CIA Copy of NY Newsday Article: 25 Prisoners Have Died in U.S. Custody

7. 25 prisoners have died in U.S. custody
Craig Gordon, NY Newsday, 5 May 2004
WASHINGTON -- Twenty-five prisoners have died in U.S. custody in Iraq and Afghanistan, including
two that Army officials believe were killed by American captors.
That new revelation by the Pentagon yesterday came as congressional officials warned that the
Prisoner abuse scandal in Iraq is deeper than already revealed.
The CIA confirmed that the agency's inspector general had "several investigations" under way of
alleged abuses of Iraqi prisoners by its personnel. One of the CTA''s investigations, said a U.S. official,
involved the death of an Iraqi Republican Guard general who was being questioned by the iJ in
November.
Nearly a week after the photos of Iraqi prisoners being humiliated and sexually abused were made
public, the Bush administration yesterday faced a raft of new questions about how the incidents
occurred, why top officials didn't respond more quickly and why Congress wasn't notified as
investigations pointed up serious problems in the Iraqi detention system.
The revelation of the criminal investigations comes on top of allegations already outlined in a March 3
military investigative report prepared by Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba. Taguba's report -- which is still
classified -- said that "numerous incidents of sadistic, blatant and wanton criminal abuses were
inflicted on several detainees" at Abu Ghraib between October 2003 and December 2003.
Taguba's report and the graphic photos — have created the most serious crisis for U.S. officials in
Iraq since the war began, and it comes less than 60 days before they are scheduled to hand over
power to an Iraqi interim government.
Already, six soldiers face criminal charges stemming from the incidents at Abu Ghraib prison, and six
others were given letters of reprimand expected to end their military careers. The commander of the
prison at the time of the incidents, Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, head of the Uniondale-based 800th
Military Police Brigade, has been suspended awaiting final disciplinary action.
In addition, Army officials confirmed that 20 criminal investigations are ongoing, including 10 death
cases and 10 for prisoner assault. Twelve others were closed because the deaths were believed due
to natural causes.
In Iraq, the outcry continued. Iraq's U.S.-appointed human rights minister said yesterday he had
resigned this week to protest abuses of Iraqi detainees by American guards. Abdul-Basat al-Turki
said he feared that the abuses were not an isolated incident, as American officials say, but that "the
violations are a common act."
A second Iraqi official, the nation's interior minister, said Iraqis should be allowed to participate more
in the running of the prisons.
Threats, humiliation detailed Taguba's report cites a series of allegations,made by Iraqi prisoners --
allegations that Taguba said were found credible based on the investigation.
Prisoners charged that their U.S. guards threatened them with a 9mm pistol, beat them with a broom
handle and chair, threatened male detainees with rape and sodomized a prisoner with a chemical
light and perhaps a broom stick.
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The report also lists several of actions seen In the now widely publicized photographs, including
forcing detainees into sexually explicit positions, arranging naked male detainees in a pile, and
positioning a naked detainee on a box with a bag on his head and wires attached to fingers, toes and
penis "to simulate electrical torture," the report said.
Taguba's report, first reported by the New Yorker magazine, found that a lax command atmosphere in
the prison contributed to the abuses.
In addition, that atmosphere allowed military intelligence officers -- those who do the actual
interrogations -- to lobby military police guards to inflict humiliations upon detainees to break them
down before questioning.
Symbol of abuse Abu Ghraib was one of Saddam Hussein's most notorious prisons and torture
centers -- exactly the kind of place that U.S. officials have said was put out of business when they
deposed Hussein. But now it has become a symbol of what many Iraqi perceive as American abuses
-- so much so that Rumsfeld was forced yesterday to draw a distinction between American practices
there and Hussein's, calling the abuses in the photos an isolated incident.
"The pattern and practice of the Saddam Hussein regime was to ... to murder and torture. And the
killing fields are filled with mass graves. And equating the two I think is a fundamental
misunderstanding of what took place," Rumsfeld said at a Pentagon news conference.
Still, Rumsfeld acknowledged that the abuses "damaged" the trust U.S. officials were trying to build in
Iraq, saying it was "clearly ... unhelpful in a fundamental way."
National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice said President George W. Bush "will speak directly to the
Arab world," and other officials said he would do interviews with Arab television stations to underscore
his feelings about the photographs of naked prisoners and gloating U.S. soldiers.
Army: 2 deaths unjustified The Army also revealed for the first time the extent of its own criminal
investigations in the region, saying it has investigated 25 deaths and 10 prisoner assault cases since
December 2002, mainly in Iraq. The Army supervised more than 40,000 detainees at the post-war
peak, and now oversees about 10,000.
Of three prisoner deaths, one was found to be a justifiable homicide, when a prisoner was killed while
trying to escape.
But senior Army officials say they have concluded two of the prisoner deaths were not justified. One
soldier was court-martialed for shooting a detainee at a detention center in the field in September
2003 after the detainee was throwing rocks at the guard.
The second case, according to the Army, involves a 04: contract interrogator at Abu Ghraib prison in
November 2003. A senior Army official said its criminal investigation determined the charge was
"founded," but said the Army has no jurisdiction over ,n activities and had to refer the charges to the
Justice Department.
The n also said it was investigating this case, but said there has been no final conclusion that the
death was not justified, contradicting the Army version.
In the other OA fatality, a senior U.S. official said the prisoner in question, Abed Hamed Mowhoush
al-Mahalowi, was a general with Hussein's Republican Guard. Al-Mahalowi was detained in an
October 2003 raid near the Syrian border but died the following month while under American
interrogation.
A CIA official yesterday denied that the CA had any role in the sexual mistreatment of prisoners at
the Abu Ghraib prison.
Outrage on Capitol Hill After a briefing with Pentagon officials on Capitol Hill, some senators said they
were outraged that the Pentagon had failed to notify them last month about the Army report outlining
abuses at Abu Ghraib. Others questioned why neither Bush nor Rumsfeld had yet to read the entire
report or view the photos before they were made public.
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Also, two senators, Republican John Warner of Virginia and Democrat Edward Kennedy of
Massachusetts, both said they believed there were other incidents of prisoner abuse in Iraq and
Afghanistan that have yet to come to light. And Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) said an independent probe
may be warranted.
The new commander of U.S.-run prisons in Iraq, Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller, said yesterday he would
cut in half the number of Iraqi prisoners in Abu Ghraib , and bar some interrogation techniques
considered humiliating, such as hooding prisoners.
Staff writer Knut Royce contributed to this story.
Copyright © 2004, Newsday, Inc.
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