Whitewashing torture?
By David DeBatto
Dec. 8, 2004
Salon.com
A veteran sergeant who told his
commanding officers that he witnessed his colleagues torturing Iraqi
detainees was strapped to a gurney and flown out of Iraq -- even though
there was nothing wrong with him.
On June 15, 2002, Sgt. Frank "Greg" Ford, a
counterintelligence agent in the California National Guard's 223rd
Military Intelligence (M.I.) Battalion stationed in Samarra, Iraq, told
his commanding officer, Capt. Victor Artiga, that he had witnessed five
incidents of torture and abuse of Iraqi detainees at his base, and
requested a formal investigation. Thirty-six hours later, Ford, a
49-year-old with over 30 years of military service in the Coast Guard,
Army and Navy, was ordered by U.S. Army medical personnel to lie down on
a gurney, was then strapped down, loaded onto a military plane and
medevac'd to a military medical center outside the country.
Although no "medevac" order appears to have been written, in violation
of Army policy, Ford was clearly shipped out because of a diagnosis that
he was suffering from combat stress. After Ford raised the torture
allegations, Artiga immediately said Ford was "delusional" and ordered a
psychiatric examination, according to Ford. But that examination,
carried out by an Army psychiatrist, diagnosed him as "completely
normal."
A witness, Sgt. 1st Class Michael Marciello, claims that Artiga became
enraged when he read the initial medical report finding nothing wrong
with Ford and intimidated the psychiatrist into changing it. According
to Marciello, Artiga angrily told the psychiatrist that it was a "C.I.
[counterintelligence] or M.I. matter" and insisted that she had to
change her report and get Ford out of Iraq.
Documents show that all subsequent examinations of Ford by Army
mental-health professionals, over many months, confirmed his initial
diagnosis as normal.
An officer at the California Office of the Adjutant General in
Sacramento, Calif., Sgt. Maj. Patrick Hammond, has known Ford for over
15 years during their service in the California National Guard. Hammond
said, "I have never had any reason to question his honesty and I don't
do so now." This reporter served in the military with Ford in Iraq for
seven months and can also attest that he is sane and level-headed.
Ford, who has since left the military, claims that his superiors shipped
him out of the country to prevent him from exposing the abusive
behavior. "They were determined to protect their own asses no matter who
they had to take down," he says.
Col. C. Tsai, a military doctor who examined Ford in Germany and found
nothing wrong with him, told a film crew for Spiegel Television that he
was "not surprised" at Ford's diagnosis. Tsai told Spiegel that he had
treated "three or four" other U.S. soldiers from Iraq that were also
sent to Landstuhl for psychological evaluations or "combat stress
counseling" after they reported incidents of detainee abuse or other
wrongdoing by American soldiers.
Artiga and other higher-ups in the 223rd M.I. Battalion deny Ford's
charges. But in the aftermath of the Abu Ghraib scandal, federal
agencies including the Department of Defense, the Army's Criminal
Investigation Command (CID), and the FBI are finally looking into them.
The Department of the Army's Office of the Inspector General has
launched an investigation, according to Ford and his attorney, Kevin
Healy, who have been contacted by investigators. If Ford's allegations
are proven, the Army would be faced with evidence that its prisoner
abuse problem is even more widespread than previously acknowledged --
and that some of its own officers not only turned a blind eye to abuses
but actively participated in covering them up.
The 223rd M.I. Battalion was one of the first divisions to enter Iraq
after the U.S. "Shock and Awe" aerial bombardment ended, in mid-April
2003. (I also served in that unit in-country from April through October
2003. I met Ford in February 2003, at Fort Bragg, N.C., and continued to
stay in contact with him until he was shipped out of the country. I have
also since left the military.) The battalion's mission was to collect
counterintelligence. Its agents, highly trained soldiers responsible for
force protection and for investigating national security crimes
committed against the Army, were divided into small units called
Tactical Human Intelligence Teams, or THTs. Every day, these teams went
out from their forward operating bases in Iraq and interacted with the
local people in an effort to gather critical intelligence on such
matters as the location of conventional and unconventional weapons and
the whereabouts of the fugitives depicted on the Pentagon's
55-most-wanted playing cards. It was arguably one of the most sensitive
and important jobs in the entire Iraqi theater of operations. As the
team sergeant of his THT, Ford was second in command of his four-person
team and responsible for training, discipline, logistics and supervision
of day-to-day operations. He was also the team's designated combat life
saver, or medic.
Ford spent his first weeks in Iraq at Balad Air Base, also known as Camp
Anaconda, about 50 kilometers north of Baghdad along the Tigris. In
early May, he was assigned to a THT that was headed for Samarra, another
20 kilometers to the northeast. An ancient trading center that dates to
the Mesopotamian era, Samarra was known as a hotbed of Sunni Arab
loyalists, ex-Baath Party officials, and Islamist extremists. The
two-story police station the Army occupied was located in the center of
town, closely surrounded by taller buildings, giving anyone who cared to
fire on the Americans an excellent field in which to do so. And fire
they did. Almost every night, Ford and his teammates would be forced to
dive from their bunks for cover as mortar rounds rocked the compound.
The concussions shook the foundation and broke whatever glass windows
remained. Fortunately, the Iraqi mortar crews proved wildly inaccurate,
and no Americans were killed, but several were wounded and the attacks
never let up. There was immense pressure on the THT to find out who was
behind the attacks and to supply the information to the "gunslingers" of
the 4th Infantry Division. It was in that environment that Ford says he
saw the incidents that led to the end of his long military career.
