[Media-watch] US Army destroyed mock execution pictures - ABC/AP - 18/02/2005

[Julie-ann Davies]

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=511104


Army Destroyed Mock Execution Pictures



Documents: Army Pictures of Mock Afghan Executions Were Destroyed After Iraq 
Prison Scandal



By LARRY NEUMEISTER Associated Press Writer
NEW YORK Feb 18, 2005 - Pictures of U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan posing with 
hooded and bound detainees during mock executions were destroyed after the 
Abu Ghraib prison scandal in Iraq to avoid another public outrage, Army 
documents released Friday by the American Civil Liberties Union show.

The results of an Army probe of the photographs were among hundreds of pages 
of documents released after the ACLU obtained a federal court order in 
Manhattan to let it see documents about U.S. treatment of detainees around 
the world.

The ACLU said the probe shows the rippling effect of the Abu Ghraib scandal 
and that efforts to humiliate the enemy might have been more widespread than 
thought.

"It's increasingly clear that members of the military were aware of the 
allegations of torture and that efforts were taken to erase evidence, to 
shut down investigations and to humiliate the detainees in an effort to 
silence them," ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero said.

The Army did not immediately return a telephone message seeking comment.

The probe of the pictures in Afghanistan began after a CD found there during 
a July office cleanup contained pictures of uniformed soldiers pointing guns 
at bound and hooded detainees.

The investigation showed that the pictures were taken in and around Fire 
Base Tycze in southern Afghanistan, according to the documents, which 
blacked out the identities of those interviewed.

An Army specialist told investigators that similar photographs were 
destroyed after images of torture at Abu Ghraib were leaked to the media.

Another Army specialist admitted he was photographed standing behind a 
prisoner while holding a weapon to his head, according to the released 
records. The specialist told investigators he considered those kinds of 
pictures bad because they would enrage the public.

The probe established probable cause to believe eight soldiers committed 
dereliction of duty when they jokingly pointed weapons at bound detainees 
and took pictures, the Army records show.

Earlier documents released by the ACLU had primarily been from the FBI. The 
ACLU also is seeking documents from the CIA and the Department of Defense.

Other Army documents released Friday outlined the case of an Iraqi detainee 
who said Americans in civilian clothes beat him, dislocated his arms, fired 
an unloaded pistol into his mouth and beat his leg with a bat before making 
him denounce his abuse claims to win release. A criminal file on the alleged 
abuse was closed because the probe could not prove or disprove the claims.

The Army documents also describe a probe into complaints by senior 
psychological operations officers in Afghanistan that they saw assaults by 
special forces on civilians during raids in May 2004 in the villages of 
Gurjay and Sukhagen.

That investigation was suspended because the victims could not be 
interviewed and prospective witnesses were enemy forces, the Army said in 
its documents.