[News] U.S. Soldiers Charged With Abusing Iraqi Prisoners

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U.S. Soldiers Charged With Abusing Iraqi Prisoners

    * A 60 Minutes II Special Report
Apr 29, 2004 4:38 am US/Mountain

Last month, the U.S. Army announced 17 soldiers in Iraq, including a 
brigadier general, had been removed from duty after charges of mistreating 
Iraqi prisoners.

But the details of what happened have been kept secret, until now.

It turns out photographs surfaced showing American soldiers abusing and 
humiliating Iraqis being held at a prison near Baghdad. The Army 
investigated, and issued a scathing report.

Now, an Army general and her command staff may face the end of long 
military careers. And six soldiers are facing court martial in Iraq -- and 
possible prison time.
Correspondent Dan Rather talks to one of those soldiers. And, for the first 
time, 60 Minutes II will show some of the pictures that led to the Army 
investigation.

According to the U.S. Army, one Iraqi prisoner was told to stand on a box 
with his head covered, wires attached to his hands. He was told that if he 
fell off the box, he would be electrocuted.

It was this picture, and dozens of others, that prompted an investigation 
by the U.S. Army. On Tuesday, 60 Minutes II asked Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, 
deputy director of coalition operations in Iraq, what went wrong.

Frankly, I think all of us are disappointed by the actions of the few,says 
Kimmitt. Every day, we love our soldiers, but frankly, some days we're not 
always proud of our soldiers."

For decades under Saddam Hussein, many prisoners who were taken to the Abu 
Ghraib prison never came out. It was the centerpiece of Saddams empire of 
fear, and those prisoners who did make it out told nightmarish tales of 
torture beyond imagining and executions without reason.

60 Minutes II talked about the prison and shared pictures of what Americans 
did there with two men who have extensive interrogation experience: Former 
Marine Lt. Col. Bill Cowan and former CIA Bureau Chief Bob Baer.

"I visited Abu Ghraib a couple of days after it was liberated. It was the 
most awful sight I've ever seen. I said, If there's ever a reason to get 
rid of Saddam Hussein, it's because of Abu Ghraib,'says Baer. There were 
bodies that were eaten by dogs, torture. You know, electrodes coming out of 
the walls. It was an awful place."

"We went into Iraq to stop things like this from happening, and indeed, 
here they are happening under our tutelage,says Cowan.

It was American soldiers serving as military police at Abu Ghraib who took 
these pictures. The investigation started when one soldier got them from a 
friend, and gave them to his commanders. 60 Minutes II has a dozen of these 
pictures, and there are many more pictures that show Americans, men and 
women in military uniforms, posing with naked Iraqi prisoners.

There are shots of the prisoners stacked in a pyramid, one with a slur 
written on his skin in English.

In some, the male prisoners are positioned to simulate sex with each other. 
And in most of the pictures, the Americans are laughing, posing, pointing, 
or giving the camera a thumbs-up.

60 Minutes II was only able to contact one of the soldiers facing charges. 
But the Army says they are all in Iraq, awaiting court martial.

"What can the Army say specifically to Iraqis and others who are going to 
see this and take it personally," Rather asked Kimmitt, in an interview 
conducted by satellite from Baghdad.

"The first thing Id say is were appalled as well. These are our fellow 
soldiers. These are the people we work with every day, and they represent 
us. They wear the same uniform as us, and they let their fellow soldiers 
down,says Kimmitt.

Our soldiers could be taken prisoner as well. And we expect our soldiers to 
be treated well by the adversary, by the enemy. And if we can't hold 
ourselves up as an example of how to treat people with dignity and respect 
& We can't ask that other nations to that to our soldiers as well."

So what would I tell the people of Iraq? This is wrong. This is 
reprehensible. But this is not representative of the 150,000 soldiers that 
are over here,adds Kimmitt. I'd say the same thing to the American 
people... Don't judge your army based on the actions of a few."

