MIAMI, 9 March 2005 — US soldiers abused at least one wounded prisoner in Iraq and showed disrespect to dead Iraqis as well as Iraqi civilians, according to a video made public Monday.

The nearly 27-minute video, dubbed “Ramadi Madness,” was made early last year by members of the Florida National Guard who served in Iraq as part of the 124th Infantry Regiment and was investigated by the US military as part of its probe of alleged abuses committed by American troops in Iraq.

The Pentagon unveiled results of the army’s investigation of events contained in the video on Friday, with documents showing the military had decided not to bring any charges against the soldiers because they had displayed “inappropriate rather than criminal behavior.”

The Pentagon did not release the video, saying it believed it had been destroyed. But a Florida newspaper, The Palm Beach Post, obtained it and posted some of it on its Web site on Monday.

The soldiers edited and compiled it into a DVD in January 2004, with various sections bearing titles such as “Those Crafty Little Bastards” and “Another Day, Another Mission, Another Scumbag.”

One section of the video showed a bound and wounded prisoner sprawled on the ground, and showed his bullet entry and exit wounds. At one point, a US soldier kicked the prisoner in the face.

Army documents quoted a soldier at the scene as saying he “thought the dude eventually died. We weren’t in any hurry to call the medics.”

Another detainee is shown shirtless, with “b2-2” scrawled on his back in black marker.

The video shows another captured Iraqi being treated for a head wound while a voice off-screen tells him to “smile for the camera.”

In another scene, the camera focused on a line of detainees, their hands tied with plastic handcuffs behind their backs, as an off-screen voice says: “Bad guy, bad guy, bad guy.”

Waving Corpse

In another part of the video, a soldier grabbed the arm of a truck driver who had just be shot dead and makes the corpse wave to the camera.

The events that preceded the incident were not shown on the video. The newspaper reported that US troops had stopped the truck and ordered the driver to step out, but he ran back into the vehicle and sped away only to be shot dead by an American soldier. It said the booby-trapped rear door of the truck exploded.

Documents released by the Pentagon showed that Army criminal investigators looked into the matter and decided no criminal charges were warranted against the soldiers.

Documents showed that the Army deemed the actions shown on the video “inappropriate” rather than criminal.

“It didn’t rise to the level of criminal abuse, according to the investigations,” said Lt. Col. Jeremy Martin, an Army spokesman at the Pentagon. “Clearly, the soldiers probably exercised poor judgment ... and I’m sure that they were admonished by their command for their actions.”

Ramadi has been a flash point in the guerrilla war that followed the US-led ouster of President Saddam Hussein in 2003. More than 1,500 US troops have been killed in the war.

The video contains grisly footage of burned and dismembered bodies on the pavement following a massive explosion. A soldier points to some remains and pokes them with his foot. Some voices, apparently belonging to soldiers who cannot be seen, exclaim, “Oh, that’s part of his skull.”

US troops are also shown riding through an Iraqi village honking their horn and shouting at Iraqis, “Get out of the way, we’re trying to drive here!”

Anthony Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union, said the new documents underscore the need for an independent special counsel and congressional hearings to investigate the abuses.

“Pieces of the puzzle are still missing,” Romero said in a statement. “An outside special counsel is the only way to ensure that all civilians who violated, or conspired to violate the laws are held responsible for their crimes.”

The Palm Beach Post stated on its website it did not post video showing the gruesome aftermath of a suicide bombing and excluded the audio portion because of profane language.