- WASHINGTON -- The former
head of the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad has for the first time accused
the American Secretary of Defence, Donald Rumsfeld, of directly authorising
Guantanamo Bay-style interrogation tactics.
-
- Brig-Gen Janis Karpinski, who commanded the 800th Military
Police Brigade, which is at the centre of the Abu Ghraib prisoner-abuse
scandal, said that documents yet to be released by the Pentagon would show
that Mr Rumsfeld personally approved the introduction of harsher conditions
of detention in Iraq.
-
- In an interview with The Signal newspaper of Santa Clarita,
California, which was also broadcast on a local television channel yesterday,
Gen Karpinski was asked if she knew of documents showing that Mr Rumsfeld
approved "particular interrogation techniques" for Abu Ghraib.
-
- Gen Karpinski was interviewed for four hours by Maj-
Gen Antonio Taguba, who was ordered to investigate abuse at Abu Ghraib
and produced a damning report, which heavily criticised Gen Karpinski for
a lack of leadership at the prison.
-
- During inquiries into the scandal, she has repeatedly
maintained that the treatment of Iraqi detainees was taken out of her hands
by higher-ranking officials, acting on orders from Washington.
-
- "Since all this came out," she replied, "I've
not only seen, but I've been asked about some of those documents, that
he [Mr Rumsfeld] signed and agreed to."
-
- Asked whether the documents have been made public, Gen
Karpinski replied "No" and went on to describe the methods approved
in them as involving "dogs, food deprivation and sleep deprivation".
-
- The Pentagon has consistently denied that Mr Rumsfeld
authorised the transfer of harsher techniques of interrogation and detention
from Guantanamo Bay to Abu Ghraib, where all prisoners are supposed to
be protected by the Geneva Conventions.
-
- Replying to Gen Karpinski's allegations, a spokesman
for the Pentagon told The Telegraph: "Mr Rumsfeld did not approve
any interrogation procedures in Iraq. The Secretary of Defence was not
in the approval chain for interrogation procedures, which would have remained
within the purview of Central Command, headed by Gen John Abizaid."
-
- The Bush administration has been dogged by suspicions
that harsh interrogation methods employed at Guantanamo were transferred
to Abu Ghraib, as Iraqi insurgents began to score significant hits against
coalition forces last year. In May, before the Senate armed services committee,
Stephen Cambone, the under-secretary of defence for intelligence, publicly
denied charges that Mr Rumsfeld had approved Guantanamo-style interrogations
in Iraq.
-
- Last month, the White House took the unusual step of
releasing hundreds of internal documents and debates concerning interrogation
procedures at Guantanamo. Extreme interrogation techniques at the camp,
it was revealed, now require the explicit approval of Mr Rumsfeld. The
Bush administration insists, however, that the notorious abuse of prisoners
at Abu Ghraib was an aberration on the part of a handful of rogue soldiers.
A Pentagon spokesman said that all relevant documents on interrogation
techniques in Iraq would be made public but could not say when.
-
- Gen Karpinski has been suspended from duty pending ongoing
investigations into abuse of prisoners at the Baghdad prison. In a recent
interview with the BBC, she complained of being turned into a scapegoat
for the scandal, arguing that the running of the prison was taken out of
her hands.
-
- In a separate embarrassment for the Department of Defence
last week, six recent studies, leaked to the Los Angeles Times, heavily
criticised the military for failing to screen adequately potential recruits
with violent and even criminal backgrounds.
-
- The reports were written by a senior Pentagon consultant.
One was delivered in September 2003, weeks before the worst abuses of Iraqi
prisoners took place. The title of the report was Reducing the Threat of
Destructive Behaviour by Military Personnel.
-
- In it the author, Eli Flyer, a former senior analyst
at the Department of Defence, stated: "There are military personnel
with pre-service and in-service records that clearly establish a pattern
of sub-standard behaviour. These individuals constitute a high-risk group
for destructive behaviour and need to be identified."
-
- According to a 1998 report by Mr Flyer, one third of
military recruits had arrest records. A 1995 report found that a quarter
of serving army personnel had committed one or more criminal offences while
on active duty. In his 2003 study, Mr Flyer said that military personnel
officers had been reluctant to toughen up screening procedures, fearing
that the result would be a failure to meet recruitment goals.
-
- Curtis Gilroy, who oversees military recruiting policy
for the Pentagon, told the Los Angeles Times: "It's hard to pick out
all the bad apples, but we are striving to improve the system and are doing
so."
-
- © Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2004. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;sessionid=JNCSSHXBTUML5QFI
QMGSM5OAVCBQWJVC?xml=/news/2004/07/04/wtort04.xml&sSheet=/news/
2004/07/04/ixnewstop.html
|