One of the soldiers facing court martial is Army Reserve Staff Sgt. Chip 
Frederick.

Frederick is charged with maltreatment for allegedly participating in and 
setting up a photo, and for posing in a photograph by sitting on top of a 
detainee. He is charged with an indecent act for observing one scene. He is 
also charged with assault for allegedly striking detainees and ordering 
detainees to strike each other.

60 Minutes II talked with him by phone from Baghdad, where he is awaiting 
court martial.

Frederick told us he will plead not guilty, claiming the way the Army was 
running the prison led to the abuse of prisoners.

We had no support, no training whatsoever. And I kept asking my chain of 
command for certain things...like rules and regulations,says Frederick. And 
it just wasn't happening."

Six months before he faced a court martial, Frederick sent home a video 
diary of his trip across the country. Frederick, a reservist, said he was 
proud to serve in Iraq. He seemed particularly well-suited for the job at 
Abu Ghraib. Hes a corrections officer at a Virginia prison, whose warden 
described Frederick to us as one of the best.

Frederick says Americans came into the prison: We had military 
intelligence, we had all kinds of other government agencies, FBI, CIA ... 
All those that I didn't even know or recognize."

Frederick's letters and email messages home also offer clues to problems at 
the prison. He wrote that he was helping the interrogators:

"Military intelligence has encouraged and told us 'Great job.' "

"They usually don't allow others to watch them interrogate. But since they 
like the way I run the prison, they have made an exception."

"We help getting them to talk with the way we handle them. ... We've had a 
very high rate with our style of getting them to break. They usually end up 
breaking within hours."

According to the Armys own investigation, thats what was happening. The 
Army found that interrogators asked reservists working in the prison to 
prepare the Iraqi detainees, physically and mentally, for questioning.

What, if any actions, are being taken against the interrogators?

"I hope the investigation is including not only the people who committed 
the crimes, but some of the people that might have encouraged these crimes 
as well,says Kimmitt. Because they certainly share some level of 
responsibility as well."

But so far, none of the interrogators at Abu Ghraib are facing criminal 
charges. In fact, a number of them are civilians, and military law doesnt 
apply to them.

One of the civilian interrogators at Abu Ghraib was questioned by the Army, 
and he told investigators he had "broken several tables during 
interrogations, unintentionally," while trying to "fear up" prisoners. He 
denied hurting anyone.

In our phone conversation, 60 Minutes II asked Frederick whether he had 
seen any prisoners beaten.

I saw things. We had to use force sometimes to get the inmates to 
cooperate, just like our rules of engagement said,says Frederick. We 
learned a little bit of Arabic, basic commands. And they didn't want to 
listen, so sometimes, you would just give them a little nudge or something 
like that just to get them to cooperate so we could get the mission 
accomplished."

Attorney Gary Myers and a judge advocate in Iraq are defending Frederick. 
They say he should never have been charged, because of the failure of his 
commanders to provide proper training and standards.

"The elixir of power, the elixir of believing that you're helping the CIA, 
for God's sake, when you're from a small town in Virginia, that's 
intoxicating,says Myers. And so, good guys sometimes do things believing 
that they are being of assistance and helping a just cause. ... And helping 
people they view as important."

Frederick says he didn't see a copy of the Geneva Convention rules for 
handling prisoners of war until after he was charged.

The Army investigation confirms that soldiers at Abu Ghraib were not 
trained at all in Geneva Convention rules. And most were reservists, 
part-time soldiers who didn't get the kind of specialized prisoner of war 
training given to regular Army members.

Frederick also says there were far too few soldiers there for the number of 
prisoners: There was, when I left, there was over 900. And there was only 
five soldiers, plus two non-commissioned officers, in charge for those 900 
-- over 900 inmates."

Rather asked Kimmitt about understaffing. "That doesn't condone individual 
acts of criminal behavior no matter how tired we are. No matter how 
stretched we are, that doesn't give us license and it doesn't give us the 
authority to break the law,says Kimmitt.

