Posted on 07/27/2004 8:05:25 AM PDT by Valin
-- Sgt. Jeff Hayford, who is serving in Iraq, says he may voluntarily return to the prison because it is short-handed.
By David Panian -- Daily Telegram Staff Writer
BASRA, Iraq -- An Adrian man serving as a military police officer in Iraq may soon return to the Abu Ghraib prison, his primary assignment when his unit arrived in Iraq about eight months ago.
Sgt. Jeff Hayford is serving with the 428th Military Police Co. of the U.S. Army Reserve based in South Bend, Ind. His regular unit is the 303rd Military Police Co. in Jackson, but he volunteered to serve with the 428th because it was short-handed.
The acting Army secretary and its top general told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday that they took responsibility for the abuses at the Abu Ghraib prison while insisting that they were not sanctioned by Army leadership.
''These actions, while regrettable, are aberrations,'' said Acting Army Secretary Les Brownlee.
Army Chief of Staff Gen. Peter Schoomaker said mistakes were understandable, though not excusable. Troops must be trained to contain their anger at prisoners who had been trying to kill them, he said.
''It's in the middle of a rumble that this is happening,'' Schoomaker said.
The Army inspector general's report concludes there were no systemic problems that caused or contributed to the abuses. All of the wrongdoing was committed by soldiers who violated Army rules and regulations, at times aided by commanders who either encouraged abuses or looked the other way, said Inspector General Lt. Gen. Paul Mikolashek.
Hayford wants the American pubic to know that the soldiers who committed the acts of abuse were the exception, not the norm.
"Because of those (seven) soldiers the U.S. is looking bad to the world and the military is getting a blemish put on them," Hayford said by e-mail. "Not all the MPs here are bad, and we are trying to pick up our name from off the ground now that all this has happened.
"We are highly trained soldiers that take our jobs seriously and respect the code of military justice."
The seven accused soldiers will face court martials on charges related to the detainee abuse.
"My opinion is that these soldiers should get what they deserve for defacing the U.S., for defacing the military; and now because of all this, the lives of all the soldiers here on base are in jeopardy of getting attacked again and fiercer than the previous times," Hayford said.
The 428th is part of the brigade that replaced the 800th MP Brigade, which is the unit to which the soldiers accused of abusing Iraqi prisoners were assigned.
Hayford's wife, Joyce, said he e-mailed her to tell her that his unit did not abuse any detainees.
"I knew it wasn't anybody in his unit," she said. "That would have upset him extremely."
Hayford originally was involved in processing new detainees brought to Abu Ghraib. For a short time Hayford assisted the investigation into the abuses before his platoon was sent in June to provide security at a prison hospital compound in Basra in southern Iraq.
"Since I have started down here I have been running the compound that has the real bad boys in it, they are the ones that have caused havoc in the other compounds or has caused problems with the guards, so my job has been interesting," Hayford said. "Since we have been here most of us from my platoon has had death threats from the detainees that remembered us from Abu but all circumstances have had safeguards put upon them for our safety."
Abu Ghraib is in central Iraq, near Baghdad. Hayford said being stationed at Abu Ghraib is more dangerous than being in Basra.
"Up in Abu we were in what we called 'the red triangle' which is one of the hottest spots in the country," he said, noting that Fallujah is in that area. "All the drive-bys, car bombs, mortar attacks and ambushes takes place in the red triangle. In fact, my unit was attacked again last Sunday by mortars, and right afterward a car came speeding by the front gate to Abu and opened fired on the Marines guarding our compound, but the Marines took care of the insurgents and the vehicle very quickly.
"Right outside the front gate to Abu is what we call IED Ally because the insurgents are constantly setting up explosives and trying to hit our convoys leaving and coming into the compound."
An IED is an improvised explosive device, commonly referred to in the press as a roadside bomb.
The abuses are alleged to have occurred in the "hard site," which is the prison building that was used by Saddam Hussein's regime. Hayford said MPs now only run the outdoor compound while Iraqi police and civilian contractors run the hard site.
Hayford said his unit knew a little about what was alleged to have happened at Abu Ghraib before it arrived.
"When we first arrived (at Abu Ghraib) we didn't know what our mission was going to be. It was after we started and ran the facility then we started knowing when things were right or wrong, but when we brought up the items that were not right, nothing was being done about it," he said. "We heard of what happened before we arrived on base but we only knew what the papers were saying and (were) not getting the whole story. It wasn't until we arrived and replaced the unit that was involved in the abuse that we heard a little more."
He said every MP went through a 40-hour retraining course on detainee procedures.
"Not all the training is from the book," he said. "We have a lot of hands-on training and testing in the classroom and out in the area of operation. For most of us it was a refresher course and for some it was a correction course."
The Iraqis and others in the prison compound are first called "detainees" until their role in possible criminal activity is determined , Hayford said. When soldiers in the field round up people suspected of placing roadside bombs, ambushing troops or civilian criminal activity, they are all brought to the prison. Military intelligence officers and criminal investigators question the detainees to find out their involvement in insurgent or criminal acts.
Abu Ghraib has a grim reputation. Hayford said Iraqis are afraid of the prison because Hussein used it as a death camp. No one taken there ever left. He said the MPs tore down a wall used for executions by firing squad, but the gallows remain. He said records show Hussein hung 184 prisoners in one day.
"The whole base is a cemetery where the prisoners that were executed were just thrown into mass graves," he said.
The existing prison is to be torn down and a new prison built on the site for hardened criminals, Hayford said.
When detainees are processed into the prison, if they don't have shoes, they are given sandals, Hayford said. All detainees are given two blankets, soap, a towel, a cup, toothpaste, tooth brush and a wash cloth.
After questioning by military intelligence officers, the detainees are fingerprinted, have a retina scan recorded and are assigned a serial number and assigned to an outdoor compound.
Hayford said many detainees speak fluent English.
"There are a lot of very highly educated people in this country," he said. "We get doctors, engineers, teachers, etc."
Since the changeover to the interim Iraqi government, Hayford said there hasn't been much change in day-to-day life, but he has seen the Iraqi National Guard in action.
"They are working very hard side-by-side with U.S. soldiers," he said. "I have to say that they are doing an excellent job and putting there lives on the line like we are to better their country."
Most important to Hayford is letting the people at home know that he and the other MPs are upset about what was done at Abu Ghraib.
"The people need to know that all that was an isolated incident and not a military wide problem," he said.
If anyone would like to correspond with Hayford, mail may be addressed to: Sgt Hayford, Jeffrey; 428th MP CO/2nd PLT; APO, AE 09375.
Thank you Sgt. Hayford.
Strange, I didn't see this in the NY Times.
Shameless latenight bump
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