New Revelations Show Some Iraq Prison 'Abuse' Justified

New details reported on Wednesday about the Iraqi prison abuse scandal show that at least some of the alleged mistreatment committed by U.S. military police against Iraqi inmates had been provoked by previous acts of violence - including one case that has been labeled a "murder" by critics of the U.S. armed forces.

In an interview with the New York Times, one-time inmate Hayder Sabbar Abd complained of being hooded and beaten by MPs at Baghdad's notorious Al Ghraib prison.

But Abd also admitted that he had been a member of Saddam Hussein's Republican Guard for 18 years and had participated in a Nov. 2003 prison riot before being targeted for rougher treatment.

"After the prison fight, the victim pointed out Mr. Abd and six others to American guards," the Times said. Abd did not deny taking part in the violence.

After the prison riot, Abd was taken to a cellblock known as "the hard site" where the most dangerous prisoners were kept. At the time, coalition forces were suffering their highest casualty rates to date since the cessation of combat, with 82 U.S. soldiers killed that month by remnants of the unit Abd once belonged to.

The Pentagon report on the prison abuse scandal, which has been widely quoted by the world press, makes no mention of the riot that preceded the so-called abuse of Iraqi prisoners.

And in the most dramatic case of alleged mistreatment - described as a homicide by some military critics - new details emerged on Wednesday showing that the soldier who was charged in the case was responding to a potentially lethal attack by an inmate.

After the prisoner began throwing rocks at the so-far unidentified soldier at a detention center last September, the GI defended himself by shooting his attacker, according to the New York Post.

Still, in fit of political correctness that has hobbled the U.S. military almost from the outset of the Iraq war, the soldier was put on trial and convicted of using excessive force.

While he served no jail time, he was demoted to the rank of private, then tossed out of the military, the Post said.

Some 20 Iraqi inmate deaths are currently under review by the Pentagon, but the unnamed soldier's case is so far the only one in which a conviction has been reported.

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