That may have been a contributing factor, but at the end of the day, this 
is probably more about leadership, supervision, setting standards, abiding 
by the Army values and understanding what's right, and having the guts to 
say what's right.

Brig. Gen. Janice Karpinsky ran Abu Ghraib for the Army. She was also in 
charge of three other Army prison facilities that housed thousands of Iraqi 
inmates.

The Army investigation determined that her lack of leadership and clear 
standards led to problems system wide. Karpinski talked with 60 
MinutesSteve Kroft last October at Abu Ghraib, before any of this came out.

"This is international standards,said Karpinski. It's the best care 
available in a prison facility."

But the Army investigation found serious problems behind the scenes. The 
Army has photographs that show a detainee with wires attached to his 
genitals. Another shows a dog attacking an Iraqi prisoner. Frederick said 
that dogs were used for intimidation factors.

Part of the Army's own investigation is a statement from an Iraqi detainee 
who charges a translator - hired to work at the prison - with raping a male 
juvenile prisoner: "They covered all the doors with sheets. I heard the 
screaming. ...and the female soldier was taking pictures."

There is also a picture of an Iraqi man who appears to be dead -- and badly 
beaten.

"It's reprehensible that anybody would be taking a picture of that 
situation,says Kimmitt.

But what about the situation itself?

I don't know the facts surrounding what caused the bruising and the 
bleeding,says Kimmitt. If that is also one of the charges being brought 
against the soldiers, that too is absolutely unacceptable and completely 
outside of what we expect of our soldiers and our guards at the prisons."

Is there any indication that similar actions may have happened at other 
prisons? I'd like to sit here and say that these are the only prisoner 
abuse cases that we're aware of, but we know that there have been some 
other ones since we've been here in Iraq,says Kimmitt.

When Saddam ran Abu Ghraib prison, Iraqis were too afraid to come ask for 
information on their family members.

When 60 Minutes II was there last month, hundreds had gathered outside the 
gates, worried about what is going on inside.

"We will be paid back for this. These people at some point will be let 
out,says Cowan. Their families are gonna know. Their friends are gonna know."

This is a hard story to have to tell when Americans are fighting and dying 
in Iraq. And for Cowan, its a personal issue. His son is an infantry 
soldier serving in Iraq for the last four months.

Rather asked Cowan what he would say to "that person who is sitting in 
their living room and saying, I wish they wouldn't do this. It's 
undermining our troops and they shouldn't do it."

"If we don't tell this story, these kinds of things will continue. And 
we'll end up getting paid back 100 or 1,000 times over,says Cowan. 
Americans want to be proud of each and everything that our servicemen and 
women do in Iraq. We wanna be proud. We know they're working hard. None of 
us, now, later, before or during this conflict, should wanna let incidents 
like this just pass."

Kimmitt says the Army will not let what happened at Abu Ghraib just pass. 
What does he think is the most important thing for Americans to know about 
what has happened?

"I think two things. No. 1, this is a small minority of the military, and 
No. 2, they need to understand that is not the Army,says Kimmitt. The Army 
is a values-based organization. We live by our values. Some of our soldiers 
every day die by our values, and these acts that you see in these pictures 
may reflect the actions of individuals, but by God, it doesn't reflect my 
army."

Two weeks ago, 60 Minutes II received an appeal from the Defense 
Department, and eventually from the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, 
Gen. Richard Myers, to delay this broadcast -- given the danger and tension 
on the ground in Iraq.

60 Minutes II decided to honor that request, while pressing for the Defense 
Department to add its perspective to the incidents at Abu Ghraib prison. 
This week, with the photos beginning to circulate elsewhere, and with other 
journalists about to publish their versions of the story, the Defense 
Department agreed to cooperate in our report.

MMIV, CBS Broadcasting Inc., All Rights Reserved.


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