Inquiry Ordered Into Reports of Prisoner Abuse [January 17, 2004 NYT Article]

New York Times ^ | January 17, 2004 | ERIC SCHMITT

[risk]

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January 17, 2004

Inquiry Ordered Into Reports of Prisoner Abuse

By ERIC SCHMITT

ASHINGTON, Jan. 16 — The top American commander in Iraq has ordered a criminal investigation into allegations that detainees at the sprawling Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad have been abused by American forces, military officials said Friday.

A statement by the military command in Baghdad gave no details about the scope or severity of the incidents, saying only that Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, the senior American officer in Iraq, had directed an inquiry into the latest in a string of reported abuses of prisoners.

"The release of specific information concerning the incidents could hinder the investigation, which is in its early stages," the statement said.

A senior Pentagon official said authorities had been alerted to the possible abuse of detainees in the past few days and were taking the allegations "very seriously."

The American-led occupation is holding thousands of suspected insurgents and criminals at Abu Ghraib, a large prison west of Baghdad that was notorious during the rule of Saddam Hussein for overcrowded cells and torture chambers.

The inquiry ordered by General Sanchez is expected to add fuel to allegations by Amnesty International and many former detainees that the American captors have treated prisoners harshly or abused them in certain cases.

Earlier this month, three Army reservists were discharged for abusing prisoners at Camp Bucca, a detention center near Basra, in southern Iraq. In late December, Brig. Gen. Ennis Whitehead III determined that the three soldiers had kicked and punched prisoners or encouraged others to do so.

Late last year, Lt. Col. Allen B. West, a battalion commander in the Fourth Infantry Division, was allowed to resign from the Army after he fired a pistol near a suspected supporter of insurgents during an interrogation in August to frighten him into giving up information about impending attacks against allied soldiers near Tikrit. Colonel West has defended his actions as necessary to protect his troops.

In addition, the Marine Corps has charged eight Marine reservists in the death of an Iraqi prisoner near Nasiriya last June. Two of the eight marines face charges of negligent homicide, while others face lesser charges, Marine officials said.

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[risk]

A bit of history.

[risk]

abughraib keyword ping -- some history.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

A bit of history.

I'll bump that.

[maica]

bttt for posterity

[Sacajaweau]

I guess our folks in Congress can't read or simply ignore Sanchez.

Think I'll get them "Learn To Read" workbooks for Christmas.

[norton]

What I've not seen as yet, maybe I simply missed it, is a timeline for first word of the abuse and cessation of the abuse.

Investigations take time. This one apparently WAS known of before one of the defendants' lawyer decided to go outside the system.

My question is not how long did the investigation and publication take but how soon was the on-scend situation corrected, how long ago was that, and what conditions are today.

Seems to me that should be the focus and not the bureaucratic and political shenanigans that followed.

Next, we should be asking how classes of prisoners were segregated in the facility and how their treatment differed. Who knew what and when should be addressed well after questions such as these have been answered.

PS: Anyone thinking that prisoners with potentially critical information are best dealt with by fattening them up, making nice, then asking politely where the nerve gas is buried - is X*&%$#!! nuts!

[Samwise]

A coverup that isn't a coverup. ;^)

[maica]

The Generals brought a timeline on a poster to the hearings. I hope it became part of the Congressional Record. It seemed to me that whenever a Senator's question could have been answered by using the poster, the Generals were deflected by the Senators. That might be just my perception. However, in 6 hours of testimony, I did not get a clear sense of the timeline. Either it was already clear to the Senators and Representatives, or they really did not care about much except 'getting' Rumsfeld.

[risk]

This FOX timeline doesn't do it for you? The Red Cross was involved starting in March of 2003, although it's not clear from that link it was at Abu Ghraib.

[snippy_about_it]

LOL. The cover up that never was. ;-)

[Sacajaweau]

You're right. The whole thing was broadcast to the world in January, a couple months after this stuff started. Kapinski ignored it and was disciplined way back then.

[Grampa Dave]

In spite of what the lying liberal senators would lead us to believe, the Army/Marine Corp were on this situation months ago.

They were not ignoring it nor sweeping it under the carpet.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1131946/posts

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January 17, 2004

Inquiry Ordered Into Reports of Prisoner Abuse
By ERIC SCHMITT



ASHINGTON, Jan. 16 — The top American commander in Iraq has ordered a criminal investigation into allegations that detainees at the sprawling Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad have been abused by American forces, military officials said Friday.

A statement by the military command in Baghdad gave no details about the scope or severity of the incidents, saying only that Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, the senior American officer in Iraq, had directed an inquiry into the latest in a string of reported abuses of prisoners.

"The release of specific information concerning the incidents could hinder the investigation, which is in its early stages," the statement said.

