Abusing "psychiatry"
Many new stories have come out recently documenting multiple instances of serious mistreatment of detainees by US military personnel both in months considerably before the incidents that happened at Abu Ghraib in November 2003, and in months considerably after the Abu Ghraib abuses become public, in April this year.
Now, from Salon, comes an intriguing story about a Military Intel sergeant, Greg Ford, who,
- (1) directly witnessed serious acts of detainee abuse being carried out by members of his own unit, in June 2003; then
(2) first tried to get his immediate team leader to stop the abuse; then when that didn't work Ford decided to report the behavior to his commanding officer, Capt. Victor Artiga;
at which point
(3) Artiga initiated an emergency psychiatric intervention against Ford and had him shipped out of Iraq strapped to a gurney.
The Salon story, written by a fellow counter-intel agent, David DeBatto, indicates that Ford was not the only potential abuse-whistleblower to be given this "treatment".
Ford got flown out of Iraq to Kuwait. He was kept under guard there, and then flown to the big US military hospital in Landstuhl, Germany. There, he was examined by a Col. C. Tsai who-- like all the other mental-health professionals along the way who examined him found him basically to be of sound mind. (One of the early shrinks who examined, however, got browbeaten by Capt. Artiga into going along with the medevac order.)
DeBatto writes that Landstuhl's Col. Tsai,
- told a film crew for Spiegel Television that he was "not surprised" at Ford's diagnosis. Tsai told Spiegel that he had treated "three or four" other U.S. soldiers from Iraq that were also sent to Landstuhl for psychological evaluations or "combat stress counseling" after they reported incidents of detainee abuse or other wrongdoing by American soldiers.
Here is DeBatto's account of the abuse that Ford witnessed being committed, in Samarra in June 2003:
- He described multiple incidents of what he called "war crimes" and "torture" of Iraqi detainees ranging in age from about 15 to 35. According to Ford, his teammates, three counterintelligence agents like himself -- one of them a woman -- systematically and repeatedly abused several Iraqi male detainees over a two-to three-week time period. Ford describes incidents of asphyxiation, mock executions, arms being pulled out of sockets, and lit cigarettes forced into detainee's ears while they were blindfolded and bound. These atrocities took place in an Iraqi police station, Ford said. His attempts to stop the abuse were met with either indifference or threats by his team leader, who was himself one of the abusers, according to Ford.
Ford clenched his fists tightly and shook his head slowly from side to side. "I guess one of the things that pisses me off most is the arrogance," he said. "The condescending attitude that my team had. Some of the medics, too. Saying things like 'So what, he's just another haji,' like they were scum or some kind of animal, really just pisses me off."
In August 2004, DeBatto writes, Ford finally got to file a report on his allegations of war crimes and abduction-- which he did with the Sacramento, California office of the FBI:
- That office forwarded the report to the Bureau's headquarters in Washington, which in turn passed it along to the Department of Defense. Ford says he met with investigators from the DoD's Office of the Inspector General in the last week of September. "It was obvious from their line of questioning that their mission was to cover up for DoD and the Army," Ford said. Special Agent Karen Ernst of the FBI's Sacramento office told me that the Bureau "may" have jurisdiction in the matter and is prepared to step in if the DoD "drops the ball on this." Although she would not offer an opinion of Ford's case, she did say that they only file reports if they believe the allegations have "some merit."
The Department of the Army Office of the Inspector General has also launched an investigation into Ford's allegations. Although by policy they can neither confirm nor deny the existence of a current investigation, Ford said that investigators have flown out to California to interview him and have conducted several follow-up interviews as well as requested documents and e-mail records from him. Requests through the Freedom of Information Act to the Army or the DoD for any reports relating to Ford and his allegations have resulted in a flurry of letters stating essentially that the case is "complex" and that it will take additional time to compile all of the requested documents.
Neither the California Office of the Adjutant General in Sacramento nor the state's Judge Advocate General (JAG) office would officially comment, but staff at both places told me off the record that they hoped Ford would be vindicated and the officers in question punished for "abuse of authority."
According to an Army CID special agent who is familiar with Ford's case, "This is a classic case of a whitewash. A coverup. The agent in Iraq never even looked at the 15-6 investigation the 223rd supposedly did. No one was ever interviewed until Abu Ghraib hit the fan." When I asked him whether the CID was complicit in an Army coverup of the case, he said, "Absolutely ... Do you have any idea how ugly this case could get if they ever really looked into it? It would open up a whole can of worms that they just don't want to touch." The agent, who refused to give his name for fear of retaliation, added, "Based on everything I know about this case, I believe Ford. I have seen too many similar cases not to. It fits the pattern. Everyone involved in this blatant coverup should be criminally prosecuted. For this to have dragged on for over a year without being investigated is ridiculous." In September, the CID conducted two telephone interviews with Marciello, but no one else in the 223rd has yet been interviewed, including myself.
