Magazine photos more bad news for 320th

Already reeling from a U.S. Army report that concluded soldiers of the 320th Military Police Battalion abused Iraqis at Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad, the Ashley-based Army reserve unit drew more notoriety in The New Yorker over photos the magazine says show 320th soldiers using dogs to terrorize a naked prisoner. In the magazine's online version of a story titled "Chain of Command" by investigative reporter Seymour M. Hersh, the author says he was given new digital photos by a member of the 320th.

"The images were being swapped from computer to computer throughout the 320th Battalion," wrote Hersh. The series shows the cowering prisoner later lying on the floor bleeding from wounds on his leg.

The New Yorker photos are different than those that aired April 28 on "60 Minutes II" and sparked an international furor, an apology from President Bush and calls for the resignation of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.

Those initial images depict soldiers and naked prisoners with empty sand-bag sacks covering their heads.

Some of the photos depict the prisoners engaged in a simulated sex act and others show prisoners piled on top of one another in a pyramid.

The photos Hersh said he obtained of the dogs straining on leashes were taken by two different cameras during a 12-minute period on the night of Dec. 12, 2003.

At that time last year, the 320th, under the command of the 800th Military Police Brigade, had been at the prison for two months after moving north from Camp Bucca near Basra. Camp Bucca is where 320th soldiers were accused of assaulting prisoners.

Four soldiers from the 320th were accused of beating prisoners in May 2003. The four soldiers accepted demotions and less-than-honorable discharges rather than proceed with courts-martial.

A month after the photos of the dogs and the prisoner were taken, U.S. Army officials received graphic photos from Abu Ghraib, wrote Hersh, and ordered an investigation.

In February, Maj. Gen Antonio Taguba submitted a report on the investigation. It addresses both the 320th's role at Camp Bucca and Abu Ghraib and is critical of the command and lack of training the unit's soldiers received for their mission in Iraq.