- Troops from Poland and other countries in the U.S.-led
occupation in Iraq also are accused of torturing and abusing Iraqi detainees
in Abu Ghraib, witnesses told Army investigators.
-
- Witness statements obtained by The Associated Press include
other new details about the involvement of U.S. military intelligence soldiers
in Iraq, including a civilian interpreter's claim that an Army interrogator
forced a prisoner to walk naked through Abu Ghraib prison.
-
- Such information is likely to become part of the defense
of six soldiers charged with beating and sexually abusing prisoners at
Abu Ghraib. The soldiers facing military charges ? plus one who has pleaded
guilty ? are all enlisted military police who worked as guards at the sprawling
prison outside Baghdad.
-
-
- Most of the accused soldiers say military and civilian
intelligence operatives encouraged them to beat and humiliate Iraqi prisoners
to make them more pliable during interrogations. The records of interviews
by Army Criminal Investigation Division agents obtained by The Associated
Press include new allegations that occupation forces had beaten and maltreated
prisoners before turning them over to the Americans.
-
- Sgt. Antonio Monserrate, an Army interrogator, told investigators
that two detainees had been "injured by the Polish Army." Monserrate
referred to the inmates by their prison identification numbers but did
not provide any further details.
-
- Other civilian and military workers at Abu Ghraib mentioned
allegations by prisoners that they had been beaten by "occupation
forces" before arriving at the U.S.-run prison.
-
- In Warsaw, Polish Defense Minister Jerzy Szmajdzinski
told Polish television on Friday that "this is all some unverified
leak" and that it "gives an impression of not being a serious
allegation."
-
- He said Poland will ask Washington for explanations.
-
- The command of the Polish-led division in Iraq expressed
"indignation" Friday at the abuse accusations.
-
- The statements also give new details about abuses allegedly
directly ordered by U.S. military intelligence soldiers.
-
- Civilian translator Bakeer Naseef told an interviewer
that one U.S. military interrogator forced a prisoner to walk naked through
the prison while saying, "Look at me!" Naseef said he could not
remember the interrogator's name.
-
- At least two American military interrogators ? Sgt. Ben
Hill and Spc. Gary E. Webster ? said their fellow military intelligence
troops told the guards to keep detainees awake and blast loud music at
them.
-
- Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the commander of U.S. troops
in Iraq, together with other officers said interrogators were told that
sleep deprivation was among the tactics which required Sanchez' approval.
-
- "It is uncontroverted that military intelligence
was in control of the military police," said Harvey J. Volzer, a Washington
attorney representing Spc. Megan M. Ambuhl, who has been charged with conspiracy
and dereliction of duty ? crimes her lawyer maintains she did not commit.
-
- Some soldiers told investigators they complained about
abuses but nothing was done. Mary Rose Zapor, a lawyer for accused Pfc.
Lynndie England, said.
-
- Zapor said England did not know she could complain, but
"it wouldn't have made any difference" if she had complained
-
-
- http://www.aljazeera.com/cgi-bin/news_service/middle_east_full_story.asp?service_id=2053
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