Prometheus 6

G.I.'s Are Accused of Abusing Iraqi Captives
By JAMES RISEN

WASHINGTON, April 28 — 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 trials, having completed the military equivalent of a grand jury proceeding, a senior Pentagon official said late Wednesday. The decision on convening courts martial is now up to Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. 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 conduct simulated sexual acts, among other things, 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 previously said.

Gary Myers, the lawyer for one of the enlisted men charged, said in an interview that the military had treated the six 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 prison, Abu Ghraib near Baghdad.

Mr. Myers said the accused men, all from an Army Reserve military police unit, had been told to soften up the prisoners by more senior American 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," Mr. 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."

Mr. Myers represents Staff Sgt. Chip Frederick of the 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 the program, 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 United States 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 with each other.

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

The CBS News program said the Army also had photographs showing a detainee with wires attached to his genitals and another showing a dog attacking an Iraqi prisoner. The program also reported that the Army's investigation of the case included a statement from an Iraqi detainee who charges that a translator hired to work at the prison raped a male juvenile prisoner.

At the Abu Ghraib prison, where the photographs were taken, American forces have been holding hundreds of Iraqis since the American-led invasion of Iraq. The prison is infamous as a site where Saddam Hussein tortured prisoners while he was in power.

In March, the United States military first announced that the six enlisted soldiers from the 800th Military Police Brigade were being charged in the case, but few details were released.

An official confirmed that Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, who ran the prison, had been reassigned.

Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, chief spokesman for the American military command in Baghdad, told reporters that the investigation of Abu Ghraib prison began in January after a soldier came forward.

"I'm not going to stand up here and make excuses for those soldiers," General Kimmitt said. He said that "if what they did is proven in a court of law, that is incompatible with the values we stand for as a professional military force, and it's values that we don't stand for as human beings."

He added: "This does not reflect the vast majority of coalition soldiers, vast majority of American soldiers that are operating out of Abu Ghraib prison."