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Sadism, not interrogation at Abu Ghraib: Report
Iraqi teenage prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison were sodomized and intimidated by using military dogs as part of a sadistic game by US military officers, an Army investigation into the scandal has found. The investigation report by Major General George R Ray has also expanded the circle of soldiers considered responsible for abuse.
Iraqi teenage prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison were sodomized and intimidated by using military dogs as part of a sadistic game by US military officers, an Army investigation into the prison scandal has found, a media report said.
The investigation report by Major General George R Ray has also expanded the circle of soldiers considered responsible for abuse beyond the seven military police soldiers already facing charges, to include more than a dozen others -- low ranking soldiers, civilian contractors and medics.
"It had nothing to do with interrogation. It was just them on their own being weird," an army officer familiar with the report was quoted saying by the media report.
The report, which is yet to be published, criticises the military leadership, from the prison and up through the highest levels of the US chain of command in Iraq at the time. However, it recommends no action against them, The Washington Post reported.
Some of the boys at the prison were only 15 years old.
Presumably the report accepts the alibi that the top officers were too busy coping with the insurgency to see what was happening at the prison.
"The core conclusion of the Fay report," a source said, "is that there was a leadership failure in the Army in Iraq." But it "will not recommend any punitive action or even a letter of reprimand."
The investigation also acknowledges that military intelligence soldiers kept multiple detainees off the record books and hid them from international humanitarian organisations.