Who's maltreating Who?
Posted: Sat Aug 07, 2004 4:10 pm
Hereâ??s an item from Iraq that shows the absurdity the ongoing media feeding frenzy regarding prisoner abuse has caused, and which is probably not be known outside Denmark.
The Danes have had a small military force emplaced in Iraq since day 1 of the occupation/rebuilding; call it what you wish. They are stationed in the south near Basra along with the British, and are responsible for keeping order in a sector down there. As such they regularly question and in some cases detain members of the indigenous population who are suspected of illegal activities. Recently a captain of intelligence was sent home accused by one of the highly trained (4 days training) civilian interpreters of mistreating detainees. This highly trained interpreter alleges that the detainees were made to stand with their hands in the air while being searched, and were not provided with chairs while being questioned also they were not given water to drink whenever they asked for it. The long and the short of the story is that now four ranking members of the battalion has been sent home, in spite of the fact that the highly trained interpreter has recanted part of his story and stated that the maltreatment wasnâ??t serious enough to warrant such action, at the same time the Danish Chief Medical Officer in charge of the sector has gone on the record as saying that no prisoners were maltreated.
Here comes the real absurd part.
Tonight there was an TV-interview with an Iraqi sheik who claims that he was questioned and maltreated by this female intelligence captain. He proclaimed that he was totally innocent of all charges. At the same time the interview was proceeding, the camera crew panned around the room and we were shown a crew assembling a heavy mortar, and outside there were two more recent detainees waiting to come in and proclaim their innocence to this representative of the media. One carrying an RPG launcher the other an AK47 and wearing ammo belts.
All three had been release after questioning, for lack of evidence.
The Danes have had a small military force emplaced in Iraq since day 1 of the occupation/rebuilding; call it what you wish. They are stationed in the south near Basra along with the British, and are responsible for keeping order in a sector down there. As such they regularly question and in some cases detain members of the indigenous population who are suspected of illegal activities. Recently a captain of intelligence was sent home accused by one of the highly trained (4 days training) civilian interpreters of mistreating detainees. This highly trained interpreter alleges that the detainees were made to stand with their hands in the air while being searched, and were not provided with chairs while being questioned also they were not given water to drink whenever they asked for it. The long and the short of the story is that now four ranking members of the battalion has been sent home, in spite of the fact that the highly trained interpreter has recanted part of his story and stated that the maltreatment wasnâ??t serious enough to warrant such action, at the same time the Danish Chief Medical Officer in charge of the sector has gone on the record as saying that no prisoners were maltreated.
Here comes the real absurd part.
Tonight there was an TV-interview with an Iraqi sheik who claims that he was questioned and maltreated by this female intelligence captain. He proclaimed that he was totally innocent of all charges. At the same time the interview was proceeding, the camera crew panned around the room and we were shown a crew assembling a heavy mortar, and outside there were two more recent detainees waiting to come in and proclaim their innocence to this representative of the media. One carrying an RPG launcher the other an AK47 and wearing ammo belts.
All three had been release after questioning, for lack of evidence.
