Military judge grows impatient in Abu Ghraib case

By Seattle Times news services

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Offering immunity to the officers — who have refused to cooperate with investigators on the grounds that they might incriminate themselves — could shed light on whether commanders condoned an atmosphere that led to the ridicule and beating of Iraqi prisoners.

The warning by the judge, Col. James Pohl, came after a lawyer representing one of the accused soldiers argued that the Defense Department was attempting to cover up a policy that sanctioned harsh interrogation tactics. Pohl said the commanding officers "would have a perspective on what was authorized and what was not."

Two of the officers who may be compelled to testify are Col. Thomas Pappas, commander of the 205th Military Intelligence Brigade, and Lt. Col. Steven Jordan, who was in charge of an interrogation unit at the prison.

Also yesterday, an independent panel said in Washington, D.C., that detainee abuses were the unauthorized "extra-curricular activity" of soldiers working the nightshift at the Iraqi facility, but leadership failures up the chain of command contributed to the scandal and other abuses.

The four-member panel headed by former Defense Secretary James Schlesinger found that actions by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld contributed to confusion over what techniques were permissible for interrogating prisoners in Iraq.

Military commanders in Iraq failed to properly train or supervise the overworked and ill-prepared soldiers who served as guards, the panel of civilian defense experts said in a report that also concluded top-ranking Pentagon leaders failed to anticipate or swiftly react to problems at the notorious prison near Baghdad.

The panel's 92-page report was the first in a series of investigations into the prison-abuse scandal to place any blame beyond the prison walls. Another report, a long-awaited Army investigation to be released next week, is expected to implicate about two dozen military intelligence soldiers and civilian contractors, but spare from punishment anyone above their commander, Pappas.

The question of how high responsibility for the scandal could reach has been a central point since photographs emerged four months ago showing naked Iraqi detainees forced into sexually humiliating positions or cowering from military working dogs.

One panel member, former Rep. Tillie Fowler, R-Fla., said yesterday's report identified a "string of failures that go well beyond an isolated cell block in Iraq."

The report singled out for criticism the former commanding general in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, saying he "should have taken stronger action [last] November when he realized the extent of the leadership problems at Abu Ghraib."
 
But the report said there was no U.S. policy that condoned torture or abuse, and it did not recommend disciplinary action against any military or civilian leaders.

The findings marked the first time an official investigation — one ordered by Rumsfeld in May — sought to pin a share of responsibility on the Pentagon's upper reaches for a prison abuse scandal that has undercut U.S. operations in Iraq and eroded U.S. moral standing around the world.

But panel members — who included two former secretaries of defense, one retired four-star general and Fowler — declined to call for the resignation of Rumsfeld or senior commanders such as Air Force Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Schlesinger said Rumsfeld's resignation "would be a boon to all of America's enemies and, consequently, I think that it would be a misfortune if it were to take place." He said that while Myers and other high-ranking officers made mistakes, the errors were not sufficient to warrant them quitting.

The panel had no authority to determine if crimes were committed. The only individuals to face criminal charges in the scandal are seven low-ranking soldiers from the 372nd Military Police Company. One has pleaded guilty and been sentenced to a year in jail, and a second has announced his intention to plead guilty to some charges.

Most of those soldiers have claimed the abuses were directed by higher-ranking intelligence officers. That notion gained some support in yesterday's report, which concluded that "military intelligence personnel share responsibility for the abuses at Abu Ghraib with the military police soldiers."

But the report also described the photographed abuses as "acts of brutality and purposeless sadism" with no intelligence-gathering purpose. Schlesinger called the abuses the "freelance activities" of one group of prison guards, saying, "It was kind of Animal House on the night shift."

About 300 incidents of prisoner abuse have been reported to the military, the report said. Of 155 completed investigations, 66 found abuses had occurred among prisoners under U.S. control. Most of those cases, 55, were in Iraq; three were from Afghanistan; and eight from the U.S. detention facility at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

An Army investigation focused on the role of military intelligence, headed by Maj. Gen. George Fay and Lt. Gen. Anthony Jones and due for release today, will recommend that more than two dozen military intelligence soldiers be referred for further disciplinary action, government officials said.

The Schlesinger panel report accused Pappas of "weak and ineffectual leadership [that] allowed the abuses at Abu Ghraib." Fay's report is expected to recommend disciplinary action against Pappas.

Prosecutor Maj. Michael Holly told Pohl that granting commanders immunity could jeopardize possible disciplinary or criminal charges against Pappas and Jordan.

While Pohl indicated that he might force some officers to testify, he denied a motion by Paul Bergrin, the lawyer for Sgt. Javal S. Davis, to question Rumsfeld and Undersecretary of Defense Stephen Cambone.

Bergrin had argued in court that Rumsfeld "approved of aggressive" interrogation techniques, and his support filtered through the chain of command and motivated officers and civilian contractors to set abusive conditions.

"It's impossible to believe" that the abuse at Abu Ghraib was limited to the seven military police soldiers now charged, said Bergrin, who used a flip-chart in court to try to trace how Washington policies trickled down to the prison in Iraq.

The judge's comments about possible immunity came during a second day of preliminary hearings for four soldiers charged in the scandal.

Staff Sgt. Ivan L. "Chip" Frederick II — charged with conspiracy, cruelty and indecent acts — indicated he would formally plead guilty to some charges against him when the hearings resume in Baghdad in October.

Frederick's attorney Gary Myers said there was a "complete breakdown in authority" at Abu Ghraib that violated Geneva Convention rules on how prisoners should be treated.

The Schlesinger panel, which reviewed the Fay report and other related investigations, said disciplinary action "may be forthcoming" against Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, who commanded the 800th Military Police Brigade at Abu Ghraib.

Karpinski contends she was not alerted to abuses at Abu Ghraib until they were brought to the attention of Sanchez, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, in January.

The Schlesinger report says that while Sanchez was understandably focused on fighting a mounting Iraqi insurgency at the time of the abuses, he should have ensured that his staff dealt with Abu Ghraib's command problems.

Compiled from the Los Angeles Times, The Baltimore Sun, The Washington Post and The Associated Press.