300 British Army Soldiers Under Investigation for Iraq War Crimes

[Deleted]

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2...raq-war-crimes

Nearly 300 British veterans face investigation over alleged Iraq war crimes

Nearly 300 British personnel who served in Iraq have been contacted by investigators looking into allegations of war crimes, with some of them facing interrogation on their doorsteps, officials have said.

The Iraq historic allegations team (Ihat), the government-established criminal investigation into claims of murder, abuse and torture during the Iraq war, said it has written to veterans a week after it warned that some may face prosecution.

In some cases the letters were hand-delivered and it suggested that investigators had taken the opportunity to “ask a few questions” where possible. In a statement released on Friday, it defended its actions, saying their investigators had carried out “standard police practice”.

About 280 veterans have been sent documents telling them they were involved in an incident under investigation by the Ihat, a spokeswoman for the unit said.

“It is standard police practice to send letters as a means of contacting potential witnesses.

“Sometimes, the letters are delivered by hand and it may be that, if a potential witness is at home, then the investigator will take the opportunity to ask a few questions. Again, this is standard police practice. In this situation there is no obligation to respond to such enquiries – it is very much a matter for the individual,” the spokeswoman said.

The MoD said: “The vast majority of UK service personnel deployed on military operations conduct themselves professionally and in accordance with the law. The MoD takes all allegations of abuse or unlawful killing extremely seriously. That is why we are ensuring that they are investigated to establish the facts.”

Ihat’s workload includes more than 1,500 possible victims, of whom 280 were alleged to have been unlawfully killed. Last week, Mark Warwick, the former police detective in charge of the unit, told the Independent that his team had identified cases where he felt there was “significant evidence to be obtained to put a strong case before the service prosecuting authority to prosecute and charge”.

He said he expected to make progress within the next 12 to 18 months. “Then I think we can say whether [finalising investigations by] 2019 seems realistic,” he added.

On Friday night, the Independent reported dozens of cases in which British service personnel were accused of unlawfully killing Iraqis had already been referred to prosecutors.

Police chiefs and MPs have called the investigation a “despicable witch-hunt”, according to the Daily Mail.

The news comes after the law firm Leigh Day was referred to the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal over complaints about its handling of legal claims brought by Iraqi detainees against the MoD. The claims, which crumbled when it emerged that some of the Iraqis were members of the rebel Mahdi army, centred on allegations that detainees had been abused and murdered by British soldiers.

The chairman of the Al-Sweady inquiry, which was set up to look into the claims, called the most serious of them “deliberate lies, reckless speculation and ingrained hostility”.

Is it a good thing we're putting serving armed forces under such scrutiny? The vast majority of cases seem to be being driven by two law firms with a clear profit motive and as such there's many calls across the UK that a large amount of these cases are nothing more than attempts to make money out of service men and women who risked their lives fighting in Iraq.

This also seems to contrast quite extremely with how we treated armed police and military who were deployed to Ireland whom as a rule of thumb were generally protected from most prosecution and scrutiny.

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The reason is absolutly irrelevant. If their are enough proof to prosecute then yes, it has to. It's then to the justice to play its role. And judges aren't here "for profit".

When you give someone the right to kill, they have to expect their actions to be scrutinized. Else would be madness.

That's kind of the issue though - the vast majority of these cases never do go to trial. The MoD comes to a settlement with the law firm and the soldier never gets prosecuted or brought before a tribunal.

We as the public never really get to know whether there's horrendous things being carried out by soldiers which the MoD covers up by paying enough money, or whether this is just a bottom feeding law firm going after non issues but which the MoD isn't willing to stand up to in court.

[Kuntantee]

Better start from politicians who agreed to help USA in this crime.

[Hyve]

I think there is a degree of acceptance that in such a hostile, violent and horrific environment you're going to do things you shouldn't, but there is a difference between being a small pain in the ass to the local by being rude, and pissing on a dead militant...

We have laws and rules for a reason, and we need to ensure our soldiers are capable of doing their jobs, both physically and mentally. If they can't, then the training and recruitment process needs to ensure better measures are put in place.

Just because someone is shooting at you, doesn't mean you get to go over to a nearby village and rape someone.

