WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. soldiers who abused prisoners in Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq (news - web sites) were not always preparing them for interrogation but were punishing them or simply having fun, The Washington Post reported on Saturday.
The newspaper reported on documents showing that military police staged some of the abuse seen in now-notorious photographs to discipline the prisoners for riots, an alleged rape of a teenage boy and other acts.
Some of the photographs have been widely published, among them shots of a pyramid of naked prisoners, a hooded man standing on a box hooked up to wires, and three nude prisoners handcuffed together on the prison floor. The Post on Friday disclosed a collection of new photographs and video images and sworn depositions regarding the abuse of detainees by U.S. soldiers.
On Saturday, The Post said it had a sworn written statement in which a military police officer said civilian and military intelligence officers frequently visited the prison at night, taking detainees away for questioning inside a "wood hut" behind the prison.
The U.S. Congress and the Pentagon (news - web sites) are both investigating the revelations of physical and sexual abuse of Iraqi inmates at the prison outside Baghdad.
Seven U.S. soldiers, four men and three women, are facing courts-martial for abuses at Abu Ghraib and one, Spc. Jeremy Sivits, pleaded guilty on Wednesday. Another of them, Spec. Charles Graner, was identified in statements by eight detainees and is facing more charges than the others.
Graner's attorney has said previously that Graner was following orders of military intelligence officers.
The Post said several of the personnel seen in the photographs, including Sivits, Spc. Sabrina Harman, Sgt. Javal Davis and Private Lynndie England, have given statements to investigators.
The abuse was first reported by Spc. Joseph Darby, who is quoted by the newspaper as saying he found out about it when he began checking into a shooting at the prison.
Darby said he asked Graner if he had any photographs of the cell where the shooting occurred. Graner gave him two compact disks loaded with digital photos.
On them, he found hundreds of photographs showing naked detainees being abused by U.S. soldiers.
Darby quoted Graner, a former Pennsylvania prison guard, as saying: "The Christian in me says it's wrong, but the corrections officer in me says, 'I love to make a grown man piss himself."'
The Post said Graner and two others, Staff Sgt. Ivan Frederick and Spc. Meghan Ambuhl, asked for lawyers and declined to provide investigators with sworn statements.
The documents contain statements from MPs who described Graner and Frederick as the organizers of the abuse, it added.
Lawyers for some of the accused MPs have said intelligence officers ordered them to "soften up" prisoners for interrogation.
But on Oct. 24, the MPs decided to punish three detainees suspected of raping a teenage boy at the prison, the newspaper said.
"They started to handcuff the two rapists together in odd positions/ways," England is quoted as saying in the documents.
"The third guy was brought over and handcuffed between the other two. Then they were laying on the floor handcuffed together, so all the other prisoners could see them."
A detainee was also forced to stand on a box of food, with wires connected to his figures, toes and penis.
Harman is quoted as admitting she attached the wires to the prisoner, nicknamed "Gilligan," and told him he would be electrocuted if he fell off the box.
"Why did you do this to the detainee 'Gilligan'?" a military investigator asked in the documents.
"Just playing with him," Harman said.
The newspaper reported on documents showing that military police staged some of the abuse seen in now-notorious photographs to discipline the prisoners for riots, an alleged rape of a teenage boy and other acts.
Some of the photographs have been widely published, among them shots of a pyramid of naked prisoners, a hooded man standing on a box hooked up to wires, and three nude prisoners handcuffed together on the prison floor. The Post on Friday disclosed a collection of new photographs and video images and sworn depositions regarding the abuse of detainees by U.S. soldiers.
On Saturday, The Post said it had a sworn written statement in which a military police officer said civilian and military intelligence officers frequently visited the prison at night, taking detainees away for questioning inside a "wood hut" behind the prison.
The U.S. Congress and the Pentagon (news - web sites) are both investigating the revelations of physical and sexual abuse of Iraqi inmates at the prison outside Baghdad.
Seven U.S. soldiers, four men and three women, are facing courts-martial for abuses at Abu Ghraib and one, Spc. Jeremy Sivits, pleaded guilty on Wednesday. Another of them, Spec. Charles Graner, was identified in statements by eight detainees and is facing more charges than the others.
Graner's attorney has said previously that Graner was following orders of military intelligence officers.
The Post said several of the personnel seen in the photographs, including Sivits, Spc. Sabrina Harman, Sgt. Javal Davis and Private Lynndie England, have given statements to investigators.
The abuse was first reported by Spc. Joseph Darby, who is quoted by the newspaper as saying he found out about it when he began checking into a shooting at the prison.
Darby said he asked Graner if he had any photographs of the cell where the shooting occurred. Graner gave him two compact disks loaded with digital photos.
On them, he found hundreds of photographs showing naked detainees being abused by U.S. soldiers.
Darby quoted Graner, a former Pennsylvania prison guard, as saying: "The Christian in me says it's wrong, but the corrections officer in me says, 'I love to make a grown man piss himself."'
The Post said Graner and two others, Staff Sgt. Ivan Frederick and Spc. Meghan Ambuhl, asked for lawyers and declined to provide investigators with sworn statements.
The documents contain statements from MPs who described Graner and Frederick as the organizers of the abuse, it added.
Lawyers for some of the accused MPs have said intelligence officers ordered them to "soften up" prisoners for interrogation.
But on Oct. 24, the MPs decided to punish three detainees suspected of raping a teenage boy at the prison, the newspaper said.
"They started to handcuff the two rapists together in odd positions/ways," England is quoted as saying in the documents.
"The third guy was brought over and handcuffed between the other two. Then they were laying on the floor handcuffed together, so all the other prisoners could see them."
A detainee was also forced to stand on a box of food, with wires connected to his figures, toes and penis.
Harman is quoted as admitting she attached the wires to the prisoner, nicknamed "Gilligan," and told him he would be electrocuted if he fell off the box.
"Why did you do this to the detainee 'Gilligan'?" a military investigator asked in the documents.
"Just playing with him," Harman said.
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