Text 13822, 117 rader
Skriven 2005-06-30 10:55:00 av BOB SAKOWSKI (1:123/140)
     Kommentar till en text av EARL CROASMUN
Ärende: Re: Durbin
==================
What would you call this Earl?

Posted on Sun, Jun. 19, 2005

Soldier beaten in prison drill sues Pentagon

By David Zucchino

LOS ANGELES TIMES

A U.S. military policeman who was beaten by fellow MPs during a botched
training drill at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, prison for detainees has
sued the Pentagon for $15 million, alleging that the incident violated
his constitutional rights.

Spc. Sean Baker, 38, was assaulted in January 2003 after he volunteered
to wear an orange jumpsuit and portray an uncooperative detainee.

Baker said the MPs, who were told that he was an unruly detainee who had
assaulted an American sergeant, inflicted a beating that resulted in a
traumatic brain injury.

Baker, a Persian Gulf War veteran who re-enlisted after the Sept. 11,
2001, terrorist attacks, was medically retired in April 2004.

He said the assault left him with seizures, blackouts, headaches,
insomnia and psychological problems.

In the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Lexington, Ky., Baker
demanded reinstatement in the Army in a position that would accommodate
his medical disability. He said the Army put him on medical retirement
against his wishes.

"Somebody has to step up to serve, and I still want to serve," Baker
said Friday from his home in Georgetown, Ky. "There's some task
somewhere I can do in the Army."

A Pentagon spokeswoman declined to comment, saying she had not seen the
lawsuit and could not discuss pending litigation.

The Pentagon first said that Baker's hospitalization following the
training incident was not related to the beating.

Later, officials conceded that he was treated for injuries suffered when
a five-man MP "internal reaction force" choked him, slammed his head
several times against a concrete floor and sprayed him with pepper gas.

The drill took place in a prison isolation wing reserved for disruptive
al-Qaida and Taliban detainees who had attacked MPs or showered them
with urine and feces.

Baker said he put on the jumpsuit and squeezed under a prison bunk after
being told by a lieutenant that he would be portraying an unruly
detainee.

He said he was assured that MPs conducting the "extraction drill" knew
it was a training exercise and that Baker was an American soldier.

As he was being choked and beaten, Baker said, he screamed a code word,
"red," and shouted: "I'm a U.S. soldier! I'm a U.S. soldier!" The
beating continued, he said, until the jumpsuit was yanked down during
the struggle, revealing his military uniform.

The lawsuit says of the extraction team: "Armed with the highly
inflammatory, false, incendiary and misleading information that had been
loaded into their psyches by their platoon leader, these perceptions and
fears ... became their operative reality, and they acted upon these
fears, all to the detriment of Sean Baker."

No one has been disciplined or punished for the assault, said Baker's
lawyer, T. Bruce Simpson, Jr.

Last June, a military spokesman said an internal investigation in
February 2003 had concluded that no one was liable for Baker's injuries.
He said training procedures at Guantanamo had been reviewed following
the incident.

"While it is unfortunate that Spc. Baker was injured, the standards of
professionalism we expect of our soldiers mandate that our training be
as realistic as possible," the spokesman said.

Simpson said the Army's Criminal Investigation Division told him last
month that it had completed an investigation and had referred it to the
Army's legal section for review.

A CID spokesman did not respond to a request for comment Friday.

Simpson said that while Baker receives $2,350 a month in military
disability benefits, plus $1,000 a month in Social Security, he would
give it up in return for a military job.

"Even in light of all that happened to him," Simpson said, "he still
wants to serve his country."

[end]

BTW Earl, I read that a congressman said that being forced into the
fetal position (as is done in GITMO) is not torture as the fetal
position is "comfortable" do you agree?  If so would you be willing to
perform an exerciset for us and have someone chain you to a bare floor
in the fetal position for as long as 24 hours and report back to us as
to what you considered the exercise to be?

Tell me about torture Earl.  Is it your belief that the NAZIs or
commies were worst, hell even the English were worst, so what we are
doing is OK?

Is your concern about torture limited to the degree of torture?

America, we aren't as bad as NAZIs or commies is some standard.  Why
shouldn't it be NO torture or abuse, Earl?  Make a case for torture and
abuse, if you would please.


... He does the work of 3 Men...Moe, Larry & Curly
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