An excerpt from Tom Ricks' 2006 book Fiasco alleges that former U.S. Army Lt. Col. Allen West -- a candidate for Congress in Broward and Palm Beach -- had to be told by a subordinate that the interrogation of an Iraqi detainee had gone too far.
For background on that August 2003 interrogation, check out this Juice post. West had had his soldiers haul in an Iraqi police officer suspected of having knowledge of a plot to assassinate West. In one of the many breaches of protocol, West interrogated the prisoner himself. He threatened to kill the prisoner. When soldiers' beating the prisoner didn't work, West himself a shot past the man's ear before a senior sergeant finally told him, "Sir, I don't think he knows."
In his own statements about the incident, West has claimed that the interrogation led to valuable intelligence, but that doesn't jibe with the account in Fiasco. Excerpt after the jump.
From page 280 of Fiasco:
If you scroll up a bit, you'll see that although West reported the incident to his superiors, no action was taken until the 4th Infantry Division, for which West commanded an artillery battalion, was investigated for other reported abuses.
