Military denies General witnesses prison abuse

The US military has denied a report that the top American general in Iraq was present during some interrogations at the Abu Ghraib prison and witnessed some of the abuse of Iraqi inmates.

The Washington Post, in a story first released on its website early yesterday, said a military lawyer stated at an open hearing on April 2 that Captain Donald Reese told him that Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez and other senior military officers were aware of the abuse at the prison.

The military lawyer, Captain Robert Shuck, represents Staff Sergeant Ivan “Chip” Frederick, 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 yesterday.

”This report is false.”

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, according to the statement.

Although Sanchez ordered the investigation in January, the scandal did not break open until late April, when CBS’ 60 Minutes II broadcast photos of American guards abusing and sexually humiliating Iraqi prisoners who were naked except for hoods covering their heads, including a group stacked in a human pyramid.

Those photos triggered worldwide outrage and raised doubts about America’s commitment to building a society based on democracy and respect for human rights after toppling Saddam Hussein’s tyranny.

Sanchez told the Senate Armed Services Committee that he did not receive a November 6 report by the International Committee of the Red Cross detailing abuses at Abu Ghraib until two months later.

During testimony on Wednesday in Washington, Sanchez told the Senate committee that he ordered an investigation “as soon as I learned” of the reported abuses at the prison and within days of receiving the initial report “I directed suspension of key members of the chain of command of the unit responsible for detainee security at Abu Ghraib”.

The Washington Post reported that a transcript of the April hearing at Camp Victory in Baghdad showed 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 to the transcript quoted 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 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 2 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.

On Wednesday, Spc Jeremy Sivits became the first soldier convicted in the scandal. He received the maximum penalty of a year in prison, a bad conduct discharge and reduction in rank to private.

Six other members of the 372nd Military Police Company, a Reserve unit from Maryland, also face court martial.

Three of them, Sergeant Javal Davis, Staff Sergeant Frederick and Spc Charles Graner, will appear at a hearing in Baghdad on June 21.