WASHINGTON, 20 May 2004 — American military personnel previously disciplined for their role in the abuse of prisoners may yet face criminal charges, the top commander in Iraq told Congress yesterday.
The troops at Abu Ghraib prison and their entire chain of command will be investigated as part of the probe into abuse of Iraqis at the facility outside Baghdad, added Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez. “And that includes me.”
Sanchez and his commanding officer, Gen. John Abizaid, appeared before a Senate committee delving, despite the misgivings of some Republicans, more deeply into the prisoner abuse.
The scandal and publication of photographs showing prisoners forced to submit to sexual humiliation has shaken the Bush administration six months before the presidential election and coincided with a deterioration of public support for the war.
In several hours of questioning before the Senate Armed Services Committee:
• Abizaid and Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller said there had been limited prisoner abuse in Afghanistan, where Taleban fighters are detained, and in Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, where the United States holds suspected Al-Qaeda terrorists. Miller, the former commander at Guantanamo, now is in charge of the military’s prisons in Iraq.
• Abizaid predicted that the insurgency would grow even more violent after the transfer of limited sovereignty to an interim Iraqi government on June 30. “It’s possible we might need more forces” than the approximately 135,000 there now, he said.
• Col. Mark Warren, a military lawyer, said a controversial sheet titled “Rules of Engagement” to govern interrogations of prisoners in Abu Ghraib was posted by a captain, a relatively low-ranking officer. Sanchez said he had neither seen nor approved it in advance.
In contrast, Lt. Gen. Mark Alexander, the Army’s senior intelligence officer, told the committee last week that the guidelines were official policy within Sanchez’s command.
• Sen. John Warner, R-Va., the committee’s chairman, disclosed that the Pentagon had found another disk containing photos of abuse at Abu Ghraib. Members of Congress emerged grim-faced last week after viewing the images contained on other disks. Lawmakers expressed shock at what they said were scenes of sadism and of prisoners who forced to assume sexually humiliating positions.
• Abizaid said he may have underestimated the number of American forces required this spring as the insurgency intensified. But, he added, “I think we’ve adjusted.” He also said he was “not comfortable” with the relatively small number of international troops in the US coalition in Iraq.
The hearing took place several hours after Spc. Jeremy C. Sivits pleaded guilty in Iraq for his role in the abuse. He was sentenced to a maximum penalty of one year in prison, a reduction in rank and a bad conduct discharge.
President Bush has apologized for the abuse and pledged that the scandal will not interfere with the planned transfer of political power to an interim Iraqi government on June 30.
Abizaid, commander of the US Central Command, told senators that the June 30 date “is achievable, but it needs to emerge soon as to who is going to be in charge and what their names are and where they’re going to be and what they’re going to do.”
Political factions inside Iraq are jockeying over who should make up that government. The administration has said it is working with a UN envoy to develop a list of Iraqis who will be involved. In addition to Sivits, six enlisted men and women from a reserve military police company based near Cumberland, Md., face charges.
At least six more soldiers have received administrative reprimands. Two have been relieved of their duties; a seventh received a lesser reprimand. Many of those disciplined are officers, and the head of Sivits’ brigade, Brig. Gen. Janis L. Karpinski, is the highest-ranking officer who has been admonished.
That was the group that Sanchez referred to when he told the Senate committee that some personnel who have been disciplined administratively may yet face courts-martial.
Abizaid and Sanchez acknowledged there were problems, such as overcrowding, in the prison system in Iraq. But they insisted there was neither widespread abuse or prisoners nor official countenancing of any mistreatment that did occur.
“How can you explain the culture of abuse that was allowed to develop in a prison system under your ultimate command?” Sen. Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va. asked Abizaid.
“I don’t believe that the culture of abuse existed in my command,” he replied.
Abizaid told the committee there have been instances of abuse in Afghanistan, although not on the scale of those at Abu Ghraib. Miller said there were a “few instances of minor abuse” at Guantanamo.
“There was no systemic abuse at Guantanamo at any time,” Miller said. He said two or three military personnel received administrative penalties and that one was court-martialed.
The hearing opened as Republicans squabbled about the wisdom of continued sessions on the issue.
Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., the chairman of the House Armed Forces Committee, said Tuesday the hearings were “disserving our military operation” in Iraq by summoning additional commanders to testify.
