3 soldiers discharged for prisoner abuse

updated 9:08 a.m. ET Jan. 5, 2004

KUWAIT CITY - The U.S. Army discharged three soldiers for abusing prisoners at a detention center in Iraq, a U.S. military spokesman said Monday.

The three soldiers, all from Pennsylvania, were scheduled to face court martials this month but opted instead to submit to a nonjudicial hearing, in which their conduct was judged by a commander without a jury, Lt. Col. Vic Harris said.

Brig. Gen. Ennis Whitehead III, the acting commander of the 143d Transportation Command, found the three soldiers had maltreated prisoners at Camp Bucca, southern Iraq, on May 12. He demoted two of the soldiers and ordered that all three forfeit their salaries for two months. All three were also discharged.

The general found that Master Sgt. Lisa Marie Girman, 35, of Hazelton, Pa. knocked a prisoner to the ground, “repeatedly kicking him in the groin, abdomen, and head, and encouraging her subordinate soldiers to do the same,” Harris said.

Girman received an “other-than-honorable conditions” discharge.

Staff Sgt. Scott A. McKenzie, 38, of Clearfield, Pa., was found to have dragged a prisoner by his shoulders and then to have held his legs apart “and encouraging others to kick him in the groin while other U.S. soldiers kicked him in the abdomen and head,” Harris said.

McKenzie was also found to have thrown the detainee face-down to the ground and have stepped on “his previously injured arm.”

Back in the U.S.
The general also found McKenzie made “a false sworn statement to a special agent of the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Division.”

McKenzie was demoted to sergeant and received a “general, under honorable conditions” discharge.

Spc. Timothy F. Canjar, 21, of Moscow, Pa., was found to have made a false statement to the army’s criminal investigators and to have held a detainee’s legs apart “while others kicked him in the groin,” in addition to “violently twisting his previously injured arm and causing him to scream in pain.”

Canjar was demoted to private — a rank two lower than specialist — and received a “general, under honorable conditions” discharge, Harris said.

The findings were handed down at Camp Arifjan in Kuwait on Dec. 29. The three soldiers have now returned to the United States.

A fourth soldier was charged in the same case, but Sgt. Shawna Edmondson, 24, requested and received an “other-than-honorable” discharge from the military last year rather than face a court martial.

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