Dilawar
The findings of Mr. Dilawar's autopsy were succinct.
[4] Leaked internal
United States Army documentation, a death certificate dated 13. December 2002, ruled that his death was due to a direct result of assaults and attacks he sustained at the hands of interrogators of the
519th Military Intelligence Battalion of the US army during his stay at
Bagram. The document was signed by Lt. Col. Elizabeth A. Rouse of the Air Force, a
pathologist with the
Armed Forces Institute of Pathology in
Washington DC, , and listed as its finding that the "mode of death" was "homicide," and not "natural," "accident" and "suicide"
[5] and that the cause of death was "
blunt-force injuries to lower extremities complicating
coronary artery disease".
[6]
A subsequent autopsy revealed that his legs had been "pulpified," and that even if Dilawar had survived, it would have been necessary to amputate his legs.
[7]
In August 2005, lead interrogator Specialist Glendale Wells of the US army pleaded guilty at a
military court to pushing Dilawar against a wall and doing nothing to prevent other soldiers from
abusing him. Wells was subsequently sentenced to two months in a
military prison. Two other soldiers convicted in connection with the case escaped custodial sentences. The sentences were criticized by
Human Rights Watch.
[9]
In March 2006, the
CBS News program, "
60 Minutes" investigated the deaths of two Afghan prisoners, including Dilawar, revealing that authorization for the abuse came from the "very top of the United States government". "60 Minutes" correspondent Scott Pelley interviewed retired Army Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, who was appointed chief of staff by Secretary of State
Colin Powell in 2002, during
George W. Bush’s first administration. Willie V. Brand, one of the soldiers convicted of assault and maiming in the deaths of the two prisoners, and Brand’s commanding officer, Capt. Christopher Beiring, were also featured in the program. Wilkerson told “60 Minutes” the he could “smell” a cover-up and was asked by Powell to investigate how American soldiers had come to use torture and stated;
"I was developing the picture as to how this all got started in the first place, and that alarmed me as much as the abuse itself because it looked like authorization for the abuse went to the very top of the United States government". Brand and Beiring confirmed that several of their leaders had witnessed and knew about the abuse and torture of the prisoners.
[10]
Beiring and Brand showed no remorse when recounting the torture. Beiring was charged with dereliction of duty, a charge that was later dropped. Brand was convicted at his court martial, but rather than the 16 years in prison he was facing from the charges brought against him, he was given nothing more than a reduction in his rank.
[10]
In August 2005, Sgt.
Selena M. Salcedo, a female interrogator with the
519th Military Intelligence Battalion, admitted to mistreating Dilawar. In a military court Salcedo pleaded guilty to dereliction of duty and assault, admitting she kicked the prisoner, grabbed his head and forced him against a wall several times. Two related charges were dropped and she was reduced in rank to corporal or specialist, given a letter of reprimand and docked $250 a month in pay for four months. She could have gotten a year in prison, loss of a year’s pay, reduction in rank to private, and a bad-conduct discharge.
[11]
