The Court-Martial Of Willie Brand

[PsychoDad]

"This is what we were trained to do, and this is what we did. I was not the only one; there were many others hitting them."

The Court-Martial Of Willie Brand
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/03/02/60minutes/main1364163.shtml

(CBS) You wouldn't figure Willie Brand for a killer. He's a quiet young soldier from Cincinnati who volunteered to be a guard at a U.S. military prison in Bagram, Afghanistan. But when 60 Minutes met him, Brand was facing a court-martial in the deaths of two prisoners. The prisoners were found hanging from chains in their isolation cells. They had been beaten; one of them was "pulpified," according to the medical examiner.

Brand told correspondent Scott Pelley what he did wasn’t torture, it was his training, authorized and supervised by his superiors. So how is it he was charged with assault, maiming and manslaughter?
...

Dilawar was picked up outside a U.S. base that had been hit by a rocket. Habibullah was brought in by the CIA, rumored to be a high-ranking Taliban. Both of them were locked in isolation cells with hoods over their heads and their arms shackled to the ceiling.

Their shackled hands, according to Brand, were at about eye level. The point of chaining them to the ceiling, Brand says, was to keep the detainees awake by not letting them lie down and sleep.

Interrogators wanted the prisoners softened up.
...

Habibullah and Dilawar were found dead in their cells, hanging from their chains. The military medical examiner says Dilawar’s legs were pulpified. Both autopsy reports were marked "homicide." But the Army spokesman in Afghanistan told the media that both men had died of natural causes. With two deaths in a week, the Army decided to investigate. But the facts only began to become public months later in an article in The New York Times.



The article is an admission of torture under of the excuses of "I was ordered too", and "I'd expect the same treatment, there was nothing wrong with what we did".
Shameful.

[obxhead]

1. shameful, yes..... but

as an armed forces employee for the US you are to follow orders without question. That is shameful in itself. Although I understand the reasoning behind it. Without that unquestionable order few men and women would go into any battle that had horrible chances of survival, which may need to be conducted.

Shameful, yes....

Shameful that the superiors that are ordering, supervising, or conducting themselves are not brought up on charges. Shameful that the bottom rung takes the rap. Shameful that the bottom rung gets destroyed while the supervisor gets promoted.

He was not right in many ways, but the fact that his superiors are not held to a higher standard and punished accordingly is far more shameful to this American.

[PsychoDad]

2. You are right on the money....

This man has been left to hang by the same superiors who ordered him to do this. It is they who must also be brought to justice.

peace

[obxhead]

3. The only justice would be for

them to bring humanity back to the tortured. I care more about stopping the actions than punishing the offenders.

Unfortunately, punishment is the only answer we have, which does not work. An eye for an eye only creates a balance not a solution; a key problem with our legal system.

[no_hypocrisy]

4. Tough call. He was being a "good German" and following orders.

If he's convicted then ALL military personnel who have done basically the same thing have to be convicted and punished accordingly. And their military superiors. And the Department of Defense. And Donald Rumsfeld.