Abu Ghraib contractor 'told guards what to do'

A private interrogator accused of abuses at Iraq’s notorious Abu Ghraib prison has told investigators that he and military intelligence operatives directed prison guards to keep Iraqi prisoners awake for as much as 20 hours a day.

Contractor Steven Stefanowicz also said he may have heard, but did not see, some military police physically abusing a prisoner. Otherwise, he said, he did not see any abuses inside Abu Ghraib like those documented in photos that became public in the spring.

Stefanowicz, whose own honesty has been questioned in the official prison investigation, told US Army investigators in a sworn statement that Col Thomas Pappas, the military intelligence chief at Abu Ghraib, personally approved of the sleep deprivation tactics.

Prison guards were given copies of written interrogation plans for each inmate, which were prepared by three-person teams comprised of contractors or military intelligence soldiers, Stefanowicz said in the sworn statement obtained by The Associated Press.

Those plans specifically placed one detainee on a “sleep/meal management programme” that involved letting the prisoner sleep only in small blocks of time totalling no more than four hours out of every 24, up to a total of three days. The prisoner then would be allowed 12 hours’ sleep, Stefanowicz told investigators.

“The MPs are allowed to do what is necessary to keep the detainee awake in the allotted period of time as long as it adheres to approved rules of engagement and proper treatment of the detainee,” Stefanowicz said, adding he never ordered MPs to assault a prisoner.

His statement conflicts with congressional testimony by some top generals and statements by Stefanowicz’ employer, CACI International, that private contractors and military intelligence operatives never gave guards orders to take actions that would assist interrogations.

Maj Gen Geoffrey Miller, now in charge of US prisons in Iraq, and former Iraq commander Lt Gen Ricardo Sanchez, have said their orders allowed military police to offer information to help interrogators, but they were forbidden to take active roles, such as denying sleep.

CACI president and CEO JP “Jack” London has said CACI’s contract did not allow its workers to tell MPs or any other soldiers what to do. London has said Army officials have praised Stefanowicz’s work and never complained about him.

“In connection with inquiries into our operations in Iraq, we have been assured that our employees had no involvement in any inappropriate activity,” CACI said on Sunday.

Maj Gen Antonio Taguba, who oversaw the investigation that documented the abuses at Abu Ghraib, had access to Stefanowicz’s statement before writing his report. Taguba agreed with the assertion that military intelligence officials directed the prison guards on activities, but disputed Stefanowicz on the issue of whether he saw, engaged in or encouraged abuses.

“He clearly knew his instructions equated to physical abuse,” Taguba said of Stefanowicz.

Six enlisted military police soldiers are facing charges for abusing prisoners at Abu Ghraib.

Another has pleaded guilty. Photos from the prison show prisoners being beaten, stripped naked, sexually humiliated and intimidated by dogs.

A 2002 Justice Department memo from Assistant Attorney General Jay Bybee told the White House that techniques such as sleep deprivation and isolation “may amount to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment” but did not meet the legal definition of torture.