:: NEWS COCKTAIL aka BlahBlahBlog ::

:: 3.08.2005 ::

:: "Disturbing pattern" ::

An Army investigation of abuse by U.S. soldiers -- involving alleged rape of Iraqi women -- ends for lack of evidence.
By Suzanne Goldenberg

Soldiers from the 3rd Infantry Brigade -- the same military unit whose troops fired on the car carrying freed Italian hostage Giuliana Sgrena -- were under investigation last year for raping Iraqi women, U.S. Army documents reveal. Four soldiers were alleged to have raped two women while on guard duty in a Baghdad shopping precinct. A U.S. Army investigator interviewed several soldiers from the military unit, the 1-15th battalion of the 3rd Infantry Brigade, but did not locate or interview the Iraqi women involved before shutting down the inquiry for lack of evidence.

Transcripts of the investigation, obtained by the Guardian from the American Civil Liberties Union, show only the most cursory attempts by the investigator to establish whether the women were raped. The soldiers claimed the women were prostitutes, or denied any knowledge of anyone in their unit having sex while deployed in Iraq. The statements went largely unchallenged. "I know the women were Iraqi. I however don't know if they were raped, or were prostitutes, or just wanted sex," one soldier told investigators.

[Warning: registration required. But you can get a 1-day pass if you can stomach a commercial. "This is indeed a disturbing universe." ;]

See also

Pentagon faces PR disaster
Australian, Australia

US troops 'made Iraq abuse video'
BBC News, UK

posted by me

:: 10:11:00 AM [+] ::
...