Readings: Mansoor

"In the early afternoon I conducted a session under Article 15 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice to determine whether to punish a soldier who had used improper interrogation techniques against an Iraqi prisoner. The soldier, an intelligence specialist with the 1-36 Infantry, had overstepped his authority by interrogating a suspected insurgent, a task that, by Army regulation, only the trained interrogators of A Company, 501st Military Intelligence Battalion working at brigade level could undertake. The manner of the questioning made it clear why this particular restriction exists in the first place. The soldier forced the bound prisoner to kneel on the floor facing a wall and had him clench a 5.56mm round in his teeth. The soldier then ordered his buddy to cock his M16A2 rifle as if he were chambering a round in a mock execution. As I listened to the story, I found it difficult to believe that these were American soldiers upholding the values of the United States Army. When I asked the soldier where he had gotten the idea of a mock execution, he stated he had seen it in a movie. I was flabbergasted."
Col. Peter Mansoor, "Baghdad at Sunrise: A Brigade Commander's War in Iraq" (2008)