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Rumsfeld Warns of Photos Depicting Worse Abuses
By Marc Sandalow
The San Francisco Chronicle
Saturday 08 May 2004
Washington -- Not since the Vietnam War a generation ago has the credibility of top U.S. military commanders been challenged as aggressively and openly as it was Friday on Capitol Hill.
For more than six hours and with television cameras broadcasting the event around the world, members of both parties -- those who support the U.S. war in Iraq and those who don't -- expressed alarm over the Pentagon's seemingly snail-paced response to the gut-wrenching photographs that one Republican House member characterized as the public relations equivalent of Pearl Harbor.
As Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld warned that he had personally previewed more pictures, and that the worst is yet to come, many fear that the nation may be reaching a tipping point in its tolerance for what already has been the deadliest U.S. military conflict since Vietnam.
"I'm gravely concerned that many Americans will have the same impulse as I did when I saw (these) pictures, and that's to turn away from them," said Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., a strong supporter of President Bush's policy in Iraq.
"We risk losing public support for this conflict. As Americans turned away from the Vietnam War, they may turn away from this one unless this issue is quickly resolved," McCain said.
With no weapons of mass destruction found, few signs of democracy blossoming and now graphic evidence that the abuse of Iraqi civilians -- at least in isolated incidences -- did not end with the ouster of Saddam Hussein, "the whole logic of the war is gone," said former Sen. Gary Hart.
Often, certain moments galvanize American opinion in times of war. The attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, the Tet Offensive in 1968, the dragging of American corpses through the streets of Somalia in 1994 and the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in 2001 had profound effects on America's resolve for battle.
For many, the pictures of U.S. soldiers seeming to derive pleasure from brutalizing Iraqi detainees has shaken the widely held belief that the U.S. cause in Iraq is just and that Americans -- even in times of war -- rise above such blatant cruelty.
"People are not confident that we are winning. Nor are they confident that we are doing the right thing," said Karlyn Bowman, a public opinion expert with the American Enterprise Institute in Washington.
Public opinion on the war has reached an all-time low. The latest polls, conducted earlier this week, find Americans evenly divided over whether it was a mistake to have started the war in Iraq, and support has eroded steadily since the war began last year, when an overwhelming majority said it was the right thing to do. The numbers today are nearly identical to what they were in 1968, shortly after the Tet Offensive, as public opinion began to turn against the Vietnam War.
Americans typically are reluctant to say going to war was a mistake. A majority supported the Persian Gulf War in 1991 through its conclusion, and it took until 1968, several years after heavy U.S. involvement in Vietnam, for a majority to turn against that war. It was not until 1973, after President Richard Nixon had withdrawn nearly all the troops, that as many as 70 percent of Americans said the Vietnam War was a mistake.
But as casualties mount in Iraq and the rationale of the war has eroded, so has public support.
Just last week, Bush said that as a result of removing Hussein, "there are no longer torture chambers or rape rooms or mass graves in Iraq."
Yet even if Hussein's oppression was incomparable by its order of magnitude, there are now pictures of mass graves in a soccer field in Fallujah, of torture at the hands of U.S. captors and, as Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina warned Friday, videos that may contain images of rape and murder.
Rumsfeld repeatedly drew contrasts between the American occupiers and Hussein, noting that no apologies or investigations ever sprang from his dictatorship.
"People do bad things to other people," Rumsfeld said, "(but) we have a free, open system. We're not an evil society. America is not what's wrong with the world."
Yet some members of Congress openly challenged Rumsfeld's willingness to cooperate with them.
"I see arrogance and a disdain for Congress," said Democratic Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia.
"I see misplaced bravado and an unwillingness to admit mistakes. I see finger-pointing and excuses. Given the catastrophic impact that this scandal has had on the world community, how can the United States ever repair its credibility? How are we supposed to convince not only the Iraqi people, but also the rest of the world, that America is, indeed, a liberator and not a conqueror, not an arrogant power?" Byrd asked.
As in the Vietnam era, the credibility of the Pentagon has been jeopardized. Members of Congress were incredulous that after months of internal investigations and months of warning from such agencies as the International Red Cross, Rumsfeld said he didn't have enough information to take to Congress.
"Mr. Secretary, there was no other way for you to find this out? You were not aware of concerns offered by the Red Cross?" asked Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D- Walnut Creek.
The political consequences for the Bush administration are uncertain.
"If Mr. Bush fires Mr. Rumsfeld, the voters may well conclude it is time to fire him," warned an editorial in Friday's Wall Street Journal.
