Television shows ill treatment of Iraqi prisoners

Photographs of Iraqi prisoners, naked except for hoods covering their heads, stacked in a human pyramid, have been shown on prime time US TV.

One had a slur written in English on his skin.

That and other scenes of humiliation at the hands of US military police appeared in photographs shown on the CBS programme Sixty Minutes

“We are appalled,” said a senior US general in Iraq.

The images have led to criminal charges against six US soldiers.

CBS says they were taken late last year at Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad, where soldiers were holding hundreds of prisoners captured during the invasion and occupation of Iraq.

In March, the US army announced that six members of the 800th Military Police Brigade faced court martial for allegedly abusing about 20 prisoners at Abu Ghraib.

The charges included dereliction of duty, cruelty and maltreatment, assault and indecent acts with another person.

The military has also recommended disciplinary action against seven US officers who helped run the prison, including Brigadier General Janice Karpinski, the commander of the 800th Brigade.

The investigation recommended administrative action against several of the commanders, which could include punishments up to relieving them of their commands, said an official.

When the abuse charges were first announced, US military officials declined to provide details about the evidence.

But yesterday, Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt said the investigation began in January when a US soldier reported the abuse and turned over evidence that included photographs.

“That soldier said, ‘There are some things going on here that I can’t live with,'” said Kimmitt.

One picture shows an Iraqi prisoner who was told to stand on a box with his head covered and wires attached to his hands.

CBS said the prisoner was told that if he fell off the box, he would be electrocuted.

In an interview with CBS correspondent Dan Rather, Kimmitt said the photographs were dismaying.

“We’re appalled,” Kimmitt said. “These are our fellow soldiers, these are the people we work with every day, they represent us, they wear the same uniform as us, and they let their fellow soldiers down.”

“If we can’t hold ourselves up as an example of how to treat people with dignity and respect, we can’t ask that other nations do that to our soldiers,” Kimmitt said.

CBS identified one of the implicated soldiers as US Army Reserve Staff Sergeant Chip Frederick, who described what he saw in the Iraqi prison.

“We had no support, no training whatsoever, and I kept asking my chain of command for certain things, rules and regulations, and it just wasn’t happening,” Frederick said.

Frederick will plead not guilty to charges including maltreatment and assault, claiming the way the US Army operated the prison led to the abuse of prisoners.

He also said he did not see a copy of the Geneva Convention rules for handling prisoners of war until after he was charged, the show reported.

The show also quoted from an e-mail that Frederick reportedly sent to his family in which he said of Iraqi prisoners: “We’ve had a very high rate with our styles of getting them to break they usually end up breaking within hours.”

Amnesty International said last month that many former detainees in Iraq claimed to have been tortured and ill-treated by coalition troops during interrogation.

Methods often reported, it said, included prolonged sleep deprivation, beatings, exposure to loud music and prolonged periods of being covered by a hood.