Errors in Iraq Abuse Case Raise Concerns

[Rose Siding]

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. -- Working in a makeshift lab in a bombed-out building, an Army pathologist dipped her gloved hands into a decomposing corpse -- and changed the lives of nine U.S. Marines. Running her fingers along a fragile, U-shaped bone in the throat of a dead Iraqi prisoner, Col. Kathleen Ingwersen felt a break. She concluded the man had been strangled -- that Nagem Sadoon Hatab was the first victim of homicide in prisons the U.S. military set up in Iraq.
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Tissue samples that Ingwersen's team collected as evidence decomposed when they were left outside in 126-degree heat; Ingwersen said organs turned to "goo." The rib cage and larynx vanished, then resurfaced a year later at military labs on two continents. She conceded she doesn't know what became of the broken hyoid bone that strongly indicated strangulation.

Nine Marines faced courts-martial in Hatab's death but most of the cases were dismissed, in part because of the forensic breakdown. The sole conviction came in September, when a military panel convicted Marine Sgt. Gary Pittman of dereliction of duty and abuse of prisoners -- but acquitted him of assaulting Hatab. He was sentenced to 60 days hard labor and demoted to private.

On Monday, prosecutors have their final chance to salvage the case when court-martial proceedings begin at this base north of San Diego for the last defendant.

http://www.newsday.com/news/politics/wire/sns-ap-us-iraq-prisoner-abuse,0,2374747.story?coll=sns-ap-politics-headlines