What seems more certain is that the revelations of the prison abuse and the questions they raise will hurt the U.S. mission in Iraq.
"Do you think this incident will have any effect?" Democratic Rep. Madeleine Bordallo, the House delegate from Guam, asked Rumsfeld.
"Of course," Rumsfeld said.
"In what way?" she inquired.
"Harmful," he responded.
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E-mail Marc Sandalow at msandalow@sfchronicle.com.
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U.S. Says No Plans Yet to Close Abu Ghraib
MSNBC
Saturday 08 May 2004
Rumsfeld warns that worse images of prison abuse still to come.
BAGHDAD, Iraq - The commander of U.S. detention facilities in Iraq said Saturday the military will continue to operate the Abu Ghraib prison despite calls from some U.S. lawmakers to close it because of a scandal over the abuse of Iraqi inmates.
Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller's comments come a day after Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld extended his "deepest apology" to any prisoners abused by American military personnel, telling Congress that he accepted full responsibility for the shocking events. But he also warned that worse was yet to come.
Meanwhile, President Bush pledged a thorough investigation into the abuse allegations but said the United States will not be deterred in its mission to bring democracy to Iraq.
"We will learn all the facts and determine the full extent of these abuses," Bush said in his weekly radio address. "Those involved will be identified. They will answer for their actions." He said all prison operations in Iraq will be reviewed "to make certain that similar disgraceful incidents are never repeated."
In a separate broadcast, Democrats suggested that was not enough.
Retired Gen. Wesley Clark, the former Democratic presidential candidate, suggested the prison abuses were yet another example of Bush's poor leadership.
The president "made mistake after mistake as commander in chief, taking us into a war we didn't have to wage, alone and under false pretenses, and is now managing it poorly," Clark said in the Democratic response to Bush's radio address.
U.S. to cut prison population In Baghdad, Maj. Gen. Miller said the United States plans to reduce the prison population. He said 300 inmates had been released last week and about 350 will be released next week.
"Currently we will continue to operate at the Abu Ghraib facility," Miller told reporters, adding that interrogations at the prison will also continue.
He said that if orders are received to close Abu Ghraib, the military would probably shift the mission to another facility, Camp Bucca, south of Basra.
Miller insisted that Iraqis were now being held in accordance with the Geneva Conventions and that the abuses recorded in photos distributed around the world were due to the acts of a few individuals.
"The alleged abuses and abuses we have discovered from the investigations appear to be due to leaders and soldiers not following the authorized policy and lack of leadership and supervision," Miller told reporters.
"We will ensure that we follow our procedures," he added. "It is a matter of honor. We were ashamed and embarrassed by the conduct of a very, very small number of our soldiers. ... On my honor I will ensure that it will not happen again."
Miller, former commander of the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, said he led a 30-member team to Iraq in August and September to make recommendations on how to improve the efficiency of Abu Ghraib.
"As a part of those recommendation we made we used the models we had made at Guantanamo for the use of military police to assist in the success of interrogations," Miller said.
Miller said earlier this week that he would reduce the number of inmates at Abu Ghraib from 3,800 to fewer than 2,000. The U.S.-led coalition has a dozen prisons in Iraq holding about 8,000 inmates.
He also said he would halt or restrict some interrogation methods, especially eight to 10 "very aggressive techniques," including using hoods on prisoners, putting them in stressful positions and depriving them of sleep. He said those methods are now banned without specific approval.
On Friday, Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt acknowledged that mending ties with Iraqis outraged by the scandal would be difficult but said the damage was "not irreparable."
Red Cross said it had issued warnings U.S. officials insist the abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison was limited and did not reflect policy.
of events
Still, they were confronted with claims by the Red Cross that it had been warning of prisoner abuse in Iraq since around the time of the U.S.-led invasion. The lead U.S. administrator in Iraq, L. Paul Bremer, became aware of the allegations in January, according to a spokesman.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said it warned American officials of prisoner abuse in Iraq more than a year ago and that the mistreatment was "not individual acts."
"There was a pattern and a system," Pierre Kraehenbuehl, the ICRC's director of operations, said in Geneva. Some of the actions were "tantamount to torture," he said.
Dan Senor, spokesman for the Coalition Provisional Authority, said Bremer was made aware of the accusation concerning prisoner abuse in January.
Harsh Questioning for Rumsfeld
Rumsfeld's apology on Friday did not keep lawmakers from harshly questioning him. The defense chief was criticized by Republican John McCain of Arizona for not having answers about "who was in charge of the interrogations" at Abu Ghraib, the prison on the outskirts of Baghdad where the abuse took place.
