Army captain accused of photographing soldiers in shower resigned

[Kadie]

Army captain accused of photographing soldiers in shower resigned

The Associated Press

Posted: Friday May 21st, 2004, 11:35 AM
Last Updated: Friday May 21st, 2004, 1:15 PM

FREMONT, Calif. (AP) - An Army captain accused of taking nude photographs of female soldiers as they showered while on duty at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison has resigned to avoid a court-martial.

Leo Merck, 32, who had commanded the Pittsburg-based 870th Military Police Company since early 2002, finalized a deal with the Army on Wednesday, according to an Army spokesman at Ft. Lewis, Washington, where the 870th company was discharged after leaving Iraq last month.

"Captain Merck did resign in lieu of elimination from the service, which could have led to a court-martial," said Ft. Lewis spokesman Joe Hitt. "It was approved and he departed Ft. Lewis on May 19th."

snip...
In November, three female soldiers filed a complaint against Merck, accusing him of peering under a shower curtain and taking pictures of them as they showered.


more... http://www.bakersfield.com/state_wire/story/4704100p-4753862c.html

[Alerter_]

1. The Officers get to resign quietly?

surprise surprise

[MsUnderstood]

2. I was just talking to my friend

Who is in the reserves. I was voicing to him my frustration that the "higher ups" aren't getting pursecuted for their involvement in the crimes at the prison.

He was explaining 4 things:

1) There is a fine line between abuse and torture "to gain information". The photos we see are obvious abuse not enacted for any informational gain. The torture we aren't going to see (by the Military Intelligence) will never be prosecuted in the military because you don't want to cut off the hands of the intelligence unit.

2) In the military, there is a philosophy of responsibility for the actions of your troops, but in reality each person is responsible for their own acts.

3) So, the enlisted men will be punished for following the orders (or going outside of their orders) by abusing the prisoners but the military intelligence will never be punished.

4) Tying into this story--The court martialling system is designed to punish the enlisted men. It is difficult to get information out of commissioned officers becuause of the way the military is setup. It isn't a conspiracy theory it is a system of honor whereby the higher ranks resign from a position if they have dishonored it (and to avoid court martial). Once they resign they can't be court martialled (but the can by civilly tried).

Any military types who can explain this better than me feel free. It actually helped me understand why we aren't chasing down the higher ups.

[sybylla]

3. So does this mean we set up every grunt for a catch-22?

We send them to weeks of basic training effectively breaking them like we break a horse so that they borg together and act when told to act without question. Then, when things go wrong, we punish them for doing as they are told but the people who gave the command get to quietly resign and keep their pensions.

[Tinoire]

4. What an outrage. He was their Company Commander!

This is a violation of the worst sort, photographing soldiers under your care in the nude, and yet he gets to quietly resign...


Urgh!!

[robbedvoter]

5. Uh, so photographing soldiers is more serious than raping. killing pri

soners? The guy merits some punishment, but I am still waiting for those murder , rape indictments. I guess I shouldn't be holding my breath, huh?