[News] Sex abuse alleged at Iraq prison

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Sex abuse alleged at Iraq prison

U.S. guards accused of maltreating Iraqis

By James Risen (NYT)

International Herald Tribune

Friday, April 30, 2004



<http://www.iht.com/ihtsearch.php?id=517789&owner=(NYT)&date=20040429192234>http://www.iht.com/ihtsearch.php?id=517789&owner=(NYT)&date=20040429192234



WASHINGTON: American soldiers at a prison outside Baghdad have been accused 
of forcing Iraqi prisoners into acts of sexual humiliation and other abuses 
in order to make them talk, according to officials and others familiar with 
the charges.



The charges, first announced by the military in March, were documented by 
photographs taken by guards inside the prison, but were not described in 
detail until some of the pictures were made public.



Some of the photographs, and descriptions of others, were broadcast 
Wednesday night by the CBS News program "60 Minutes II" and were verified 
by military officials.



Of the six people reported in March to be facing preliminary charges, three 
have been recommended for court-martial, a senior Pentagon official said 
late Wednesday. The decision on convening courts-martial is now up to 
Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, the senior American commander in Iraq.



The other grand jury hearings, called Article 32 proceedings under military 
law, have been delayed at the request of defense counsel. The CBS News 
program reported that poorly trained American reservists were forcing 
Iraqis to, among other things, conduct simulated sexual acts in order to 
break down their will before they were turned over to others for 
interrogation.



Charges against the soldiers included assault, cruelty, indecent acts and 
maltreatment of detainees, Pentagon officials have said.



Gary Myers, the lawyer for one of the enlisted men charged, said in an 
interview that the military had treated the six enlisted soldiers as 
scapegoats and had failed to address adequately the responsibilities of 
senior commanders and intelligence personnel involved in the interrogations.



Top officers at the prison, including a brigadier general, face 
administrative review, officials said. They are no longer stationed at the 
Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad.



Myers said that the accused men, all from a U.S. Army Reserve military 
police unit, had been told to soften up the prisoners by more senior 
interrogators, some of whom they believe were intelligence officials and 
outside contractors.



"This case involves a monumental failure of leadership, where lower-level 
enlisted people are being scapegoated," Myers said. "The real story is not 
in these six young enlisted people. The real story is the manner in which 
the intelligence community forced them into this position."



Myers represents Staff Sergeant Chip Frederick of the U.S. Army Reserve, 
who has been charged in the case and who was interviewed by "60 Minutes 
II." He complained of a lack of training and admitted that dogs had been 
used to intimidate prisoners.



In one photograph obtained by "60 Minutes II," naked Iraq prisoners are 
stacked in a human pyramid, one with a slur written on his skin in English. 
In another, a prisoner stands on a box, his head covered, wires attached to 
his body. The program said that, according to the U.S. Army, he had been 
told that if he fell off the box, he would be electrocuted. Other 
photographs show male prisoners positioned to simulate sex.



"The pictures show Americans, men and women, in military uniforms, posing 
with naked Iraqi prisoners," states a transcript of the "60 Minutes II" 
script, made available Wednesday night. "And in most of the pictures, the 
Americans are laughing, posing, pointing or giving the camera a thumbs-up."



"60 Minutes II" said that the army also had photographs showing a detainee 
with wires attached to his genitals and another that showed a dog attacking 
an Iraqi prisoner. The program also reported that the army's investigation 
included a statement from an Iraqi detainee who charged that a translator 
hired to work at the prison raped a male juvenile prisoner. The photographs 
were taken inside Abu Ghraib prison, which is infamous as a site where 
Saddam Hussein had prisoners tortured while he was in power.

The New York Times



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