A copy of the video, obtained Saturday by The Palm Beach Post, is a crudely edited do entary led Ramadi Madness and The Haj Files. Its existence was made public Friday when 1,200 pages of do ents were released by the Army in response to a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union. The military however, declined to release the video, which runs just under 27 minutes.
Iraq video
Watch excerpts of a local National Guard video shot in Iraq and investigated by the Army. Investigators determined there was no abuse.
Warning: This footage contains graphic themes and images (audio omitted)(Quicktime needed)
Truck incident
Noose
Super special skill
Have you seen Haj
Newman
Night vision
Haji cat
Mayor's cell
See Haj run
Crafty little
Blood clot
Asa Lama Lakim
Another day
Copenhagen
NOTE: Gruesome footage of the aftermath of a suicide bombing has been omitted. Because of profane language, the audio is not included.
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An internal Army investigation cleared the 124th Infantry Regiment, Bravo Company, which has about 120 soldiers. The Army said it found the soldiers' behavior more "inappropriate" than criminal. The Post's copy contained none of the graphic sexual and physical harassment do ented in photos and video made by soldiers at Abu Ghraib that led to the court-martial of eight people and shrouded the Pentagon in a scandal.
The video, often dark and grainy, was edited into vignettes with les such as The Truck Incident and Friends Don't Let Friends Play With Explosives. The dialogue is coarse, and the joking is juvenile and often macabre. The narrator consistently refers to the Iraqis as "Hajis."
At the end of the video, the credits list Sgt. Matthew Newman as director and Sgt. Chad Shadle as the soldier who converted it to video.
Shadle couldn't be reached. The Post found Newman on duty Saturday night at a Wal-Mart in Lantana where he's a store detective, monitoring the aisles with surveillance cameras.
Newman said he shot the video with a digital camera, but he doesn't know who compiled or narrated it. He figured some of the narration must be his.
Newman, 24, said the video was meant to be a keepsake: "I could pull it out when I'm old." He destroyed his copy after the Army inquiry. The Post obtained its copy from another soldier on the condition he not be identified.
The video depicts young soldiers coping with the horrors of war. At times, they are childlike, referring to Iraqis as "bad guys" and comrades as "good guys." They scrutinize the remains of Iraqis blown up by their own explosives with the curiosity of kids poking at roadkill.
"This little piggy went to market, this little piggy went home and this little piggy got blown the (expletive) up," the off-camera voice says, and the lens focuses on a dismembered foot.
In contrast, the soldiers find a stray kitten on night patrol, and lovingly feed and cuddle him. And they give the cat a name: Anthrax.
Most chilling is a scene where they briefly toy with the body of a dead Iraqi driver, propping up the corpse to wave "hi" for the camera. "Hold up, I'm going to make him say, 'Hi,' " a soldier says to the camera, briefly picking up the dead man's hand. " 'What the (expletive), I'm dead.' "
Company B was part of the initial push into Iraq in 2003 and was stationed in Ramadi, 30 miles west of Baghdad. Maj. Joseph Lyon, a Bravo Company ground commander at the time, said the video images especially in light of Abu Ghraib were inappropriate and certain to be misunderstood by those unfamiliar with combat conditions.
"Each individual handles stress differently," said Lyon, who lives near Tampa. "One of the mechanisms I saw was laughter, trying to make light of a situation that was very gruesome. We were not there to torture any Iraqis."
Lyon said a video camera was used by the unit to do ent the humane treatment of detainees. He said Ramadi Madness was made without his knowledge and distributed to the men in the company after their 10-month stint in the Sunni Triangle.
He said his unit did not lose one soldier. The Marines who replaced the 124th Infantry in Ramadi have not been so lucky.
Jeremy Polston, a company member who earned a Purple Heart, said he doesn't believe American civilians understand the brutality of the Iraqi conflict.
"We did what we had to do over there," said Polston, who was injured and now works as a financial adviser. "Some people may view our means of doing this as over-aggressive, but they are on the outside looking in."
Jim Green, an ACLU lawyer in West Palm Beach, said the civil rights organization is suing former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld for the abuse of detainees. He said despite the cir stances, U.S. troops should not ever be allowed to kick wounded detainees or joke about the dead.
He said holding the military accountable for soldiers' inappropriate actions during war helps ensure the safety of our troops when they are captured.
"If we don't treat our detainees humanely, how can we expect our enemy to treat our soldiers who get captured humanely?" Green said
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