Guardsman Probed for Iraq Naked Soldier Photos
2 hours, 25 minutes ago
news.yahoo.com
By Adam Tanner
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The head of a U.S. military police unit at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison is under investigation following charges he secretly photographed naked female American soldiers, officials said on Wednesday.
Capt. Leo Merck, 32, a member of the California National Guard who commanded the 124-strong 870th Military Police Company, is under U.S. Army investigation and has been relieved of duty, they said.
"He was their commander and he led them into Iraq (news - web sites). While he was there this alleged incident happened," California National Guard spokesman Andrew Hughan said.
Merck, a veteran of the first Gulf War (news - web sites) who worked as a financial analyst before going to Iraq, is suspected of photographing the soldiers as they showered. The Guard said complaints were made against Merck in November. His unit arrived in Iraq in May a year ago.
The incident is the latest embarrassment for the U.S. occupying force in Iraq. In recent days media worldwide has aired pictures of grinning soldiers abusing naked male Iraqi prisoners at the same prison that was once used by Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s torturers.
Merck, who is married and resides in Fremont, California, a suburb of San Francisco, is at an undisclosed location under U.S. Army control. "The U.S. Army justice system is working its wheels," Hughan said.
The Contra Costa Times, which broke the story on Wednesday, quoted Spc. Myrna Hernandez, 26, as saying she saw Merck photograph her as she was showering with two other women.
"I saw a guy get on all fours with a digital camera in his hands. His head was going under the wall, and we made eye contact," she told the newspaper. "I was in shock, like what do I do now?"
Merck worked as a senior financial analyst at San Jose, California-based KLA-Tencor Corp, a firm specializing in equipment that finds defects in computer chips. He had an MBA degree from the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks.
"At this time the company thinks it's inappropriate to comment," said KLA-Tencor spokesman Kern Beare. A woman at his family home in North Dakota declined to comment.
Merck first enlisted in the National Guard in 1989 and had received a series of decorations and service medals. |
