Clarke Paulus

Several hundred POWs passed through Camp Whitehorse. One of them, Nagem Hatab, died on or around June 5, 2003. Hatab was captured for an alleged role in the March 23, 2003 ambush of the 507th Maintenance Battalion in An Nasiriyah that resulted in the deaths of 9 U.S. soldiers and the capture of Private Jessica Lynch. He was only in custody for about three days. Unlike the other detainees who were at Camp Whitehorse, Hatab refused to communicate with the Marine translator at the detention facility, which led to a later misperception of his condition. Moreover, Paulus had been informed by the Marine Human Intelligence Exploitation Team who interrogated Hatab his first day in confinement that it was unlikely that Hatab would cooperate with his captors. On June 5 he began to display listless behavior, first appearing unstable on his feet then lying down and soiling himself, becoming covered in excrement. As other prisoners had been known to exhibit false signs of faking physical distress, it was unclear if Hatab's behavior was legitimate, and his failure to communicate with the Marine translator compounded the situation. Paulus ordered one of his Marines to haul Hatab out of the common cell to where he could be hosed off. He ordered his soiled clothes removed and burned, and for him to be placed in an outside wire enclosure so his loss of bowel control wouldn't soil the other prisoners' living and eating areas.

A medical corpsman examined Hatab at approximately 5pm, and reported to Paulus that options for Hatab's condition included that he may have suffered a heart attack. However, the medic said Hatab's vital signs were normal and therefore he should be left under observation. (Hatab's autopsy report confirmed he did not suffer a heart attack.) Because the detention facility had no replacement clothing Hatab was left outside naked that evening. At midnight Hatab was found dead. A post-mortem alleged that Hatab had haemorrhaged and suffocated because his hyoid bone had been broken. The hyoid break allegedly occurred when the Marine Paulus had ordered to remove Hatab from the general living area dragged him out. Hatab would not stand so he was hauled by the Marine who cupped his hands under the man's chin, dragging him to the wire enclosure. Once in the enclosure, Hatab was cleaned off, provided food and water and left under direct observation of one of the Marine guards. The entire episode occurred with Major Paulus's commanding officer present.

According to the Houston Chronicle:

"Lieutenant Colonel Kathleen Ingwersen of the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology noted the body had extensive bruising and found seven cracked or fractured ribs. Hatab also had a broken hyoid bone — the free-floating, wishbone-shaped bone supporting the tongue. That, she said, caused him to slowly asphyxiate after he was dragged by the neck to a holding pen. She declared the death a homicide."[2]

Medical testimony for the defense stated that there was nothing clear about the autopsy photo of the hyoid bone and that Ingwersen's autopsy report contradicted her final conclusions. For example, her autopsy report showed Hatab's larynx was not bruised. When confronted with this Ingersen flatly replied that on that point the autopsy report was mistaken.

According to the North County Times Ingwersen said Hatab's was not the usual kind of suffocation—that his death would have spanned hours.[3] When pressed by Paulus' lawyers to present medical literature supporting her theory of death Ingwersen admitted there was none but that she stood by her findings.