'Serial sadism and wanton abuse'
Sergeant Frederick said he voiced concern to his commander,
Lieutenant-Colonel Jerry Phillabaum. "His reply was, 'Don't worry
about it'."

In letters home, Sergeant Frederick said that MI took an Iraqi to his
cell block for questioning. "They stressed him out so bad that the man
passed away," he said.

'Serial sadism and wanton abuse'

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Iraqi prisoners routinely ill-treated by jailers, secret US military
report admits

AMERICAN guards serially abused Iraqi prisoners in the notorious Abu
Ghraib prison as a routine part of the US force's interrogation
process, according to an internal military report.

The 53-page document written in February talks of numerous instances
of "sadistic, blatant and wanton criminal abuses" in which at least
one prisoner died and portrays the problem as more widespread and
systemic than initially realised.

In other cases prisoners were sodomised with a chemical light and
possibly a broom stick, stripped, forced to wear women's underwear,
handcuffed to cell doors, forced into 3ft by 3ft cells and left for up
to three days in cells with no water or toilet.

Inmates were also routinely beaten with a chair or broom handle. Some
rooms in the prison were found spattered with blood.

The internal report, written by Major General Antonio Taguba,
implicates US Military Intelligence (MI) as encouraging military
police reservists in one part of the prison to mete out such treatment
to prepare prisoners for interrogation. The MI had the run of one cell
block in Abu Ghraib, and were not accountable to the reservists
running the prison.

Six military police reservists with the 372nd Military Police Company
are facing courts martial and other reservists, including Janis
Karpinski, a Brigadier-General overseeing the prison, face
disciplinary action.

But those so far blamed for the abuse have warned that they will not
be punished quietly. General Karpinski said she knew nothing of the
maltreatment, and nearly vomited when she was shown photographs which
have produced a wave of revulsion in the Arab world.

General Karpinski, who has been suspended, said military high command
was trying to lay all blame on the reservists. "We're disposable," she
told 'The New York Times'.

"Why would they want the active-duty people to take the blame? They
want to put this on the MPs and hope that this thing goes away. Well,
It's not going to go away."

Sergeant Ivan Frederick, known as Chip, who is facing a court martial,
has claimed that he was being encouraged by MI, made up of CIA
officers, linguists, and interrogation specialists from the private
sector.

Sergeant Frederick said in evidence given to General Taguba's report:
"I questioned this and the answer I got was, this is how military
intelligence wants it done."

He also described incidents when he said he disagreed with the level
of force being used. In one, a man who appeared to be mentally
disabled and was singing while standing near a fence was shot with
rubber bullets. In another, a man with a broken arm was put in a
headlock until he choked.

Sergeant Frederick said he voiced concern to his commander,
Lieutenant-Colonel Jerry Phillabaum. "His reply was, 'Don't worry
about it'."

In letters home, Sergeant Frederick said that MI took an Iraqi to his
cell block for questioning. "They stressed him out so bad that the man
passed away," he said.

The dead man was never entered into prison records, so his death was
not recorded.

A second internal military report, by Provost Marshal Donald Ryder,
one of the army's chief law enforcement officers, said there was
evidence dating back to the Afghanistan war that military police had
worked with MI to "set favourable conditions for subsequent
interviews."

Meanwhile, Muslim and human rights groups yesterday condemned the
alleged abuse of Iraqi prisoners by US and British troops, and Amnesty
International said it had evidence of a pattern of torture by
coalition forces.

The British claims surfaced after the American network CBS broadcast
images allegedly showing Iraqis stripped naked, hooded and being
tormented by their US captors. Six US soldiers face courts-martial in
connection with allegations of mistreatment of detainees at an Iraqi
prison.

Despite the leaking of the report alleging systematic abuse of Iraqi
prisoners by their US jailers, the military's top officer insisted
last night that there was no widespread pattern of abuse, and the
actions of "just a handful" of US troops had unfairly tainted all
American forces."

"We review all the interrogation methods. Torture is not one of the
methods that we're allowed to use and that we use," said Gen. Richard
Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Nicole Choueiry, Middle East spokesman for human rights group Amnesty
International, said the group had received "scores" of reports of
ill-treatment of detainees by British and American troops.

"We've been documenting allegations of torture for a year now," she
said. "We have said there are patterns of torture."

Amnesty says it has received reports of abuse including "prolonged
sleep deprivation, beatings, prolonged restraint in painful positions,
sometimes combined with exposure to loud music, prolonged hooding, and
exposure to bright lights."

Brig Gen Janis Karpinski, the US Army Reserve general who commanded
the military police officers photographed abusing prisoners at Abu
Ghraib jail, said she believed military commanders were trying to
shift the blame onto the reservists, rather than the military
intelligence officers in charge. (© The Times, London and agencies)

Roland Watson
in Washington