Abu

By Kelly Anderson

The American people have a right to know what happened, Why it happened and what their government did about it.

This is not an incident involving 5 young soldiers. This incident struck at the moral conscious of our nation. Two presidents have spoken publicly about this incident.

I present the facts as annotated in investigations, letters home, spot reports and a personnel account. Rumors also played a role in what happened at Abu. What was the state of mind of the soldiers involved? What were we going through? I look at the events that lead up to the abuse, from the combat actions outside of the compound to the combat inside of the compound. What was going through the heads of the soldiers on a personnel level? Did they deserve the punishment that they received?

Once the abuses occurred, the Army moved quickly to make changes. Was it enough? I present enough information for you to decide these questions for yourself.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Apr 27, 2011
• ISBN: 9781462004768

Kelly Anderson

Kelly Anderson is the pseudonym for Kelechi Olejeme. She believes that the affirmative words she received from her parents and teachers as a child, enabled her to become a successful physician, entrepreneur, and investor. She is a loving daughter, sister, friend, and mentor, who hopes these positive words can inspire children to be their best. Kelly’s book, A is for Amazing, is shared to educate and empower all who read.

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Copyright © 2011 by Kelly Anderson

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ISBN: 978-1-4620-0475-1 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4620-0476-8 (ebook)

Printed in the United States of America

iUniverse rev. date: 04/19/2011

Dedication

Thanks to my family for being there when I came home.

Thanks to my fellow soldiers for helping me get home.

Thanks to my country for keeping me free.

Thanks to our enemies for keeping us strong.

Preface

I wrote this book because we need to learn from our mistakes. Often in a soldiers training we are told how to conduct ourselves and what to do when times are tough. Rarely do we read an account of a colossal failure. I have never read about an incident in history where so few had hurt so many by their personnel shortcomings.

The American people have a right to know what happened, why it happened and what their government did about it. This is not an incident involving 5 young soldiers. This incident struck at the moral conscious of our nation. Two presidents have spoken publicly about this incident.

This was not a religious problem. One of the great soldiers at Abu was a devout Muslim. Many were church going Christians. You will see the attitudes of the local Iraqi Muslims about how we were treating the prisoners and it may shock you. Those attitudes did shock me.

I sent this manuscript to the Pentagon. They have given the OK to have it published. Many soldiers have read this manuscript. Most have reacted favorably but I did receive comments about disliking my chain of command. I was accused of having an issue with the Military Police Corp. If that were the case I would have used their names.

I hope you read and enjoy this book. If you are a psychologist…you are going to have a field day with this one. If you are a leader I hope this teaches you more about leadership and strengthens your previous training. If you are a soldier you will see how to conduct yourselves and the consequences of your actions if you do not do what you know if right. What happens at the unit stays at the unit is a hope of those who know they have done wrong. Soldiers will see what conditions to expect and plan for the next time we go into an underdeveloped country. If you were touched by these incidents (yes, plural) than know that your country has acted quickly and justly to correct those actions. However, many have paid the price for individual and group shortcomings.

