(UK) Army's torture of prisoners 'had official blessing'

[struggle4progress]

Source: The Independent

By Brian Brady, Whitehall Editor
Sunday, 27 July 2008

... A scathing report from the Joint Human Rights Committee (JHRC) warns that the use of "coercive interrogation techniques" may have been officially sanctioned, despite assurances that troops knew they were outlawed.

The former armed forces minister Adam Ingram and Lieutenant-General Robin Brims, former Commander Field Army, told an earlier committee inquiry that British forces knew they could not use five "conditioning" techniques – wall standing, hooding, subjection to noise, and deprivation of sleep, food and drink – during interrogation.

But the committee has now ruled that their evidence conflicts with the findings of a subsequent court-martial hearing, and an internal Ministry of Defence review into the death of an Iraqi hotel worker, Baha Mousa, at the hands of British soldiers in September 2003.

The JHRC report also found that the use of hooding and stress positioning by 1 Queen's Lancashire Regiment in 2003 was based on legal advice received from brigade headquarters. It claims that, at least until the Baha Mousa case came to light, the prohibition on the use of conditioning techniques "was not as clearly articulated to troops in Iraq as it might, and indeed should, have been" ...

Read more: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/armys-torture-of-prisoners-had-official-blessing-878271.html

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MPs cast doubt on Iraq torture denials
Mark Townsend
The Observer
Sunday July 27 2008

... Evidence given to MPs by the former armed forces minister, Adam Ingram, and Lieutenant General Robin Brims, former commander of UK forces in Iraq, failed to address concerns over whether the Ministry of Defence gave soldiers permission to abuse detainees in Iraq.

The MoD is also accused in today's report by the joint select committee on human rights of blocking their inquiries by refusing to explain why such senior figures appeared unaware that the use of torture techniques by British soldiers may have been officially sanctioned.

Both Ingram and Brims, who won the Distinguished Service Order for his leadership in Iraq, assured the committee that interrogation techniques such as hooding and sleep deprivation, banned under the Geneva convention, would never be used and that troops received training to that effect.

Yet MPs said their claims contradicted evidence that British soldiers in Iraq routinely used such methods based on legal advice received from Brigade headquarters. The report adds that even at the start of 2008 an official army investigation had found that the prohibition on their use was still not 'clearly being articulated' to ordinary soldiers ...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/jul/27/iraq.military?gusrc=rss&feed=networkfront

[Judi Lynn]

1. My God. And they still had time to beat a young man to death, as well.

Musa, a hotel receptionist, was beaten to death in Basra in September 2003. Ninety-three injuries were found on the 26-year-old's body.

What really baffles me is how the culture can encourage these people to act like wild beasts while STILL maintaining a lofty view of themselves as being moral creatures, truly a cut above the unwashed heathens of the world.

Jesuz H. Christ.

At what point does individual conscience, and a sense of responsibility kick in? Are we completely insane to hope it's even possible?

[sakabatou]

2. How long till we impeach?