The Mother of All MP Related Incidents

Military Policemen have been making plenty of headlines recently and this incident in Iraq has to be the most outrageous misconduct by an MP I have seen yet:

Lt. Col. William H. Steele was commander of the 451st Military Police Detachment and is being held in Kuwait, an Army spokesman in Iraq said.

The charge of aiding the enemy involved providing an unmonitored cell phone to detainees at Camp Cropper, a military prison in Baghdad where — at times — Saddam Hussein and other high-value prisoners have been held. The maximum penalty for aiding the enemy is the death sentence.

A second charge, of conduct unbecoming an officer, alleges that Steele “did … knowingly and wrongfully fraternize with the daughter of a detainee,” according to a military news release detailing the charges.

Additionally, Steele “did … knowingly and wrongfully provide special privileges to and maintain an inappropriate relationship with an interpreter,” the release read.

In all, Steele faces nine counts of four different violations of the Uniformed Code of Military Justice. Among the others: unauthorized possession of classified information, storing classified information in his living space, improperly marking classified informatione, failure to obey a lawful order from the 89th Military Police Brigade Deputy Commander, violating General Order Number 1 by possessing pornographic videos and mishandling military funds.

How in the heck did someone this jacked up become a battalion commander to begin with, much less put in charge of the most sensitive prison in Iraq?  If these incidents keep up I made need to add an MP related incident category to my archives.  So anymore thoughts on if MPs make the stupidest criminals.