Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: Mickey1992 on June 23, 2004, 07:32:52 AM
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"After first finding no incidence of misconduct, the Army said it is now reopening the criminal investigation."
Seems like a familiar theme with the Army. Sad.
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http://abcnews.go.com/sections/WNT/Investigation/sean_baker_040622-1.html
June 22, 2004 — Army Spc. Sean Baker of Georgetown, Ky., is lucky to be alive after experiencing firsthand the way prisoners can be treated at Guantanamo Bay.
The high-security prison at the U.S. naval base in Cuba serves as a detention center for suspected Taliban fighters and al Qaeda operatives.
In January 2003 — more than a year before allegations that U.S. military police abused Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib made headlines — Baker, 37, took part in what was supposed to be a simple training drill to teach soldiers how to deal with uncooperative detainees at Guantanamo. Baker, then a member of the 438th Military Police Company, put on an orange jumpsuit and posed as a prisoner.
"[I was supposed to] get in the cell, say nothing, just get underneath the bunk and say nothing. And, uh, to be uncooperative," Baker told ABC News.
But Baker, who has since returned home to Kentucky, said the military police sent to get him out of the cell thought he was an actual prisoner as they pounded and choked him.
"I could not breathe," he said. "So after a few seconds, I assume, I began to panic because I could not breathe, and I was trying to get [up] and they just, you know, they just escalated the force. They just torqued it up. And from that point, the individual that was behind me slammed my head against the steel floor a few times, several times. And split my head over the top of on top of my right eye."
"I tried to terminate the exercise by using the code word 'red' as was instructed to do by the platoon leader but the team would not respond. I repeated the word several times with no response," Baker said in a sworn statement.
He said the four soldiers stopped beating him only when they saw he was wearing parts of an Army uniform beneath the prison jumpsuit. Then they realized he was one of them.
Baker said: "I could only grunt it out, you know, 'I'm a U.S. soldier. I'm a U.S. soldier.' And one of them said, you know, something like, 'Whoa, whoa, hold on. Stop. Stop.' "
But even then, Baker said he had to face the dogs outside the cell, which were apparently trained to attack anyone in an orange jumpsuit.
"I moved out into the causeway and the canine unit was going wild because I had the orange jumpsuit on," he said. "And someone screamed, yelled back and said, 'Cut the suit off of him! Cut that suit off of him! Get that suit off him!' "
The Army claims Baker's injuries were minor, but official medical documents show Baker sustained traumatic brain injury, leading to a complex seizure disorder.
He was given a medical discharge from the military.
"I don't know if they had ever done that before, but I just know what I felt and the way I feel with the training I had, and it was excessive," he said.
Baker said the entire incident was videotaped, as is standard procedure, but the Army said the tape is not available, perhaps recorded over.
An official Army investigation at Guantanamo confirmed the details of Baker's beating.
Baker was interviewed by Army investigators over a year after the incident took place. After first finding no incidence of misconduct, the Army said it is now reopening the criminal investigation.
The Army would not provide ABC News with a copy of that report and said it treats all detainees humanely.
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Seems like a familiar theme with the Army. Sad.
you obviously dont understand how the military works. In the military we are under constant scrutiny from the public and instigations are a regular way of life
this horse is dead.....put it in the ground allready
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Originally posted by GScholz
Disgraceful ... as usual.
Are you in the military Gunslinger?
yup 8+ years now two different services
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Originally posted by GScholz
What do you do now? (if you're at liberty to say)
Now I maintain Ejection systems for USAF fighter and bomber air craft
Very rewarding work when a pilot punches out using a seat you inspected/installed.
speaking of work....gotta go