A senior Pentagon official said authorities had been alerted to the possible abuse of detainees in the past few days and were taking the allegations "very seriously."

The American-led occupation is holding thousands of suspected insurgents and criminals at Abu Ghraib, a large prison west of Baghdad that was notorious during the rule of Saddam Hussein for overcrowded cells and torture chambers.


The inquiry ordered by General Sanchez is expected to add fuel to allegations by Amnesty International and many former detainees that the American captors have treated prisoners harshly or abused them in certain cases.

Earlier this month, three Army reservists were discharged for abusing prisoners at Camp Bucca, a detention center near Basra, in southern Iraq. In late December, Brig. Gen. Ennis Whitehead III determined that the three soldiers had kicked and punched prisoners or encouraged others to do so.

Late last year, Lt. Col. Allen B. West, a battalion commander in the Fourth Infantry Division, was allowed to resign from the Army after he fired a pistol near a suspected supporter of insurgents during an interrogation in August to frighten him into giving up information about impending attacks against allied soldiers near Tikrit. Colonel West has defended his actions as necessary to protect his troops.

In addition, the Marine Corps has charged eight Marine reservists in the death of an Iraqi prisoner near Nasiriya last June. Two of the eight marines face charges of negligent homicide, while others face lesser charges, Marine officials said.

[norton]

To both 8 and 9:

It seems clear that things were moving well along officially within about 30-45 days.

What STILL is not clear is when the 8 or so troops/the Iraqi guards/Immediate command/MI/CIA perps were relieved &/or cuffed and hauled off.

In my mind THAT remains the central issue;
not how long did an investigation and corrective action at system level take, but how soon the ill-treatment was stopped and conditions brought to acceptable;
not have we jointly and with wails and ululations apologized to 'the Iraqi people', but how quickly we corrected the conditions (as much as appropriate) for prisoners that were shown in the photos.

[SAMWolf]

LOL! Good Point!

[cyncooper]

It's just like the August 6, 2001 PDB was brought up by the 9/11 commission as if it were just discovered news when the fact is it was leaked to the media back in May 2002 and immediately and forthrightly spoken about on the record by Condi Rice, followed by Ari Fleischer the next day giving the title of the PDB on the record to the reporters.

Then a few weeks ago when Condi is before the 9/11 commission, smarmy Ben Veniste asks for the title, she promptly gives it and he immediately claims the title was secret until then.

BTW, it was that very PDB that prompted the headline "Bush Knew" back in May 2002 that HRC then waved around the Senate.

The media will adopt an amnesiac attitude when instructed to by their political masters. And here they've done it yet again.

[cyncooper]

but how soon the ill-treatment was stopped and conditions brought to acceptable;

From what I've seen, the Taguba report says the abuse was from October-December 2003.

From testimony yesterday, the conditions and assessments are ongoing with some changes already being made (rules posted that weren't before and that type of thing). They are evaluating all prisons and such and investigating to insure none of this behavior is going on, or has taken place in the past.

[cyncooper]

From Seymour Hersh, Karpinski was relieved on the spot of the allegations coming to the fore, it looks like:

TORTURE AT ABU GHRAIB

Excerpt:

General Karpinski, who had wanted to be a soldier since she was five, is a business consultant in civilian life, and was enthusiastic about her new job. In an interview last December with the St. Petersburg Times, she said that, for many of the Iraqi inmates at Abu Ghraib, “living conditions now are better in prison than at home. At one point we were concerned that they wouldn’t want to leave.”

A month later, General Karpinski was formally admonished and quietly suspended, and a major investigation into the Army’s prison system, authorized by Lieutenant General Ricardo S. Sanchez, the senior commander in Iraq, was under way. A fifty-three-page report, obtained by The New Yorker, written by Major General Antonio M. Taguba and not meant for public release, was completed in late February. Its conclusions about the institutional failures of the Army prison system were devastating. Specifically, Taguba found that between October and December of 2003 there were numerous instances of “sadistic, blatant, and wanton criminal abuses” at Abu Ghraib. This systematic and illegal abuse of detainees, Taguba reported, was perpetrated by soldiers of the 372nd Military Police Company, and also by members of the American intelligence community. (The 372nd was attached to the 320th M.P. Battalion, which reported to Karpinski’s brigade headquarters.) Taguba’s report listed some of the wrongdoing:

~snip~

Others have been court martialed or are being tried. I have to leave, but maybe can look it up later.

[norton]

Thanks,
my concern is about the actual events, and corrections, not the circus that followed.
I don't think anyone in the media or government is addressing that critical point in the process of events.
Rescue comes before determination of fault.
At least, it should.

[Travis McGee]

No, this is not correct. 60 Minutes discovered this scandal last week. I saw it on TV, so it's true.