New allegations of prisoner abuse by U.S. soldiers

CBC News | February 18, 2005

NEW YORK - U.S. army documents show that photos of American soldiers in Afghanistan posing with hooded and bound prisoners were destroyed after the Iraqi prison scandal.

They also reveal previously unknown allegations of mock executions and beatings in both Afghanistan and Iraq.

The documents were released Friday by the American Civil Liberties Union which requested information about U.S. detainees around the world through the Freedom of Information Act.

In one of the most serious allegations, an Iraqi prisoner said that U.S. soldiers beat him with a baseball bat, broke his nose, dislocated his arms and stuck an unloaded pistol in his mouth and pulled the trigger.

Then he said they forced him to drop an abuse claim in exchange for his freedom.

Army investigators looked into the man's allegations but were unable to verify them. They also dismissed other allegations for lack of evidence.

The ACLU says the documents show that what happened in Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison was not isolated and that the military tried to suppress information about widespread prisoner abuse.

The Abu Ghraib scandal broke after photographs were made public of Iraqi detainees being tortured and humiliated by U.S. soldiers. U.S. courts martial have convicted seven soldiers in connection with the scandal. Two others are still on trial.

ACLU executive director Anthony Romero says it has become "increasingly clear" the military was aware of the allegations of torture.

He says "efforts were taken to erase evidence, to shut down investigations and to humiliate the detainees in an effort to silence them."

The army has not commented.

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