Army Now Says G.I. Was Beaten in Role (Gitmo Training Exercise)

[UpInArms]

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/09/international/09SOLD.html?ex=1087358400&?en=fcdcebb72b746d21&?ei=5062&?partner=GOOGLE

LOUISVILLE, Ky., June 8 — A member of the military police was discharged partly because of a head injury he suffered while posing as an uncooperative detainee during a training exercise at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, the Army said Tuesday.

The Army had previously said Specialist Sean Baker's medical discharge in April was unrelated to the injury he received last year at the detention center, where the United States holds suspected terrorists.

Specialist Baker, 37, a former member of the 438th Military Police Company, said he played the role of an uncooperative prisoner and was beaten so badly by four American soldiers in another company that he suffered a traumatic brain injury and seizures. He said the soldiers only stopped beating him when they realized he might be American.

...more...

[LittleApple81]

1. BWAHAHAHAHAHA. I really feel sorry for the poor soldier, but this

is so damning... they train them to beat up the prisoners (I am sure if he were a prisoner and died we would have never known about it). It is ridiculous how inept they are at even keeping their lies and dirty secrets.
We are even worse for not FORCING THEM OUT OF OUR GOVERNMENT IMMEDIATELY!!!!!

[DrBB]

2. Good news--been following this story

...at least slightly. Apparently they denied it up and down at first. Had him in an orange suit over his camos, and they practically killed him despite his protests that "I'M A US SOLDIER" until one of the beaters noticed his US camos under the prison coverall.

A disgusting story. Think it doesn't get worse, though? Wrong. It does.

[LittleApple81]

3. Question for you:

"Think it doesn't get worse, though? Wrong. It does."
What do you mean by that? Do you have any further info on this?

I hope the soldier sues and takes them to the cleaners...

[soothsayer]

4. Poor guy

But keep 'em comin, Venus!

[SummerGrace]

5. And what happened to Ryan Foraker?

Soldier Missing From Guantanamo Bay - What happened to Sgt. Ryan Foraker? Foraker disappeared from the U.S. Navy Base at Guantanamo Bay on Tuesday September 24th (2002). The following is excerpted from a September 27th article by Carl Burnett Jr. of the Eagle-Gazette - "An U.S. Army reservist, who is a 1989 Fairfield Union graduate, has turned up missing at the U.S. Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

"I talked to him on the phone an hour and a half before he came up missing," Angie Foraker said from her Logan home. "He wasn't depressed and was looking forward to coming home to his two girls in seven weeks."

Staff Sgt. Ryan Foraker, 31, was reported missing after he failed to turn up for duty at 5 a.m. Tuesday. Foraker had been activated as part of the 342 Military Police Company based out of Fort Hayes, Columbus, in mid-January."

"...Angie said the military told her the last time Ryan was seen was outside his barracks at 1:47 a.m. Tuesday. Angie said she talked to Ryan on the telephone at about 3:45 a.m. Tuesday. His clothes, including a wallet with his identification, were found on a cliff overlooking a beach. The military told the Forakers they have not found a body, but were searching."

"After the Eagle-Gazette contacted the public affairs office at Guantanamo Bay on Thursday, a spokeswoman confirmed Foraker was missing, but could not release any details.

[soup]

12. Thank you.

I remember the incident, but couldn't remember his name. His disappearance left a lot of unanswered questions.

Initially there were questions raised here on maybe he saw or heard something that he shouldn't have? Now we can wonder about the possibility of him being an early vitim of 'training exercises'.

So much going on, so many unanswered questions. It's impossible to keep it all straight.

[keithyboy]

6. Instead of 24-hr coverage of a roving casket, why doesn't the media

report on the real events happening across the globe?

[Robbien]

7. It is only because of 24/7 casket patrol

That stories such as these are even being printed.

This is BushCo bad news dump week.

[murielm99]

8. A roving casket! LOL

Good one!

Follow the roving casket.

[Judi Lynn]

15. Too many tiresome facts to run down, too much writing

and they don't like the risk of writing something which could get them on _Bush's list.

Maybe they can start doing follow-up pieces on the roving casket, after it's buried, going back to ask if it's still there, getting opinion of passers-by.

[Kinkistyle]

9. Imagine this was your son, brother, husband.

He got beaten by his own military for just following orders. How horrible is that? Where in gods name were the watchdogs to make sure that something exactly like this didn't happen???

[nonbelief]

10. A couple of the posters to this thread seem to be missing the pont...

The horrible thing about this story isn't that the victim was an American soldier.

The horrible thing about this story is that the U.S public and its military seem to think it's ok to treat foreign prisoners this way.

[Robbien]

11. No, that is not really the point

The point this story brings to light is that the military has a training program for torturing prisoners. Since there is a torture training program, there is no way our torture of Iraqis could be the cause of six or seven renegade soldiers who tortured without the authority of the military brass.

[DoYouEverWonder]

14. Even worse, they actually train

to torture prisioners.

This isn't just a few bad apples blowing off steam, this is SOP.

[JNelson6563]

13. When I first read of this

and saw this soldier's cammanding officer had ordered him to put on the orange jumpsuit and promised everything would be "ok". Then he sends him in for a beating.

This is done in some "organizations" as initiation, especially when the group is involved in violent activities. The Russian army for instance, I've read articles of the beatings soldiers take when they join. Seen documentaries where a guy lets himself be nearly beaten and kicked to death by a gang in order to join.

Seems to me this is like training camp for thugs-R-us or something.

Julie