[News] Guantanamo Warden to Oversee U.S. Iraq Prison Rules

[News at freedomarchives.org]

Since Guantanamo is so humane:


Guantanamo Warden to Oversee U.S. Iraq Prison Rules
Fri Apr 30, 2004 02:07 PM ET

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A former head of the U.S. Guantanamo Bay jail in Cuba 
has been sent to Iraq to ensure proper prison conditions, after photos 
apparently showed U.S. soldiers abusing Iraqi prisoners, the military said 
on Friday.

The photos appeared to show U.S. soldiers at the Abu Ghraib prison in 
Baghdad run by the military posing and laughing as naked, male prisoners 
were stacked in a pyramid or made to simulate sex acts with one another.

The pictures were also shown on Arab television, outraging Arabs already 
embittered by the U.S. invasion and occupation of an Arab country, and 
seemed sure to further alienate Iraqis whose resentment of Washington has 
fired two simultaneous uprisings.

"Major General Geoffrey Miller, who was running the Guantanamo operations, 
is now on the ground serving as deputy manager for detention operations," 
Brigadier-General Mark Kimmitt, spokesman for U.S. forces in Iraq, told a 
news conference in Baghdad.

Kimmitt said Miller would help ensure proper detention and interrogation 
practices in Iraq.

Controversy has also surrounded the Guantanamo camp because terror suspects 
have been held there with no charges or legal representation. Photos of 
detainees shackled and being forced to kneel in chain link cages sparked 
international outrage.

Kimmitt said Iraq's U.S. occupiers were now training jailers to prevent a 
repeat of the events photographed at Abu Ghraib, and said the graphic 
images did not accurately reflect the intentions of actions of the U.S. 
military.

"We are taking as a coalition, as an army, very aggressive steps to ensure 
that the risk of this happening again is absolutely minimized," Kimmitt said.

"We are absolutely appalled by what we saw. There was no excuse for what 
you see in those photos. I'm not going to stand up here and try to 
apologize for what those soldiers did. Those soldiers let us down, they 
simply let us down," he said.

President Bush, asked his reaction to the photos, expressed his disgust, 
saying: "I didn't like it one bit."


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