His nightmarish experience with the Army in Iraq has changed him forever, Ford told me as we sat on a bench near the fountain in front of California National Guard headquarters in Sacramento. He said that he intended to devote the next few years, and maybe even the rest of his life, to working with individuals and organizations in the fight for human rights and dignity. He specifically mentioned Amnesty International and the World Organization for Human Rights.
I fear for my country. This one is the last straw for me.
I fear for the "peace loving religion". One more in an endless series of straws for Islam:
----
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4084951.stm
A Pakistani minister has revealed hundreds of cases of alleged child sex abuse at Islamic schools, or madrassas.
There were 500 complaints this year of abuse allegedly committed by clerics, Aamer Liaquat Hussain, a minister in the religious affairs department, said.
That compares with 2,000 last year, but as yet there have been no successful prosecutions, Mr Hussain told the BBC.
The minister's revelations have sparked death threats and infuriated some religious political leaders.
Mr Hussain said he had received death threats from clerics, but that he had done his job and his conscience was clear.
'So what, he's just another haji,'
There it is. That encapsulates exactly why the US is almost uniquely unqualified to spread freedom and democracy in an Arab country.
I don't know if anyone saw this excellent Robert Massey article in the New York Review of Books. He says:
The gingerly approach to civilian casualties in the US press is part of a much larger hole in the coverage, one concerning the day-to-day nature of the US occupation. Most of the soldiers in Iraq are young men who can't speak Arabic and who have rarely traveled outside the United States, and they have suddenly been set down in a hostile environment in which they face constant attack. They are equipped with powerful weapons and have authority over a dark-skinned people with alien customs. The result is constant friction, often leading to chronic abuses that, while not as glaring as those associated with Abu Ghraib, are no less corrosive in their effect on local sentiment.
The premise behind our "reform by force" project is that there is something fundamentally wrong with the Iraqis; that they can only become acceptable by becoming more like us; and that we have the right to keep shooting them until they do. This approach will simply never work, not in Iraq nor anywhere else in the Middle East.
Bilpe, perhaps you should start your own blog.
E.B.: So you're saying (gasp!) that the Muslim clerical establishment in Pakistan is just like the clerical establishments of so many Christian denominations in the west, after all??
And that's NEWS?
(The inherent problem in even HAVING a clerical establishment is one of the main reasons I'm a Quaker, since we don't.)
More seriously, why do you always have to act so defensively when you're writing Comments here, rather than dealing with the subject at hand?
Just asking...
As someone who has met people who were incarcerated in the Soviet psychiatric gulags, I think this is one of the scariest Iraq war stories thus far. I hope this gets wide publicity.
Yes Helena, I am pointing out that the Muslim establishment also includes moral and ethical corruption. The discovery in Pakistan was indeed NEWS to me, and obviously it was judged as news by the BBC editorial staff.
There are some aggravating components in the Muslim case, that is, the explosive emotional and physical reactions that result from any criticism of their religious institutions. The existence of capitally punished blasphemy laws in Pakistan, along with principle that Islamic law supercedes in case of conflict according to the Islamic Republic of Pakistan constitution, are a despicable angle in the eyes of any progressive mind.
I appreciate your candid question about my defensiveness, to which I confess. The short answer is that in this site I encounter a mix of fresh and useful information, with an equal dose of mud throwing and poison.
I am personal grateful to the United States, and find that Americans tend to be pretty open, friendly, and welcoming. Gratuitous character assasination of the US abounds in this venue, and some of my postings are meant to reflect my personal perspective that, in comparison, you can do much worse elsewhere. I'd be happy to be more specific.
E. Bilpe
"Gratuitous character assasination of the US abounds in this venue"
You mean like the way glorious National Socialist government of Germany was maligned by Semitic subhumans and their friends in 1930's?
"...mud throwing and poison...
Gratuitous character assasination..."
How amusing, Bilpe, that you express such concern about mud throwing and poison, and "gratuitous character assassination" when your posts only very rarely contain anything but gratuitous and deeply ignorant bigotry against an entire religion and its adherents - i.e. gratuitous mud throwing, poison and "character assassination". Even more amusing since your ignorance-based, bigotted mud and poison slinging posts only very rarely have anything whatsoever to do with the topic under discussion and are therefore truly gratuitous. In fact, more than being merely gratuitous they are random and clearly not intended to further the discussion.
Shirin,
I care to defend the people I am grateful to, and reflect back some of the hostility people like yourself constantly project. I strive to do that based on facts as I see them. I understand that the cards you were dealt are not your fault, and that in defending the indefensible and living in a society you internally hate, your frustration drives you to name calling against me and Americans. Try to avoid it if you can.
E. Bilpe
Bilpe, you defend no one. You pop up on these comment boards and spew your irrelevant and ignorance-based bigotry toward Islam and Muslims in complete disregard of the topic under discussion, then you crawl back under your rock for a while.
