Rage over prisoner abuse reports

Iraqis faced `sadistic' acts by U.S. soldiers
Army document disclosed on heels of grisly photos

SANDRO CONTENTA
EUROPEAN BUREAU

LONDON—Mounting evidence of widespread abuse of Iraqi prisoners has caused outrage in the Middle East and raised warnings of violent reactions.

Graphic photographs of British and U.S. soldiers terrorizing and humiliating prisoners in separate incidents had already stirred anger in the region when a U.S. Army report yesterday suggested they were the tip of the iceberg.

The report, obtained by The New Yorker magazine, says Iraqi prisoners faced numerous "sadistic, blatant and wanton criminal abuses" by U.S. soldiers, including sodomy and beatings.

The 53-page internal military report examined allegations of abuse at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison, outside Baghdad.

It outlines a disturbing list, including "breaking chemical lights and pouring the phosphoric liquid on detainees."

Other incidents involved "beating detainees with a broom handle and a chair; threatening male detainees with rape; ... sodomizing a detainee with a chemical light and perhaps a broom stick."

The report was authorized by Lt.-Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the top U.S. officer in Iraq, and completed in February. As evidence, it cites "detailed witness statements and the discovery of extremely graphic photographic evidence."

News of the report comes on the heels of disturbing pictures of U.S. and British soldiers involved in some of the abuse it describes.

Pictures of British soldiers, published by the tabloid Daily Mirror, show them beating and urinating on an Iraqi who has his hands tied behind his back and a sack over his head. However, military sources cast doubt yesterday on their authenticity.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair called the alleged abuse "unacceptable."

"I mean, we went to Iraq to get rid of that type of thing, not to do it," Blair said.

The Daily Mirror says it was given the pictures by one of the soldiers involved in dishing out the abuse to the Iraqi, accused of stealing, near Basra in southern Iraq.

The soldier told the newspaper: "The prisoner, aged 18-20, begged for mercy as he was battered with rifle butts and batons in the head and groin, was kicked, stamped and urinated on and had a gun barrel forced into his mouth.

"After an eight-hour ordeal, he was left barely conscious and close to death. Bleeding and vomiting and with a broken jaw and missing teeth, he was driven from a Basra camp and hurried off the truck. No one knows if he lived or died."

But sources close to the unit said to be involved, the Queen's Lancashire Regiment, told the BBC they are not convinced the pictures in the Daily Mirror were taken in Iraq. They believe the rifle pictured is an SA80 mk 1 — which was not issued to troops in Iraq. They also believe the type of military truck shown was not deployed in Iraq.

They also say soldiers in Iraq wore berets or hard hats, not floppy hats as in the photos.

Last week, the CBS network broadcast photos of U.S. soldiers smiling, laughing or giving the thumbs-up sign as naked, male Iraqi prisoners were stacked in a pyramid or positioned to simulate sex acts with one another.

U.S. President George W. Bush denounced the abuse as disgusting, insisting it was the work of only "a few people."

Six U.S. soldiers facing courts-martial in the abuse allegations have been reassigned in Iraq. Their boss, Brig.-Gen. Janis Karpinski, and at least seven others have been suspended from their duties at Abu Ghraib.

Karpinski, commander of the 800th Military Police Brigade, said yesterday she had been "sickened" by the pictures and had known nothing about the sexual humiliation and other violence until weeks later.

She told the New York Times in a telephone interview from her home in South Carolina that the special high-security cellblock where the abuses took place had been under the tight control of a separate group of military intelligence officers who were trying to shift the blame.

"We're disposable," she said of the military's attitude toward reservists. "Why would they want the active-duty people to take the blame? They want to put this on the MPs and hope that this thing goes away. Well, it's not going to go away.''

Citing correspondence received by his family, the Washington Post said a U.S. soldier accused of abusing the prisoners wrote Dec. 18 that military intelligence officers were pleased with how the Iraqis were being treated as "they usually end up breaking within hours.''

Staff Sgt. Ivan "Chip" Frederick wrote he questioned some of the abuses and the answer he got was: "This is how military intelligence wants it done."

The abuse pictures headlined Arab television networks throughout the Middle East.

"After what we saw, all Iraqis will attack them now,'' Abdulilah Mohammed, a 55-year-old Baghdad street vendor, said of the Americans.

Al-Jazeera's Baghdad correspondent, Al-Habib al-Ghuraybi, said "Iraqis considered the images as an abuse of the Iraqis' humanity and dignity, which is meant to humiliate and insult them on top of the occupation imposed on them.

"Iraqi citizens are very angry and ready to move at any moment. This may also hold true for the armed fronts," he added.

An editorial in the pan-Arab newspaper, Al-Quds al-Arabi, said the pictures of U.S. soldiers confirm that the aim of the invasion was "primarily to humiliate the Arabs and Muslims."

In Baghdad, a member of the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council sought an Iraqi probe of the abuse reports.


"During Saddam's time we rejected such acts, and after the liberation we still reject them,'' said member Sondul Chapouk.


with FILES FROM STAR WIRES