US soldier tortured when he was ordered to 'play detainee' at Gitmo

[bobbieinok]

This was a link at salon.tabletalk.

In an exclusive interview with LEX 18's Leigh Searcy, a central Kentucky soldier says he was told to pose as the enemy for a training exercise at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba in January 2003 - and it nearly cost him his life.

....

In January 2003, Baker was a member of the 438th Military Police company in Operation Enduring Freedom at Guantanamo Bay, where he says he was "given a direct order by an officer in the U.S. Army" to play the role of a detainee for a training exercise.

....

"They grabbed my arms, my legs, twisted me up and unfortunately one of the individuals got up on my back from behind and put pressure down on me while I was face down," said Baker. "Then he - the same individual - reached around and began to choke me and press my head down against the steel floor. After several seconds, 20 to 30 seconds, it seemed like an eternity because I couldn't breath. When I couldn't breath, I began to panic and I gave the code word I was supposed to give to stop the exercise, which was 'red.'"

But, Baker says, the beating didn't stop. "That individual slammed my head against the floor and continued to choke me," he said. "Somehow I got enough air, I muttered out, 'I'm a U.S. soldier, I'm a U.S. soldier.'"

Baker says it wasn't until one of the soldiers noticed what Baker was wearing did the exercise stop. "He saw that I had BDU's and boots on."

Nearly 15 months after that day, and countless medical treatments at Walter Reed Hospital, Baker is now medically retired from the military, but still suffers.

more....




http://www.lex18.com/Global/story.asp?S=1891343&nav=EQlpNN9R

[NMDemDist2]

1. OMG! crap kick eom

[yardwork]

2. I wonder if this is what really happened to Berg.

[natrat]

4. now i get it

they beat him up too bad
then a week or 2 later they found there wmds----they are not even good at this anymore

[Eric J in MN]

3. he is one of many people to suffer because of the lie of John Yoo

He is one of many people to suffer because of the lie of John Yoo that some military prisoners aren't covered by the Geneva Convention.

PHOTO OF JOHN YOO:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/040522/480/fx305222224

John Yoo, professor of law at the University of California at Berkeley. Students at the University of California, Berkeley's Boalt School of Law say a legal memo that Yoo co-wrote while working for the U.S. Department of Justice (news - web sites) 'contributed directly to the reprehensible violation of human rights in Iraq (news - web sites) and elsewhere,' according to a petition being circulated among students and faculty. (AP Photo/University of California, Berkeley)

[Streetdoc270]

5. This story needs to get Mainstreamed

and fast!

[Carmerian]

6. This story needs to be looked into

...by other news outlets and verified. This could be quite damaging to President Crook. I guess we'll know how much, when they start attacking his credibility.

[Hubert Flottz]

7. Sounds like General Miller was still at Gitmo training the troops!

I think Maj. Gen. Miller played a big part in this whole thing and he was working for Lt. Gen. Jerry Boykin the Delta Force guy! I think that task Force 121 and their contractors were behind everything that was going on with all detainees in every theater of operations! I think that about the time Miller arrived in Iraq the shit started in the prisons there! I also think that about the time Miller went to Iraq Boykin did too! I think Rummy, Ashcroft and Bush all had to know what was happening all along!

[Carmerian]

8. Bump for the daytime folks

This looks to be an important story. It seems to show torture by the US far earlier than President Crook would have everyone believe, and how at ease the jailers were even back then with doling out physical abuse. It's also just run-of-the-mill beating, which contradicts the "perverted sex" spin of the Right. Many of the details given in the story look like they could be corroborated by others in the press if they tried (he says he spent time in the hospital because of this, for instance).

[cmayer]

9. This story should get big play.

My e-mail server is down. How about sending this story to anyone in your national media contact book that might be interested.

I was going to send it to Howard Kurz with subject "Local TV station scoops national media."

Keith Olberman might pick it up too. If anyone sees reports from other news outlets why don't you report the sighting to this thread.

Sometimes things like this take a few days to make their way all the way out.

[muriel_volestrangler]

10. There's an AP story on this that's got into about 20 regional papers

eg http://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradenton/8750001.htm

This looks huge to me. A training exercise that's permanently injured a soldier - and if he hadn't been wearing some US kit, who knows where it would have stopped? Bad apples my arse - this proves it's systematic torture.

[mzmolly]

11. WTF?!

OMG. Unbelievable!