I've been reading the "Serious
Incident Report" filed about the Sept. 28 confrontation between American
bodyguards and Iraqi soldiers in the Green Zone. The e-mail I carried
earlier this week got the facts right, but there are some more details that
bring home just how serious the incident was.
For example, as tempers flared
at around 5:30 that afternoon, the report says:
The Iraqi captain chambered a round in his Glock pistol
subsequently shoving the muzzle into PSS Brandon Sene's neck demanding Shane
Baumgartner exit the vehicle. Upon seeing this, Baumgartner exited the vehicle
only to be stripped of his equipment and seriously assaulted by the soldiers.
The four bodyguards were then
arrested and their weapons confiscated. They were taken to the Iraqi brigade
headquarters, where they were "repeatedly assaulted." "One soldier used an
Olympic Barbell (45 lbs in weight) to strike Brandon Sene in the abdomen and
lower back." He is listed in the report as suffering bruises and lacerations.
His comrades were struck with the butts of AK-47 rifles.
The four Americans were
released after Glenn Meadows, identified in the report as chief of DynCorp's
Iraq operations, met with an Iraqi general. The team in question was DynCorp
International's "Shark Team One," which is assigned, ironically, to protecting
VIPs involved in training Iraqi police. I am guessing from some of the
annotations to the paper that they work with the Interior Ministry, which has
had some real problems in the past.
Proving that the MSM are not
entirely asleep at the wheel, Anthony Shadid, who either works for the Washington
Post or the New
York Times (it no longer is clear to me) has an article
about the incident today.
AHMAD AL-RUBAYE/AFP/Getty Images
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