Another Army Scandal Breaking

Another Army scandal is breaking.

Last year a National Guard battalion from Modesto California got national headlines when it complained that it was receiving substandard training prior to being deployed to Iraq.

In a L.A. Times article this morning we learn that one company of that same battalion "has been put on restricted duty and its battalion plunged into disarray amid allegations that battalion members mistreated detainees in Iraq and extorted shopkeepers, according to military officials and members of the unit...(National Guard spokesman Col. David) Baldwin also confirmed the existence of the investigation of the alleged extortion, which involves members of another company in the battalion.

The battalion's commander, Lt. Col. Patrick Frey, has been suspended while the investigation is conducted, Baldwin said.

Soldiers from a third company in the battalion have also been "pulled back to garrison mode," a military official said."(more below the fold)

Members of the battalion describe their unit as "just rotten".  They say that the soldiers have no trust in each other or in their leadership.

The mistreatment of Iraqi detainees has been described as including an incident where a non-commissioned officer, while questioning a prisoner pulled his sidearm and shot at an item in the room.  "He then reportedly told the prisoner "You're next", then held his pistol to the man's head, moved it a few inches to the side and fired", and another incident in which a prisoner who was blindfolded and handcuffed was tortured with an electrical stun gun.  That incident happened to get video taped.

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