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Army punishes GI for torturing prisoners; Army punishes soldier for not torturing prisonersOn May 19, Specialist Jeremy Sivits faced a court martial for torturing Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib. He was found guilty and got a year in prison and a bad conduct discharge. On May 19, Florida National Guardsman Staff Sergeant Camilo Mejia faced a court martial for refusing to go back to the war in Iraq, where he had served with honor, because he had been present when prisoners were tortured and he wanted no more of that, or the war.  Tod Ensign of Citizen Soldier, the organization
coordinating support for Mejia, said Mejia was at Al
Asad - which is another detention center like the Abu Ghraib
prison - where he witnessed the abuse and sleep
deprivation of detainees in May 2003. The detention
center was controlled by three interrogators, who were
in civilian clothes and operated with pseudonyms. One
of them called himself "Rabbit," and one called
himself "Whitey."
"They were in charge and telling the troops which detainees 'to soften up,' which meant 24 to 48 hours of sleep deprivation. They would take unloaded pistols and pull the trigger with the gun on the detainee's temples. They would pound the walls with sledge hammers, and they would constantly wake them and make them walk around." Staff Sergeant Mejia also got a year in prison and a bad conduct discharge. Nancy Lessin and Charley Richardson of Military Families Speak Out summed it up this way: "If you are near the bottom of the chain of command, if you get caught up in the racism and dehumanization of this war, if you fail to stand up to the pressure, the orders and your command, and if your illegal actions are exposed to the world, you will be made a scapegoat and you will be punished. "If, however, you do take a stand of conscience against an illegal and immoral war, if you expose its horrors and your command's shortcomings, you will also be punished." That's why soldiers in another U.S. war for empire did their most effective organizing quietly, building networks of resistance, until the rebellion in the army brought the Vietnam war to an end. Lesson learned. Meanwhile, Staff Sgt. Mejia, stuck in prison, needs all the support and help he can get. To find out what to do for one of the bravest soldiers in the army, check out http://www.citizen-soldier.org/CS07-Camilo.html Page 12--> |
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