette burns and beatings. According to one statement, Al-Azimiyah Palace was the site of at least "about 90 incidents" of abuse.