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| Iraq-Jordan |
| Gitmo General Proposed "Dedicated MPs" to Support Iraq Interrogations |
| 2004-05-18 |
| The American officer who was in charge of interrogations at the Abu Ghraib prison has told a senior Army investigator that intelligence officers sometimes instructed the military police to force Iraqi detainees to strip naked and to shackle them before questioning them. .... The officer, Col. Thomas M. Pappas, commander of the 205th Military Intelligence Brigade, also told ... that his unit had "no formal system in place" to monitor instructions they had given to military guards, who worked closely with interrogators to prepare detainees for interviews. .... Colonel Pappas confirmed in his statements that his unit had enacted several changes recommended by Maj. Gen. Geoffrey D. Miller, the head of detention operations at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, whom the Pentagon sent to Iraq in August and September to review detention operations. A major finding of General Miller’s visit, Colonel Pappas said, was "to provide dedicated M.P.’s in support of interrogations." Several military police officers and their commanders at Abu Ghraib have said that military intelligence officers directed them to "set the conditions" to enhance the questioning. .... Last May, Col. Karl Goetze, the staff judge advocate for occupation land forces in Iraq, said at a Pentagon briefing that the military intended to segregate "unlawful combatants" from Iraqi prisoners who should be treated as prisoners of war. ..... only a small percentage of the prisoners in Iraq would be designated "unlawful combatants," ... the individuals who raised up, took arms, not carrying them in an open manner, not wearing uniforms; in other words, engaging in tactics and techniques that were not in accordance with the law of armed combat." On Monday, however, a senior military officer said in an e-mail message that "no persons in Iraq have been declared unlawful combatants." The Iraqi prisoners held in the American-run prison at Abu Ghraib have been labeled security detainees. In testimony addressing the scandal over the mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners there, American officials have said that the Geneva accords are "fully applicable" to all prisoners held by the United States in Iraq. .... |
| Posted by:Mike Sylwester |