If there’s a pattern here — and I’m not sure we know <$NoAd$>enough yet to discern patterns — it’s one of military intelligence officers giving untrained and unsupervised soldiers vague instructions to ‘soften up’ prisoners to get them to talk in subsequent investigations.
That’s a recipe for ugly results.
Here’s a snippet from a new story from ABC News …
The photographs show a 52-year-old former Baath Party official, Nadem Sadoon Hatab, who died at the detention center last June after a three-day period in which he was allegedly subjected to beatings and karate kicks to the chest and left to die naked in his own feces.
Abuse of Iraqi prisoners at Camp White Horse was allegedly carried out by U.S. Marine reservists. The accused reservists have told their lawyers they were given orders to “soften up” the men in their custody for interrogation by what were known as human exploitation teams from military intelligence.
…
According to testimony in the case, Hatab was targeted for especially harsh treatment because he was believed to be in possession of Jessica Lynch’s 507th Army Battalion weapon and suspected of involvement in the ambush of her unit.
In this case, thankfully, a criminal prosecution is apparently well underway.