...
etc.
By David DeBatto
Dec. 8, 2004
Salon.com
A veteran sergeant who told his
commanding officers that he witnessed his colleagues torturing Iraqi
detainees was strapped to a gurney and flown out of Iraq -- even though
there was nothing wrong with him.
On June 15, 2002, Sgt. Frank "Greg" Ford, a
counterintelligence agent in the California National Guard's 223rd
Military Intelligence (M.I.) Battalion stationed in Samarra, Iraq, told
his commanding officer, Capt. Victor Artiga, that he had witnessed five
incidents of torture and abuse of Iraqi detainees at his base, and
requested a formal investigation. Thirty-six hours later, Ford, a
49-year-old with over 30 years of military service in the Coast Guard,
Army and Navy, was ordered by U.S. Army medical personnel to lie down on
a gurney, was then strapped down, loaded onto a military plane and
medevac'd to a military medical center outside the country.
Although no "medevac" order appears to have been written, in violation
of Army policy, Ford was clearly shipped out because of a diagnosis that
he was suffering from combat stress. After Ford raised the torture
allegations, Artiga immediately said Ford was "delusional" and ordered a
psychiatric examination, according to Ford. But that examination,
carried out by an Army psychiatrist, diagnosed him as "completely
normal."
A witness, Sgt. 1st Class Michael Marciello, claims that Artiga became
enraged when he read the initial medical report finding nothing wrong
with Ford and intimidated the psychiatrist into changing it. According
to Marciello, Artiga angrily told the psychiatrist that it was a "C.I.
[counterintelligence] or M.I. matter" and insisted that she had to
change her report and get Ford out of Iraq.
Documents show that all subsequent examinations of Ford by Army
mental-health professionals, over many months, confirmed his initial
diagnosis as normal.
An officer at the California Office of the Adjutant General in
Sacramento, Calif., Sgt. Maj. Patrick Hammond, has known Ford for over
15 years during their service in the California National Guard. Hammond
said, "I have never had any reason to question his honesty and I don't
do so now." This reporter served in the military with Ford in Iraq for
seven months and can also attest that he is sane and level-headed.
Ford, who has since left the military, claims that his superiors shipped
him out of the country to prevent him from exposing the abusive
behavior. "They were determined to protect their own asses no matter who
they had to take down," he says.
Col. C. Tsai, a military doctor who examined Ford in Germany and found
nothing wrong with him, told a film crew for Spiegel Television that he
was "not surprised" at Ford's diagnosis. Tsai told Spiegel that he had
treated "three or four" other U.S. soldiers from Iraq that were also
sent to Landstuhl for psychological evaluations or "combat stress
counseling" after they reported incidents of detainee abuse or other
wrongdoing by American soldiers.
Artiga and other higher-ups in the 223rd M.I. Battalion deny Ford's
charges. But in the aftermath of the Abu Ghraib scandal, federal
agencies including the Department of Defense, the Army's Criminal
Investigation Command (CID), and the FBI are finally looking into them.
The Department of the Army's Office of the Inspector General has
launched an investigation, according to Ford and his attorney, Kevin
Healy, who have been contacted by investigators. If Ford's allegations
are proven, the Army would be faced with evidence that its prisoner
abuse problem is even more widespread than previously acknowledged --
and that some of its own officers not only turned a blind eye to abuses
but actively participated in covering them up.
The 223rd M.I. Battalion was one of the first divisions to enter Iraq
after the U.S. "Shock and Awe" aerial bombardment ended, in mid-April
2003. (I also served in that unit in-country from April through October
2003. I met Ford in February 2003, at Fort Bragg, N.C., and continued to
stay in contact with him until he was shipped out of the country. I have
also since left the military.) The battalion's mission was to collect
counterintelligence. Its agents, highly trained soldiers responsible for
force protection and for investigating national security crimes
committed against the Army, were divided into small units called
Tactical Human Intelligence Teams, or THTs. Every day, these teams went
out from their forward operating bases in Iraq and interacted with the
local people in an effort to gather critical intelligence on such
matters as the location of conventional and unconventional weapons and
the whereabouts of the fugitives depicted on the Pentagon's
55-most-wanted playing cards. It was arguably one of the most sensitive
and important jobs in the entire Iraqi theater of operations. As the
team sergeant of his THT, Ford was second in command of his four-person
team and responsible for training, discipline, logistics and supervision
of day-to-day operations. He was also the team's designated combat life
saver, or medic.
Ford spent his first weeks in Iraq at Balad Air Base, also known as Camp
Anaconda, about 50 kilometers north of Baghdad along the Tigris. In
early May, he was assigned to a THT that was headed for Samarra, another
20 kilometers to the northeast. An ancient trading center that dates to
the Mesopotamian era, Samarra was known as a hotbed of Sunni Arab
loyalists, ex-Baath Party officials, and Islamist extremists. The
two-story police station the Army occupied was located in the center of
town, closely surrounded by taller buildings, giving anyone who cared to
fire on the Americans an excellent field in which to do so. And fire
they did. Almost every night, Ford and his teammates would be forced to
dive from their bunks for cover as mortar rounds rocked the compound.
The concussions shook the foundation and broke whatever glass windows
remained. Fortunately, the Iraqi mortar crews proved wildly inaccurate,
and no Americans were killed, but several were wounded and the attacks
never let up. There was immense pressure on the THT to find out who was
behind the attacks and to supply the information to the "gunslingers" of
the 4th Infantry Division. It was in that environment that Ford says he
saw the incidents that led to the end of his long military career.
...
etc.
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