Note: The below article is available with integrated web links via the iNoodle.com blog at the following URL:
 http://inoodle.com/2005/12/former-us-army-interrogator-describes.html

Introduction by Sean M. Madden (iNoodle.com):

The below is an excerpt from the Democracy Now! webpage which corresponds with the segment broadcast on November 15th. Video, audio and a written transcript of this interview between Amy Goodman and Tony Lagouranis are available via this webpage.

That this interview is now more than two weeks old makes it no less relevant. Indeed, that the media has done so little with this firsthand account of a US Army interrogator in Iraq makes it all the more relevant.

As Levity stated on Daily Kos—and which I included in my post from yesterday—this story "will disappear until bloggers start talking about it. Only PBS Frontline and Democracy Now! have dared to interview U.S. interrogator Tony Lagouranis, who reports widespread torture and abuse throughout Iraq."

As an indication of how relative few inroads this story is making into the public conscience, the Google search which I just performed (1 Dec 05; 12:56pm GMT) on "Tony Lagouranis" resulted in 694 hits. For the subject of a story of such international import, this is very low.

Please help to spread word of this important story. Let neither false patriotism nor cynical resignation stand in the way of the crucial search for truth in these treacherous times.

Democracy Now!
November 15, 2005

With deep remorse, former U.S. Army interrogator Specialist Tony Lagouranis talks about his own involvement with abusing detainees in Iraq and torture carried out by the Navy Seals. He apologizes to the Iraqi people and urges U.S. soldiers to follow their conscience. Lagouranis returned from Iraq in January and until now had given no live interviews. But Lagouranis says he now feels it his duty to speak out about what he witnessed in Iraq:

* His use of harsh interrogation techniques on prisoners in Iraq including dogs, sleep deprivation, prolonged isolation and dietary manipulation.

* How Navy SEALS induced hypothermia by using ice water to lower the body temperature of prisoners.

* Serving in Fallujah and going through the clothes and pockets of some 500 dead bodies to try and identify them.

* The corpses on men, women and children in Fallujah, which had been lying in the streets for days and had been "eaten by dogs and birds and maggots," were then stacked up in a warehouse where U.S. soldiers ate and slept.