Contractor alleging abuse in Iraq says he feared U.S. forces more than insurgents

I say, stop using US-taxpayer-financed contractors (mercenaries)!

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By SCOTT SONNER
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

RENO -- Peter Ginter learned what it was like to be a prisoner of war in combat training exercises, so he had an idea of what to expect last month when he was roughed up, stripped and locked in a 6-by-8-foot cell in Iraq.

But the ex-Marine never imagined his captors would be U.S. military personnel. And he never dreamed they would hand him a Quran and a prayer rug, and treat him like the enemy for the next 72 hours.

"It's just unreal," said Ginter, 30, of Colorado Springs, Colo., the latest to speak out among 16 American and three Iraqi security contractors who were detained for three days in a facility with insurgents after being accused of firing shots at U.S. forces near Fallujah.

Ginter said he was kicked, his head bounced off the pavement and his testicle squeezed by a guard during his detention.

"I was more worried about my life from the (U.S.) military than from the insurgents," he said Wednesday.

"I can't sleep at night anymore. I keep thinking I hear the steel door slamming," he said.

Ginter arrived in Reno late Wednesday to meet with his lawyer, Mark Schopper, who also represents another of the detained contractors, Matt Raiche, 34, of Dayton. Raiche leveled similar accusations of abuse when he returned to Nevada last week.

Schopper said they're examining possible legal recourse. "The priority right now is to clear these men's names," he said.

The Marines detained the contractors May 28 after they are alleged to have fired from vehicles on Iraqi civilian cars and U.S. forces in Fallujah. They were released June 1, and no charges have been filed. The Marines have denied allegations of abuse.

The contractors worked for Zapata Engineering based in Charlotte, N.C., which has a contract with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to manage an ammunition depot in Iraq.

Lt. Col. Dave Lapan, a spokesman for the Marines in Iraq, said the convoy was stopped and the contractors detained "because Marines witnessed them firing at or near civilian vehicles and at Marine positions."

Company President Manuel Zapata has said the only shot fired by his workers was a warning blast after they noticed a vehicle following them.

 

hehe, you know what, I am with the troops on this one. I think the contractors are whining ... [someone can insert a crybaby pic here]