Iraqis Say U.S. Soldiers Steal During House Raids

[Botellines 0]

By Luke Baker

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Besides the prisoner-abuse scandal, there is another, more pervasive problem Iraqis say they suffer daily at the hands of U.S. troops -- theft of money and other property during aggressive American raids.

Over the past 14 months of occupation, U.S. forces have carried out literally thousands of raids on homes across the country, routinely seizing money, jewelry and other property from Iraqis suspected of "anti-coalition activities."

Items are generally confiscated on suspicion they could be used to finance attacks against U.S.-led forces, and the U.S. military says it has had some success in cutting off funding for insurgents via the policy.

But Iraqis say the raids often target the wrong people, are carried out in an aggressive, even destructive manner and complain that lifetime savings, precious jewelry and family heirlooms are regularly stolen in the process.

Adel Alami, a lawyer with Iraq's Human Rights Organization, says the majority of the cases his group deals with involve Iraqis seeking compensation for lost property and cash.

"It's a huge problem, almost everyone has something to say about gold, money and other valuables going missing and they don't believe they'll ever get them back," he told Reuters.

Last year, Wajiha Daoud, an 80-year-old widow, had her house in a middle-class neighborhood of old Baghdad raided by U.S. troops who said they had "high-level intelligence" that the home was a safe house for Saddam Hussein loyalists.

During the raid, which lasted around 30 minutes, the woman and her family, who live across the street, were kept outside.

"When we went back in, the house was half-destroyed," said her son Musadaq Younis, an English-speaking computer technician.

"All the furniture was slashed with knives, tables and chairs were broken and the windows smashed. They didn't need to break down the front door -- I told them I had the key."

But that was not the worst. When Younis' sister arrived she immediately rushed upstairs to a small cabinet and found it empty -- $5,000 in cash, gold and other jewelry, including her wedding ring, were missing. "She went white," said Younis.
The family filed a claim against the U.S. military -- a complex process that took nearly three months to get a reply. In response, the military said the raid was justified and no compensation was owed. The officer who commanded the raid told Younis: "My soldiers aren't thieves."

Being comfortably well-off and employed, the impact of the loss on the family was not too great, but for hundreds, if not thousands of other Iraqi families, raids on their homes can prove devastating, socially and financially.

"Confiscation and theft during raids is rampant," said Stewart Vriesinga, a coordinator for Christian Peacemaker Teams, a non-profit group that documents abuses in Iraq.

"Soldiers don't seem to understand the Iraqi custom of not using banks -- a lot of people keep fairly substantial sums of money at home. A soldier from Kentucky or wherever sees that and thinks the person must be up to no good, so he takes it.

"We sure don't know how much money has been taken from (Iraqis)...but it's enough to have serious socio-economic consequences," he told Reuters.

A spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition said he was aware of Iraqi complaints of theft during raids and said some U.S. soldiers had been disciplined for "inappropriate conduct." But he said the problem was "very rare, extremely rare."

"We're aware of it... But there's also the possibility of Iraqis making malicious claims," said Captain Mark Doggett.

Doggett said when are items are confiscated, a receipt is always given. If the owner is eventually found to be innocent, items can be recovered, he said. But many people who have had property confiscated say no receipts were written.

Vriesinga estimates that in nine out of 10 raids, the home owners raided are innocent, but suffer huge consequences.

"If the husband is hauled off as a suspect, the family has lost its breadwinner and often lost its savings and cash as well," he said, citing a recent Red Cross report which referred to up to 90 percent of Iraqi detainees being innocent.

If Iraqis file complaints, it comes down to a case of the Iraqi suspect's word against the American soldier's, he said.

"If there's any doubt, then it's assumed the Iraqi is lying -- the Americans are creating enemies by the score."

http://reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=5250466§ion=news

[cvfd1399 0]

NOOOO that would never happen if it were another military

[TypicalFish 0]

Is this really so shocking; to believe that the same army that included soldiers who were capable of the tactics used in the infamous photographs would also include people who have no problem with stealing from someone's home? Make no mistake, I do firmly believe that the actions of these soldiers and the infamous prison guards were in no way, shape, or form indicative of the character of the rest of our soldiers. I just do not think that you can take 250,00 troops, a good portion of which are from depressed backgrounds or are relatively un-educated, plunk them down half a world away from home with an ethnicially seperated "enemy", and expect every one of them to hang on to their morals. The Stanford students in their infamous experiment couldn't do it on their own college campus for a week.

"I gargle no man's balls..." ussfpa on SOCNET

[Botellines 0]

You are right. But if you want any chance to reconstruct Irak and stop terrorist attacks there, it is extremely important that you get the simpathy of all the non-terrorist Irakis (which by the way are 99%) And by doing that The US is getting the opposite.
It is unrealistic to expect that things like that will not happen., but if the Us army were more strict with the thiefs among their files, Iraquis perception of the Us army would change for the better a lot.

[TypicalFish 0]

Oh, I agree, by way of clarification, I find the behaviour reprehensible, just not very much of a shock. You would think that the military leaders in their infinite wisdom would expect things like this.

"I gargle no man's balls..." ussfpa on SOCNET

[kallend 2,150]

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NOOOO that would never happen if it were another military

But it isn't another military, it is our military, there in their "white hats" as an army of liberation to free the poor oppressed people of Iraq from the yoke of tyranny.

...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[Zenister 0]

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You would think that the military leaders in their infinite wisdom would expect things like this.

you'd like to think so..........but

i personally know of incidents where documents, pictures etc gathered from raided homes were thrown in the burn pit after it was determined their intelligence value was minimal....

[sarcasm] real good way to win the support of the people[sarcasm], but i guess its easier than trying to figure out who they belong to to return them....its difficult to control and track every soldiers actions in this kind of conflict, but we could certainly be doing a better job if we wish to gain and maintain the basic respect of the populace...

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Those who fail to learn from the past are simply Doomed.