Watching
1. A spokesman from the Pentagon has announced that 3 US soldiers from the 320th MP Battalion (based in Ashely, Pa., a suburb of Wilkies-Barre) have been sacked because of charges of abuses of the Iraqi POWs in Camp Bucca near Umm Qasr in the south of Iraq. The decision came by a Military court. Among the soldiers was the Sergeant Lisa Girman (35 years) (Pennsylvania state trooper) who admitted that she has beaten a POW and throw him down (15 May 2003). She kicked him on his genitelia, the abdomen and the head!! She also encouraged her bosses to imitate her way in dealing with the POWs. She faces charges of false statements and obstruction of the justice which both carry 5 years in prison!! The other two are Staff Sergeant Scott McKenzie (37 years) (a state prison guard & decorated soldier) and Timothy Canjar (21 years) who also face charge with false statements. There was also Sergeant Shawna Edmondson (24 years) who resigned before the court hearing and live with her parents in Clarks Summit 110 miles north of Philadelphia. She is former security guard in the University of Scranton. She told one of her colleagues that she beat the Iraqi POW to teach him a lesson how to treat women!! Scott McKenzie pulled an Iraqi POW by dragging him on the floor and encouraged other solders to hit him!! He also kicked another POW on his broken arm while in another incident he opened the legs of a POW man and asked other soldiers to hit him on his genitelia and abdomen and head! We hope that these are isolated incidents and it only represents the individuals who carried it out. Iraq and USA will have a strong strategic relationship which will not be affected by isolated incidents. The good and civilized thing is that the Pentagon dealing with these charges seriously.
2. New mass grave has been discovered, Sunday 4 Jan 2004 by the US forces near Baghdad which contain at least 800 bodies of the Shiites killed by Saddam regime 1991. Until now 260 mass graves containing about 300,000 bodies from Shiite after the 1991 uprising against Saddam regime. The Shiite represents 60% of the population of Iraq and was repressed severely by the fascist regime.
3. Bechtel have been granted by the USAID another contract of 1.8 billion dollars for the next 2 years for the electricity, municipal water system, sewage, Airports and Umm Qasr seaport.
4. 100 arrested in Iraq today for suspected attacks among them one from the 55 most wanted cards.
5. British MoD announced today that they offered compensations to the family of Bahaa Mosa (see my article of 4 Jan 2004 point 5). The MoD spokesman also said the investigation still continued and the compensation is not a confession about it. Compensations had been given to 3 families. Other 13 cases of Iraqis killed probably by the British troops out of 23 cases (7 rejected) are still under investigation.
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