The Hindu : International : U.S. military apologises for prison abuse

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, May 02, 2004

International

International

U.S. military apologises for prison abuse

A hooded and wired Iraqi prisoner is seen at the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad, Iraq, in this undated photo. - AP/Courtesy of The New Yorker

WASHINGTON, MAY 1. The U.S. military yesterday announced that it had launched an overarching investigation into interrogation procedures and the role of private contractors in military prisons across Iraq after revelations of torture and sexual abuse at an army-run jail near Baghdad.

With the scandal gathering momentum as photographs of the abuse were broadcast across the Arab world, the President, George W. Bush, and the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, declared themselves appalled by the conduct of U.S. guards at Abu Ghraib prison. Scrambling to head off a backlash at the end of a terrible month for the American occupation of Iraq, Mr Bush said: ``I shared a deep disgust that those prisoners were treated the way that they were treated.''

An inquiry has found that Iraqi prisoners were beaten, threatened with mock execution, stripped and sexually humiliated. According to one of the guards facing the possibility of court martial, Staff Sergeant Ivan ``Chip'' Frederick, a prisoner died under the stress of interrogation last November and his killing was covered up.

The photographs have provoked outrage — particularly in West Asia — forcing the U.S. military yesterday to issue an unusual public apology.

Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, the army's top spokesman in Baghdad, said there was ``no excuse'' for the soldiers' behaviour. ``I feel as appalled as you do at the actions of these few,'' he told both Iraqi and Western reporters last night.

A former commander of the Guantanamo Bay prison camp, Major General Geoffrey Miller, has been flown to Iraq and given the task of overhauling military prisons and interrogation procedures, under a newly created office — deputy commander for containment operations.

Six guards have been charged and at least two are likely to face court martial. Seven senior officers, including the jail's former commanding general, are under investigation and face disciplinary measures.

According to military officials, that investigation will also encompass the role of private contractors in military prisons, after a military investigation found that two such firms, CACI International Inc and The Titan Corporation, played a central role in interrogation of prisoners and translation.

Neither company has returned repeated calls seeking comment, but an official at Titan told an American newspaper that his company supplied translators to the military. - Guardian Newspaper Limited 2004.

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