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US general concedes abuse was torture { August 27 2004 }

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   http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/08/26/1093456748705.html?oneclick=true

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/08/26/1093456748705.html?oneclick=true

US general concedes abuse was torture
By Josh White
Washington
August 27, 2004

Three army generals have found that 35 military intelligence soldiers and civilian contractors were partially to blame for an array of sometimes shocking detainee abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. One general conceded that some of the acts qualified as torture.


The new report casts some of the abuses, such as interrogating detainees naked or with barking dogs nearby, as mistakes that stemmed from confusing policies on extracting information to combat a growing insurgency in Iraq.

But it said some intelligence personnel purposely supported or participated in physical abuses that ranged "from inhumane to sadistic".

While the months-long investigation found scant evidence that interrogators specifically ordered military police to carry out individual abusive acts, it did conclude that in 16 different cases "abuse by the MP soldiers was, or was alleged to have been, requested, encouraged, condoned, or solicited by (military intelligence) personnel".

That conclusion could be important to the seven MP soldiers who so far have been charged with criminal conduct because it tends to support their defence lawyers' claims that they were acting at the direction of military intelligence.

Coupled with an independent investigative report issued on Tuesday on global US detention practices, the findings released on Wednesday outline dramatic problems at the prison west of Baghdad.

Officials at the Pentagon have characterised the sexual humiliation, beatings and mock sexual positions seen in the photographs as the work of a few rogue military police soldiers who were attacking detainees on their own.

Wednesday's report made it clear that while MPs were involved in abuses, the transgressions were more widespread and generally accepted than previously acknowledged.

But the army generals found no overarching army policy or doctrine that they believe led to the abuses, emphasising that a vast majority of US soldiers abided by the rules and have been serving with pride.

The inquiry by the generals was commissioned after a report by Major-General Antonio Taguba, leaked to The New Yorker magazine in May, found numerous instances of abuse and recommended further investigation of the role of military intelligence officers. Their final report found that interrogators at Abu Ghraib did not know the rules and thus flagrantly broke them.

Detainees were questioned while naked, the CIA hid prisoners from international human rights groups, and detainees were left hooded and handcuffed in painful stress positions.

In sometimes agonising detail, the generals detailed acts of sodomy, beatings, nudity, lengthy isolation, and the use of unmuzzled dogs in a sadistic game of making detainees urinate and defecate in fear.

"The abuses spanned from direct physical assault, such as delivering head blows rendering detainees unconscious, to sexual posing and forced participation in group masturbation," the report said. "At the extremes were the death of a detainee, an alleged rape committed by a US translator and observed by a female soldier, and the alleged sexual assault of an unknown female."

The report assigns blame for committing abuse or failing to report it to a total of 35 military intelligence personnel and to 11 military police and two medics.

The generals cited five others for reprimand, including Colonel Thomas Pappas, the commander of the 205th Military Intelligence Brigade, who was in charge of the facility at the time of the abuses.


Neither of the investigations assigns direct blame for the abuse to top military commanders or civilian leaders in Washington, but both reports conclude that a lack of planning for postwar Iraq and fundamental breakdowns in leadership fostered the environment in which the abuse occurred.

General Paul Kern, Lieutenant-General Anthony Jones and Major-General George Fay found "serious misconduct and a loss of moral values" in the ranks at Abu Ghraib and explained that abuse occurred both in the chaos of the military police-run night shift and also during official interrogations by military intelligence soldiers.

"What started as undressing and humiliation, stress and physical training, carried over into sexual and physical assaults by a small group of morally corrupt and unsupervised soldiers and civilians," the report said.

In response to questions about whether the abuse amounted to torture, General Fay said the term was subjective, but said he thought some of the abuse qualified. "It's a harsh word, and in some instances, unfortunately, I think it was appropriate here. There were a few instances when torture was being used," he said.


The generals also found at least eight instances of CIA officials hiding "ghost detainees" from human rights groups, a violation of international law that they referred to the Defence Department's Inspector-General and to the CIA.

Interrogators were taking cues from their previous experiences in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and Afghanistan and guidance about the legality of certain harsh tactics from commanders was hazy at best and sometimes even wrong.

For example, the use of painful stress positions, nudity and military working dogs were not approved tactics for interrogations - yet they were endorsed by Lieutenant-General Ricardo Sanchez's command.

Richard Hernandez, a lawyer defending Private Lynndie England against abuse charges, said the report confirmed military police claims that they were told to use abusive tactics against detainees.

"This was no rogue band of soldiers, this was a completely chaotic and failed command structure," Mr Hernandez said.

Human rights groups said the report still muddled questions of responsibility.

In Philadelphia, Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry renewed his call for Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's resignation.

- agencies




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Graner lawyer points finger at chain of command { January 7 2005 }
Graner questioned orders and was told it was legal
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Guilty sergeant says military intelligence oversaw abuse { October 21 2004 }
Harsh CIA methods cited in top interrogations { May 13 2004 }
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Judge orders government to release damning abu ghraib videos { June 3 2005 }
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Lawyers call rumsfeld cheney to abuse hearing { June 4 2004 }
Lynndie england gets 3 years while officers not charged { September 27 2005 }
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Photos of dead iraqi prisoners raise questions { May 7 2004 }
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Photos of soldiers with dead prisoners { May 19 2004 }
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Report on abuse faults 2 intelligence officers { May 3 2004 }
Reservist pleads not guilty to kicking pow to death { August 24 2004 }
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