MI adopted aggressive procedures to interrogate prisoners
The interrogation centre at Abu Ghraib prison was run by a military intelligence unit that had served in Afghanistan and that had taken to Iraq more aggressive rules and procedures it had developed for the Afghan conflict, a media report said today.
The interrogation centre at Abu Ghraib prison was run by a military intelligence unit that had served in Afghanistan and that had taken to Iraq more aggressive rules and procedures it had developed for the Afghan conflict, a media report said today.
In August 2003, the officer in charge of the unit, Capt Carolyn A Wood, an experienced Army interrogator, posted her own list of "interrogation rules of engagement," which was inconsistent with those later issued for Iraq by the top American commander, Lt. Gen.Ricardo S. Sanchez, the New York Times reported quoting Congressional officials and documents recently released by the army.
The Joint Interrogation and Debriefing Center at Abu Ghraib, the daily said, was located away from the cell block where the severe abuses that have come to light in recent weeks were known to have occurred while the prisoners were in the custody of the military police.
From the cell block, they were handed over to the interrogators for questioning without the military police in the room.
To date, only members of the 372nd Military Police Company, who served as guards in the cellblock, have been charged with crimes in the case.
But lawyers representing some of the accused say that onlookers depicted in some photographs of the abuses include unidentified military intelligence officers and contractors assigned to the interrogation center, the paper said.
Some of the accused and their lawyers have said their actions in the blocks were at the behest or encouragement of military intelligence officers, as part of a broader effort to soften up prisoners for interrogation.