[Hyve]

The uk's inquiry into the Iraq war is due to be published this year. Should be an interesting read.
http://www.iraqinquiry.org.uk

It'll be nice to see what actually happened. But I'm concerned a lot of it will skip over some of the key points for "security reasons". I'd like to see the full details, and then (depending on the outcome, which I already have my predictions for), see Tony Blair & Gordan Brown charged for War Crimes.

[Deleted]

Of course if they did wrong they deserve punishment

[Stormdash]

Wait, by their own government? Oh Britain.

[Donald Hellscream]

If they commited warcrimes they should be held accountable, killing enemy combatants is obviously not a warcrime, however I'd imagine desecration of their corpse is which could very well have happene. Of course allegations could be false but if there is a chance they aren't it should be investigated.

[Independent voter]

British are out of control.

[Aeula]

Bad time, really bad time. Do we really have to do this now?
Someone's got a political agenda behind this.

[Ealyssa]

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2...raq-war-crimes



Is it a good thing we're putting serving armed forces under such scrutiny? The vast majority of cases seem to be being driven by two law firms with a clear profit motive and as such there's many calls across the UK that a large amount of these cases are nothing more than attempts to make money out of service men and women who risked their lives fighting in Iraq.

This also seems to contrast quite extremely with how we treated armed police and military who were deployed to Ireland whom as a rule of thumb were generally protected from most prosecution and scrutiny.

The reason is absolutly irrelevant. If their are enough proof to prosecute then yes, it has to. It's then to the justice to play its role. And judges aren't here "for profit".

When you give someone the right to kill, they have to expect their actions to be scrutinized. Else would be madness.

[Deleted]

The reason is absolutly irrelevant. If their are enough proof to prosecute then yes, it has to. It's then to the justice to play its role. And judges aren't here "for profit".

When you give someone the right to kill, they have to expect their actions to be scrutinized. Else would be madness.

That's kind of the issue though - the vast majority of these cases never do go to trial. The MoD comes to a settlement with the law firm and the soldier never gets prosecuted or brought before a tribunal.

We as the public never really get to know whether there's horrendous things being carried out by soldiers which the MoD covers up by paying enough money, or whether this is just a bottom feeding law firm going after non issues but which the MoD isn't willing to stand up to in court.

[Theinquisition]

3 or 4 I understand

280?

That sounds like a witch hunt to satisfy the desire of the anti war left to discredit servicmembers every time they can.

[Deleted]

Yes they should be put under scrutiny and tried if there is evidence of unlawful behaviour.

agreed, if there is evidence of misconduct, and criminal acts, then an investigation is necessary.

[Theinquisition]

agreed, if there is evidence of misconduct, and criminal acts, then an investigation is necessary.

I just wonder how thorough these investigations have been if there's 280 accused.

[Zelk]

Bad time, really bad time. Do we really have to do this now?
Someone's got a political agenda behind this.

Why is now a bad time?

[Ripster42]

“It is standard police practice to send letters as a means of contacting potential witnesses."

So not going to be 300 people accused, but 300 people who might be called to be a witness for someone who will be accused. That's all we know.

[Deleted]

maybe you shouldn't try to denounce your own soldiers

in war people die

[Deleted]

I just wonder how thorough these investigations have been if there's 280 accused.

The investigations are going on now, the 300 people are not accused of anything, they are potential witnesses, who will be contacted as part of establishing if any wrongdoing occurred.

Investigations into the conduct of our armed forces are important and serious affairs, and must be conducted in a thorough and fair manner, to either dismiss the claims and show them to be false, or to identify the wrong doers and prosecute.

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maybe you shouldn't try to denounce your own soldiers

in war people die

how you conduct a war is important.

Especially in conflicts like the ones we find ourselves in, lets not go the USA route and end up actually creating more enemies than we have when the conflicts start.

[Deleted]

maybe you shouldn't try to denounce your own soldiers

in war people die

Soldiers aren't above the law,

[Kalis]

Wait, by their own government? Oh Britain.

What is wrong with having standards for your military personnel that they have to adhere to and that we investigate any allegations of wrongdoing?

I'd hate to live in a country that brushed everything under the carpet, accountability is incredibly important to anybody that values Western ideals.