Dereliction of Duty
Letter of Reprimand
SGT James P. Boland of the 377th Military Police Company, was charged originally with
maltreatment, dereliction of duty and assault, but he was then just given a letter of reprimand for
dereliction of duty in relation to the death of Mullah Habibullah at Bagram, Afghanistan, Dec. 3,
2002.
In late August of 2002, the Bagram interrogators were joined by the new military police unit that
was assigned to guard the detainees. The soldiers, mostly reservists from the 377th Military Police
Company based in Cincinnati and Bloomington, Ind., were similarly unprepared for their mission,
members of the unit said. The company received basic lessons in handling prisoners at Fort Dix,
N.J., and some police and corrections officers in its ranks provided further training. That
instruction included an overview of "pressure-point control tactics" and notably the "common
peroneal strike" - a potentially disabling blow to the side of the leg, just above the knee.
The communication between Mr. Habibullah and his jailers appears to have been almost
exclusively physical. Despite repeated requests, the M.P.'s were assigned no interpreters of their
own. Instead, they borrowed from the interrogators when they could and relied on prisoners who
spoke even a little English to translate for them. When the detainees were beaten or kicked for
"noncompliance," one of the interpreters, Ali M. Baryalai said, it was often "because they have no
idea what the M.P. is saying."
