Family defends US soldier accused of abusing Iraqi inmates

A soldier accused of abusing Iraqi prisoners of war claimed that his commanders silenced his questions about harsh, humiliating treatment of inmates, it was claimed today.

In a journal he started after military investigators looking into the abuse approached him in January, Army Reserves Staff Sergeant Ivan “Chip” Frederick wrote that Abu Ghraib prison, near Baghdad, was nothing like the Virginia state prison where he worked in civilian life.

The Iraqi prisoners were sometimes confined naked for three consecutive days without toilets in damp, unventilated cells with floors 3ft by 3ft, Frederick wrote in materials supplied to The Associated Press by a relative.

“When I brought this up with the acting BN (battalion) commander, he stated, ‘I don’t care if he has to sleep standing up’. That’s when he told my company commander that he was the BN commander and for me to do as he says,” Frederick wrote.

The writings were given to the AP by Frederick’s uncle, William Lawson, who said the Army has treated his nephew unfairly. Mr Lawson and Frederick’s wife, Martha, said the soldier was being made a scapegoat for commanders who gave him no guidance on managing hundreds of Iraqis with just a handful of poorly equipped troops.

Mr Lawson said Frederick started keeping a journal to keep track of what had happened before he was assigned a military lawyer.

Lieutenant Commander Nicholas Balice, spokesman for the Central Command, which is in charge of US forces in the Persian Gulf, said he could not comment on Frederick’s statements, but he said allegations against the soldier were properly investigated.

Frederick is one of six members of the 800th Military Police Brigade facing courts-martial for allegedly humiliating prisoners at Abu Ghraib. CBS television’s 60 Minutes II broadcast pictures of the alleged abuse and an interview with Frederick on Wednesday. The other soldiers’ names have not been released.

“They’re trying to portray him as a monster,” said Mr Lawson, of Newburg, West Virginia. “He’s just the guy they put in charge of the prison.”

Martha Frederick, of Buckingham, Virginia, said her husband, in Iraq since April 2003, told her his unit was not provided proper training and equipment.

“I feel like things are being covered up,” she said. “What has come to light has fallen on the burden of my husband.”

The charges against the soldiers include dereliction of duty, cruelty and maltreatment, assault and indecent acts with another person.

Some of the soldiers were smiling in the photographs obtained by CBS, which showed naked prisoners stacked in a human pyramid and being forced to simulate sex acts.