You are a johnny one note, Bilpe, a one trick pony. And the trick you know is not very interesting, and you aren't very good at it either.
The sad thing about the coverup article is that the person in question is in fact crazy and delussional.
For example: if you look closely at the photograph of Mr. Ford, you will see that there is an insignia on top of his left breast pocket. It is the insignia of the Navy Seals, or the budweiser badge as it is commonly refered to.
It might not be important to everybody, but wearing insignias and badges you have not earned is a crime. Pretending to be a person you are not shows inmaturity and shame on who you are.
Mr. Ford is wearing the uniform while on active duty displaying a badge he did not earn, insulting the men who have rightfully earned and died while serving their country in some of the most daring and dangerous missions anybody could ask for. It degrades the lost lives and the sacrifice made by every single Seal in the community.
Also, Mr. Ford was known as Doctor Ford. He even used to sign with the M.D. Suffix on his name. Never mind that Mr. Ford is not a doctor.
So, taking into consideration that this person makes allegations of torture, while pretending to be a Navy Seal and a Doctor, makes you kind of wonder the veracity of his statements.
Also, it is nice to note that Mr. DeBatto, describes events in his article that never actually happened.
For example. In trying to show what a poor leader Col. Pappas is, he mentions the fact that 3 soldiers died while in transit to his Change Of Command Ceremony. That never took place.
In reality, the soldiers died while travelling to LTC Griffin's Change Of Command Ceremony, one of COL. Pappas' subordinate commanders.
Mr. DeBatto mentioned the fact that the 223rd was one of the first divisions to enter Iraq after the "Shock and Awe" aerial bombardment.
Well. The fact that the 223rd was one of the first "UNITS" to enter the war is almost true. Elements of the 223rd MI Bn entered Iraq early in the war. But those elements were attached and/or assigned to the 519th MI Bn (ABN TE). The HQ Section was safely in Kuwait awaiting movement orders (including DeBatto and Ford).
DeBatto calls the 223rd a "division". Anybody who knows military doctrine can tell you that a Division is a military unit composed of many brigades and battalions. For an "intelligence expert" to call a battalion "a division" makes you kind of wonder if he is truly that familiar with simple military structure. Is the trying to make it sound like the 223rd is a huge unit? Or is he just showing his ignorance in simple military doctrine and terminology.
Ford mentions the fact that "no medevac order" was written. That is not cover up material. That is just a sign of the fact that the headquarters section of the 223rd did not know how to operate in that environment. The 223rd MI Bn (L) (prior to the OIF I deployment) had never been to war. Many rules and regulations were broken or omitted not due to "conspiracy", but just plain ignorance and lack of knowledge. No person be it civilian or military is authorized into a military aircraft without being entered into the aircraft' Manifest. That is a matter of procedure. Mr. Ford's departure from the theater is a known fact. Everybody in the unit knew about it, and most were glad about it.
To finish this of, I would like to say that I personally know two of the soldiers Mr. Ford is accusing of "torture". He could have not picked two nicer people to make wild accusations against. These two are professionals, who have ethics and respect for human life and dignity. It pains me to hear that Mr. Ford is tarnishing their names and their military careers. To accuse somebody of war crimes is a tall order and it must be done with a clear head and appropiate evidence.
And even though a lot of people did not enjoy working for LTC Ryan or CPT Artiga, these two officers are hardly the types to try to cover up anything of this magnitude. LTC Ryan was media-savy and would have jumped at the chance to get his name in the news.
Mr. Ford might be trying to clear his name, but we in the 223rd know him for who he is: a wannabe navy seal who falsely claimed to be a doctor, and is now claiming that his team-mates are torturers. He shames the military intelligence community, he shames his THT team who did outstanding work in the field, but worse of all, he shames himself.
Out
And also, there have been plenty of CID interviews at the 223rd. Just because they are not calling him on a daily basis to let him know the status of his investigation, does not mean that it is not happening.
Look what I found at a Fake Navy Seal Busting site:
http://sec-global.com/services/ctp/vsg/profiles/fordfg/fordfg002-ftlewis.jpg
That looks like the delusional Mr. Ford, wearing the Navy Seal Trident ilegally.
I wonder if somebody with such an imagination and disregard for the law, could make up stories about prisoner/detainee abuse.... uhm....
By the way, that link is from the famous www.veriSEAL.org an organization dedicated to exposing phonies who claim to be special warfare wannabes.
Just so you know.
John
John, thanks for the input. I'll be interested to see what else comes out about this story.
I know its been a while, but I found this cool article, written by the LA Times on 5 JUN 2004.
It actually quotes LTC Ryan and CPT Artiga.
Take care,
John
Upsy. Wrong link, LOL.
Here you go.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/iraq/la-me-tempest5jun05,1,1094982.story
He played the king as if afraid someone else would play the ace.
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