Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Don't Blame Me, I Voted For Kerry -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Skywatcher who wrote (28410)	6/4/2004 7:07:22 PM
From: Ann Corrigan	Respond to of 81568

Speaking of your a_s, here's an interesting news article: Man in Abuse Photos Says He Was Watching Friday, 04-Jun-2004 11:30AM Story from AP LOS ANGELES (AP) -- An Army intelligence soldier who appears in photos of Iraqi prisoner abuse disputed claims from some accused soldiers that intelligence soldiers had ordered them to "soften up" the detainees. Spc. Israel Rivera told the Los Angeles Times that his superiors did not know about the abuse and that he and other intelligence soldiers seen in the widely circulated photos were just there out of curiosity after hearing that detainees were about to be punished for allegedly raping a young male prisoner. Several of the seven MPs charged in the case have said they were encouraged or directed by interrogators to mistreat prisoners as a means of softening them up for questioning. In the story published Friday, he told the Times that another military intelligence soldier, Spc. Armin J. Cruz, asked him if he wanted to watch the military police punish detainees suspected in a rape. "Anyone who says this was condoned by MI -- no, absolutely not," Rivera told the newspaper, adding that Cruz knew about the activities in the cellblock because he was friends with Spc. Sabrina Harman, an MP who has since been charged. Rivera said he and Cruz arrived around 9 p.m. Oct. 25 at what was known as the "hard site," where high-value or troublesome detainees were held in isolation cells. Rivera said he watched, but did not participate, in the abuse and left after about 15 minutes. Three detainees were naked in a room, and an MP was shouting obscenities at them through a megaphone, he said. Then the MPs pulled the men out of the room and ordered them to lie on their stomachs and crawl around the floor. The soldiers then handcuffed the detainees together and shouted homosexual slurs at them, he said. They demanded that they admit to raping a young male prisoner. Rivera said "Cruz and the other people were making them act as though they were having sex. The detainees were screaming for Allah, begging them, and begging me to make them stop. Cruz could not be reached for comment by the Times. Rivera said he has not been charged. When he met with an Army Criminal Investigation Division agent in January, he refused to talk unless he was provided with an attorney. "The big reason I'm doing this is there's a big sense of guilt that I have," Rivera said. "I didn't know there was a conspiracy (of abuse at Abu Ghraib), but I did know about that one night." *************************************** Do the Liberals believe Mr. Rivera's statement that the guards did not receive orders from their COs to punish those prisoners suspected of raping a young male prisoner? I doubt it.