|
Military intelligence behind abuse { May 20 2004 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/world/8709253.htmhttp://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/world/8709253.htm
Posted on Thu, May. 20, 2004
ABU GHRAIB PRISON
Soldier: Military intelligence behind abuse
A soldier with U.S. military intelligence described how interrogators directed military police to 'break' detainees with abusive tactics.
BY JOSH WHITE AND SCOTT HIGHAM
Washington Post Service
WASHINGTON - Military intelligence officers at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq directed military police to take clothes from prisoners, leave detainees naked in their cells and make them wear women's underwear, part of a series of alleged abuses that were openly discussed at the facility, according to a military intelligence soldier who worked at the prison last fall.
Sgt. Samuel Provance said intelligence interrogators told military police to strip prisoners and embarrass them as a way to help ''break'' them.
The same interrogators and intelligence analysts would talk about the abuse with Provance and flippantly dismiss it because the Iraqis were considered ''the enemy,'' he said.
The first military intelligence soldier to speak openly about alleged abuses at Abu Ghraib, Provance said in a telephone interview from Germany Wednesday that the highest-ranking military intelligence officers at the prison were involved and that the Army appears to be trying to deflect attention away from military intelligence's role.
VIEW CHALLENGED
Since the abuses at Abu Ghraib became public, senior Pentagon officials have characterized the interrogation techniques as the willful actions of a small group of soldiers and a failure of leadership by their commander. But the comments of Provance challenge that view and add to the contentions of several others, including the brigade commander, who allege that the techniques were directed by military intelligence officials.
In an interview, Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski claimed that military intelligence imposed its authority so fully that she eventually had limited access to the interrogation facilities.
And an attorney for one of the soldiers accused of abuse said Wednesday that the Army has rejected his request for an independent inquiry, which could block potentially crucial information about military intelligence, CIA and FBI involvement from being revealed.
Provance was part of that military intelligence operation, but he administered a secret computer network at Abu Ghraib for about six months and said he did not witness much abuse first-hand.
But he said he had numerous discussions with members of the 205th Military Intelligence Brigade about their tactics.
He also maintains he voiced his disapproval as early as last October.
`IN CONTROL'
''Military intelligence was in control,'' Provance said. ''Setting the conditions for interrogations was strictly dictated by military intelligence. They weren't the ones carrying it out, but they were the ones telling the MPs to wake the detainees up every hour on the hour'' or to limit their food.
The 205th Military Intelligence Brigade's top officers have declined to comment publicly, not answering repeated phone calls and e-mail messages.
Provance, a member of the 302nd MI Battalion's A Company, signed a nondisclosure agreement at his base in Germany on Friday. But he said he wanted to discuss Abu Ghraib because he feels the intelligence community is covering up the abuses. He also spoke to ABC News.
Provance was interviewed by Maj. Gen. George Fay -- who is looking into the military intelligence community's role in the abuses -- and testified at an Article 32 hearing for one of the MPs this month. But Provance said Fay was only interested in what military police had done, asking no questions about military intelligence.
Gary Myers, a civilian attorney representing one of seven MPs charged in the abuse, Staff Sgt. Ivan L. Frederick, said his client doesn't claim he was ordered to abuse detainees, just that military intelligence outlined what should be done, and then left it up to the MPs.
''My guy is simply saying that these activities were encouraged by MI,'' Myers said Wednesday. ``The story is not necessarily that there was a direct order. Everybody is far too subtle and smart for that. . . . Realistically, there is a description of an activity, a suggestion that it may be helpful and encouragement that this is exactly what we needed.''
FEARS COVERUP
Myers says he fears officials are covering up the involvement of military intelligence, and that military officials have dissected the investigation into several separate inquiries run by people who have clear conflicts of interest.
Earlier this month Myers asked Lt. Gen. Thomas Metz, commander of the Army's III Corps in Iraq, to order a special ''court of inquiry'' to offer an outside, unbiased look at the scandal, as was done when a U.S. Navy submarine collided with a Japanese fishing boat near Hawaii in 2001.
In a short letter dated May 5, Metz refused.
|
|