Rumsfeld said in his opening statement before the Senate Armed Services Committee that "these events occurred on my watch. As secretary of defense, I am accountable for them. I take full responsibility." Insisting that the abuses were at the hands of very few soldiers, Rumsfeld also vowed to bring those guilty to justice and to ensure that such abuses did not happen again.
But Rumsfeld warned the committee that the worst was yet to come. He said he had looked at the full array of unedited photographs of the situation at Abu Ghraib for the first time Thursday night and found them "hard to believe."
"There are other photos that depict incidents of physical violence towards prisoners, acts that can only be described as blatantly sadistic, cruel and inhumane," he said. "... It's going to get a good deal more terrible, I'm afraid."
Rumsfeld did not describe the photos, but U.S. military officials told NBC News that the unreleased images showed U.S. soldiers severely beating an Iraqi prisoner nearly to death, having sex with a female Iraqi female prisoner and "acting inappropriately with a dead body." The officials said there was also a videotape, apparently shot by U.S. personnel, showing Iraqi guards raping young boys.
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U.K. Forces Taught Torture Methods
By David Leigh
The Guardian U.K.
Saturday 08 May 2004
The sexual humiliation of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison was not an invention of maverick guards, but part of a system of ill-treatment and degradation used by special forces soldiers that is now being disseminated among ordinary troops and contractors who do not know what they are doing, according to British military sources.
The techniques devised in the system, called R2I - resistance to interrogation - match the crude exploitation and abuse of prisoners at the Abu Ghraib jail in Baghdad.
One former British special forces officer who returned last week from Iraq, said: "It was clear from discussions with US private contractors in Iraq that the prison guards were using R2I techniques, but they didn't know what they were doing."
He said British and US military intelligence soldiers were trained in these techniques, which were taught at the joint services interrogation centre in Ashford, Kent, now transferred to the former US base at Chicksands.
"There is a reservoir of knowledge about these interrogation techniques which is retained by former special forces soldiers who are being rehired as private contractors in Iraq. Contractors are bringing in their old friends".
Using sexual jibes and degradation, along with stripping naked, is one of the methods taught on both sides of the Atlantic under the slogan "prolong the shock of capture", he said.
Female guards were used to taunt male prisoners sexually and at British training sessions when female candidates were undergoing resistance training they would be subject to lesbian jibes.
"Most people just laugh that off during mock training exercises, but the whole experience is horrible. Two of my colleagues couldn't cope with the training at the time. One walked out saying 'I've had enough', and the other had a breakdown. It's exceedingly disturbing," said the former Special Boat Squadron officer, who asked that his identity be withheld for security reasons.
Many British and US special forces soldiers learn about the degradation techniques because they are subjected to them to help them resist if captured. They include soldiers from the SAS, SBS, most air pilots, paratroopers and members of pathfinder platoons.
A number of commercial firms which have been supplying interrogators to the US army in Iraq boast of hiring former US special forces soldiers, such as Navy Seals.
"The crucial difference from Iraq is that frontline soldiers who are made to experience R2I techniques themselves develop empathy. They realise the suffering they are causing. But people who haven't undergone this don't realise what they are doing to people. It's a shambles in Iraq".
The British former officer said the dissemination of R2I techniques inside Iraq was all the more dangerous because of the general mood among American troops.
"The feeling among US soldiers I've spoken to in the last week is also that 'the gloves are off'. Many of them still think they are dealing with people responsible for 9/11".
When the interrogation techniques are used on British soldiers for training purposes, they are subject to a strict 48-hour time limit, and a supervisor and a psychologist are always present. It is recognised that in inexperienced hands, prisoners can be plunged into psychosis.
The spectrum of R2I techniques also includes keeping prisoners naked most of the time. This is what the Abu Ghraib photographs show, along with inmates being forced to crawl on a leash; forced to masturbate in front of a female soldier; mimic oral sex with other male prisoners; and form piles of naked, hooded men.
The full battery of methods includes hooding, sleep deprivation, time disorientation and depriving prisoners not only of dignity, but of fundamental human needs, such as warmth, water and food.
The US commander in charge of military jails in Iraq, Major General Geoffrey Miller, has confirmed that a battery of 50-odd special "coercive techniques" can be used against enemy detainees. The general, who previously ran the prison camp at Guant?mo Bay, said his main role was to extract as much intelligence as possible.
Interrogation experts at Abu Ghraib prison were there to help make the prison staff "more able to garner intelligence as rapidly as possible".
Sleep deprivation and stripping naked were techniques that could now only be authorised at general officer level, he said.
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