WP: Iraqi Prison Abuse Not a Strategy, Officer Says

[DeepModem Mom]

Iraqi Prison Abuse Not a Strategy, Officer Says

By Josh White
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, August 6, 2004; Page A16


FORT BRAGG, N.C., Aug. 5 -- A top military intelligence commander who worked at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq said Thursday that abuse of detainees at the facility was not part of an official interrogation strategy and instead represented "unacceptable behavior."

Capt. Carolyn A. Wood spoke publicly for the first time at a preliminary court hearing here, testifying via telephone that her military intelligence unit did not encourage the sexual humiliation and physical abuse of detainees that touched off an international scandal. Wood said her command -- and other senior officers in Iraq -- signed off on some controversial interrogation tactics but said that such methods were carefully applied and never involved physical contact....

***

But Wood said at least one of the officially approved methods of harsh interrogation -- the use of muzzled military dogs -- appears to have been misapplied. She said Col. Thomas M. Pappas, commander of the 205th Military Intelligence Brigade, told her he was bringing in the dogs shortly before she left the base, and photographic evidence and statements from dog handlers at Abu Ghraib indicate that unmuzzled dogs later were used to frighten detainees during interrogations. The dogs were brought within inches of detainees' faces, and at least one detainee was bitten....

***

Capt. Brent Fitch, a staff judge advocate and Pappas's legal adviser, testified that he saw one or two requests each week for deviations from the standard set of interrogation tactics, requests that needed approval from Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, then the highest-ranking U.S. officer in Iraq. Fitch said military intelligence officials also kept International Committee of the Red Cross investigators from seeing certain prisoners at Abu Ghraib on a "temporary" basis, using a provision of the Geneva Conventions that allows them to secretly hold detainees for a "real imperative necessity." He said about eight such prisoners were kept from the ICRC during a visit in December....

***

Wood said that she does not believe that any military intelligence soldiers instructed the MPs to abuse prisoners, but she did acknowledge that the interrogators kept their identities concealed while on the cellblock....


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A43913-2004Aug5.html

[demoman123]

1. Not a strategy. It was a "tactic."

"Wood said her command -- and other senior officers in Iraq -- signed off on some controversial interrogation tactics..."

[saigon68]

5. the use of muzzled military dogs -- appears to have been misapplied.

NO MUZZLES ON THESE PUPPIES

[kodi]

6. demo, you were reading my mind ...tactics are particulars

.

[cthrumatrix]

2. as he walked away....$100 bills were seen falling from his pocket

[DeepModem Mom]

3. Adding LAT: Testimony Implicates Abu Ghraib Questioners

THE NATION
Testimony Implicates Abu Ghraib Questioners

By Richard A. Serrano, Times Staff Writer

FT. BRAGG, N.C. — U.S. Army intelligence officers often physically and mentally tormented detainees in Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison, but only once were any held accountable for their misconduct, according to testimony heard Thursday in a military court.

The statements contradicted the government's position that only seven rogue soldiers — all military police — were directly responsible for the abuse. The latest accounts in the unfolding scandal came on the third day of a preliminary hearing into charges against Pfc. Lynndie R. England, 21, who is one of six facing possible court-martial. The seventh has pleaded guilty....

***

But several military interrogators and others described for the first time Thursday a variety of harsh treatments they said were meted out by the intelligence squad itself. The torment, they said, ranged from forcing nude prisoners to drag their genitals across a dirty prison floor to scaring prisoners with police dogs and breaking tables in front of them. One interrogator allegedly told a prisoner, "I wish I could kill you right now."

Spc. Israel Rivera, an intelligence analyst, testified that his colleagues reveled in the misconduct, much like the prison guards: "It was just something out of sport. It was like, 'Hey, do you want to see something cool?' "

***

Wood, the captain over the intelligence unit, insisted that her subordinates were well-behaved and largely obeyed signs she had posted around the prison warning them of policies protecting detainees against abuse.

But she said that Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller, who ran the Guantanamo Bay prison, changed the tone of operations when he and his staff visited Abu Ghraib and encouraged her to bring prison guards into the effort of collecting detainee information....

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/iraq/la-na-lynndie6aug06,1,5953816.story?coll=la-home-headlines

[0007]

4. The cover up begins, 'eh

An unmuzzled dog appears to be used to frighten a detainee at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.
Two military dog handlers told investigators that intelligence
personnel ordered them to use dogs to intimidate prisoners.