War Crimes and Innocence in Iraq

Dan Snow's History Hit

History Hit

History

4.7 • 12.9K Ratings

🗓️ 14 May 2021

⏱️ 31 minutes

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Summary

Following the toppling of Saddam Hussein's regime in 2003 British troops in Basra were confronted with a chaotic situation as looting and rioting took hold of the city and society collapsed. As the British soldiers attempted to deal with this situation, for which they were neither trained nor equipped, a young Iraqi man drowned in one of the many canals found in southern Iraq.

Joe McCleary and three other soldiers were accused of war crimes relating to the death of the young Iraqi man and subsequently arrested. After years of struggle and four different investigations, they were found innocent of all charges. In this episode, we'll be speaking to Will Yates, author of War Trials which tells the story of the men involved. We'll also hear from Joe McCleary about his experiences and the damage done to his mental health, prospects and family by the investigations following that tragic day in Iraq.

A group of service personnel and veterans falsely accused of war crimes in Iraq are currently crowdfunding to bring legal action against the Ministry of Defence. More information and the opportunity to donate to their campaign can be found here.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, everyone. Welcome to Dance Know's history.
0:03.2	Will Yates is a friend and former colleague. He's a brilliant writer and he's just published
0:07.8	a new book which he brought to my attention. It features the story of four British soldiers
0:14.3	in Basra in 2003. They were part of an operation to try and stabilise Iraq following the US-led
0:23.3	Allied invasion that toppled Stammer saying in 2003. They were confronted with a chaotic
0:29.6	situation. Anarchy on the streets, looters, rioters, a society that collapsed. As the
0:36.1	British soldiers attempted to deal with this situation, a situation that they're training
0:40.8	and not prepared for in their equipment was unsuitable for one Iraqi teenager drowned
0:47.8	in one of the many canals that crisscrossed that area of southern Iraq.
0:53.0	In this podcast, you're going to hear me talk to Will Yates who has written up this story.
0:58.8	But you're also going to hear me talk to Joe McCleary. Joe comes from a tight-knit family
1:04.5	home in Mersey's side and he was one of the soldiers that found himself in Iraq, in Basra,
1:11.6	and intimately connected with the events that caused the death of this young Iraqi man.
1:16.6	Joe was arrested. He was tried in a court martial. He was cleared. He was then investigated
1:22.4	in subsequent inquiries by the Iraq Historical Allegations team. In 2011, they found no further
1:27.8	actionable evidence. He was then investigated again by the IFI, the Iraq Fatality Investigations,
1:36.5	which is a non-judicial Ministry of Defense process. His service and the investigations
1:42.8	that followed his time in Iraq have had a devastating effect on Joe's mental health.
1:47.5	He has struggled with suicide attempts to press and a deep sense of betrayal by those
1:53.8	he once served with. It's a fascinating insight into a piece of very recent British military
2:01.4	history. If you want to go back and listen to several recent podcasts we've done on
2:07.1	the first war in Iraq in 1991, you can do so either on this V, where V8 iPods or at
	...

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