US general denies he witnessed Iraq prison abuse

The US military command today branded as false a news report that the top US general in Iraq was present during some interrogations at the Abu Ghraib prison and witnessed some of the abuse.

The Washington Post, in a story first released on its website last night, said a military lawyer stated at an open hearing last month that Captain Donald J Reese told him that Lieutenant General Ricardo S Sanchez and other senior military officers were aware of the abuse at the prison.

The military lawyer, Captain Robert Shuck, represents Staff Sergeant Ivan L “Chip” Frederick II, one of seven members of the 372nd Military Police Company facing criminal charges for abusing Iraqi inmates. Reese is the company commander.

“There was a news report published May 23, 2004, which suggests that Lt Gen Ricardo Sanchez, commander of Multinational Forces-Iraq was aware of, and in some instances, present at Abu Ghraib while detainee abuse was occurring,” the US military said in a statement.

“This report is false.”

The statement said Sanchez stands by his testimony before Congressional committees that he was unaware of the abuses until he ordered an investigation into the allegations in January.

Sanchez told the Senate Armed Services Committee that he did not receive a report issued in November by the International Committee of the Red Cross detailing abuses at Abu Ghraib until two months later.

The Post said a transcript of the April hearing at Camp Victory in Baghdad shows Captain John McCabe, the military prosecutor, asking Shuck: “Are you saying that Captain Reese is going to testify that General Sanchez was there and saw this going on?”

“That’s what he told me,” Shuck replied, according the transcript cited by the Post. “I am an officer of the court, sir, and I would not lie. I have got two children at home. I’m not going to risk my career.”

According to the Post, Shuck also said at the April hearing that Captain Carolyn A Wood, supervisor of the military intelligence operation at Abu Ghraib, was “involved in intensive interrogations of detainees, condoned some of the activities and stressed that that was standard procedure, what the accused was doing”.

Colonel Jill Morgenthaler, public affairs officer in Baghdad, said the transcript of the April hearing would not be released.

US military officials have said there is no evidence that Sanchez or other senior military officers were aware of the prisoner abuse while it was happening. Prison officials have blamed the abuse on low-level military police, some of whom have maintained they were just following orders.

Although Sanchez ordered the investigation in January, the scandal did not break open until late April, when CBS’ “60 Minutes II” broadcast some photos of American guards abusing and sexually humiliating Iraqi prisoners.