Contents

1. Introduction

2. Prelude

3. Mobilization

4. Mobilization Station

5. Arifjan

6. Freddie

7. Camp Life

8. Releasing Of Prisoners

9. Abuses At Bucca

10. Welcome To Abu

11. External Attacks

12. Prisoner Facilities

13. R And R

14. Attacks Out Side Of The Prison

15. Leadership

16. Abuse At Tier 1a

17. Justification

18. Psychological Assessment

19. Changes

20. Getting Civilized

21. Three Years Later

1

INTRODUCTION

PERCEPTION IS REALITY, words that I heard in more then one military school. The abuses that occurred at Abu-Ghraib were caused by perception, leaderships’ lack of individual responsibility and a harsh environment. Perception is based upon how we, the soldiers, viewed our environment. Everything from: leadership, weather, mortal danger, romance, sex, rumors, hate, anger and all the base emotions which went into our daily lives. Not to mention our own desires for: acceptance, hero worship, validation as a warrior, dominating a beaten society or rebuilding a broken society into our own vision of democracy. This book will be as much about rumors as it is about fact, a soldier’s opinion as opposed to the Army’s or media’s. It will be about leaders who led brilliantly in some instances and then failed to lead at all. Many have suggested that the abuses that occurred were the result of leadership. That is without a doubt a true statement. Many have asked why those leaders have not been punished. I submit to you that they not only have been punished but have been punished appropriately. The leaders who failed were at Abu Ghraib every day. They too are humans who did the best they could with what was given to them by God, their superiors and their training.

Military Police are like police officers anywhere, after a number of years some get an us-versus-them attitude. Most of the Military Police in the Battalion Headquarters were local cops, corrections officers or state police with a few federal agents thrown in. Combine that with the students, farmers, clerks and strippers and you get a chain of command that is not necessarily based on a military rank structure. Said another way there is a definite Good-ole-boy system in place due to the civilian jobs held by the MP’s. Now you have experienced law enforcement officers with an institutional attitude against anyone other than police, telling inexperienced officers how they should do their jobs. Because they do it on the civilian side they tend to pretend to respect the military structure but they think they know a better way. The story goes that there was an MP Specialist who pulled over a General for a vehicle infraction. The General said Do you know who I am? the specialist replied Yes, Sir. But don’t confuse your rank with my authority. The MP’s have, just like their civilian counter parts, the authority and the responsibility to protect and serve the Armed Forces against anyone who violates the laws of this nation. Yes, anyone from Generals to those confined due to suspicion of acts against Coalition forces, not just American forces.

I’m not a lawyer. The Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) consists of many volumes. However I can tell you that, generally, there are not a lot of differences between military law and civilian law. You are still innocent until proven guilty. The judge/ courts can still; confine you, fine you, place you under house arrest, give you extra duty or take away privileges. They can also fire you for certain offenses such as using drugs or abusing your spouse. The federal government does have capital punishment just as some states do. Again, in general, the military does have some minor differences such as Letters of Reprimand and Letters of Concern which go to the individual and the Commanding Officer. These usually are reflected on the soldier’s evaluation reports.

The Battalion Commander took over the Battalion a few months prior to deployment. At the time we got him he was a Lieutenant Colonel Promotable. He knew little of Military Police Corrections Operations. He was a Civil Affairs officer. Everyone knew it. The powers that be told him to spend some time in the Military Police and they would promote him and give him his own Civil Affairs Battalion. He is a smart man, a West Point graduate. He was a Nuclear Engineer working in a power plant. However, he only had a fundamental course in MP operations.

The S3, Operations and Training Officer, knew his job. By all accounts he was very good at doing corrections operations. He was also ambitious. For those of you who do not know, these are good qualities in an S3. He wanted to get into the fight just as soon as he could; to hell with this admin crap was a motto he could have used. The S3 was full time, an Active Guard and Reserve (AGR) soldier, and he had his favorite soldiers.

The mission of our Battalion and the one that we trained for is to set up an Enemy Prisoner of War prison camp or a Displaced Civilian camp. This would normally be done in a different country than the one the conflict is in. We would have had an infantry Company to handle the external security and two MP companies plus HHC (Headquarters and Headquarters Company) to handle the internal security. There would also be additional support assets. The Battalion is set up to handle four thousand prisoners divided into eight compounds.

A few notes on the content of this book. I will not use any names which the public does not already know. These soldiers have risked their lives for this nation. I will not add to there risk by placing their real names here. I am told that the MP Battalion Commander has had to move due to threats against him and his family. As I said in the opening paragraph this book is more about rumors then facts. In combat these mix together. People make mistakes to their facts. The most absurd rumors become real. When you average: four hours of sleep a night, seven days a week, over eight months and it is raining metal there is little