“Ramadi Madness” video shows U.S. troops abusing Iraqis

Al-Jazeera | March 9 2005

U.S. troops serving in the Iraqi city of Ramadi made a video of themselves kicking a gravely wounded Iraqi detainee in the face and trying to make the arm of a corpse wave, then called the film “Ramadi Madness”.

The 27-minute video was included in the recordings shot by some U.S. troops in the Florida National Guard who were serving in the Iraqi city of Ramadi until last year.

The video existence was revealed in the documents obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union under court order through the Freedom of Information Act.

The Pentagon didn’t release the video, claiming that it had been destroyed. But a Florida newspaper, The Palm Beach Post, obtained it and posted some of it on its Web site on Monday.

The U.S. military decided not to charge the involved soldiers, saying that the video was "inappropriate" but not criminal.

The soldiers edited and compiled the video in a DVD in January 2004, and gave titles to each section of the film, such as "Those Crafty Little Bastards" and "Another Day, Another Mission, Another Scumbag."

One section of the video showed an injured prisoner lying on the ground, and showed his bullet entry and exit wounds. At one point, a U.S. soldier kicked the detainee in the face.

In another scene, a soldier grabbed the arm of an Iraqi truck driver, who had just been shot dead by U.S. forces, and tried to make the corpse wave to the camera.

The video also showed an Iraqi prisoner being treated for a head wound, while a voice off-screen tells him to "smile for the camera."

Criminal

The soldiers served as part of the 124th Regiment in the city of Ramadi, about 70 miles west of Baghdad, before returning home a year ago.

A military investigation found that the video showed "inappropriate rather than criminal behavior".

"It didn't rise to the level of criminal abuse, according to the investigations," said army spokesman Lt Col Jeremy Martin.

"Clearly, the soldiers probably exercised poor judgment... and I'm sure that they were admonished by their command for their actions," he added.

But ACLU lawyer Jameel Jaffer said that it is hard to understand why nobody has been held accountable.

"There's no justification for kicking an enemy prisoner of war when he's wounded on the ground in front of you and about to die," he said.

"Clearly, there's some stuff in this video that's inappropriate but not criminal. But then there's quite a lot of other stuff in here that does seem to be criminal."