WASHINGTON — The alleged abuse of Iraqi detainees by U.S. military police at a notorious prison near Baghdad was the result of "systemic" problems that included poorly trained, overextended guards who were encouraged to go outside their proper roles and wear down prisoners before questioning, a military investigation concluded.
Senior officers "failed to comply with established regulations, policies, and command directives in preventing detainee abuses," Army Maj. Gen. Antonio M. Taguba wrote in the investigative report completed in March. Taguba is deputy commander of coalition support forces.
Several soldiers "committed egregious acts and grave breaches of international law," he concluded.
A copy of the 53-page report, which is labeled "Secret/No Foreign Dissemination," first reported in the New Yorker, was obtained Sunday by The Times. The commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, requested the investigation by a ranking officer.
In his report, Taguba recommended disciplinary action against 10 service members, from a brigadier general to a platoon sergeant, and two civilian contractors who dealt with Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib. Separately, the report identified five service members and a civilian translator as possible criminal suspects. Investigators interviewed 48 participants in or witnesses to the events.
The report added some new details about the alleged mistreatment at the prison, which occurred between October and December of last year. For example, it found that female detainees as well as male prisoners were videotaped and photographed in the nude. And it found that male prisoners were forced to masturbate while being photographed or videotaped.
Perhaps more significantly, Taguba attempted to dissect the underlying factors leading to what he called "systemic and illegal abuse" including "numerous incidents of sadistic, blatant and wanton criminal abuses ... inflicted on several detainees."
Taguba found that military intelligence interrogators, in apparent violation of Army regulations, "actively requested that ... guards set physical and mental conditions for the favorable interrogation of witnesses."
These instructions were not relayed to the military police guards through their own chain of command, but through "lower levels." One sergeant told investigators that military intelligence interrogators urged guards to "loosen this guy up for us" and "make sure he has a bad night."
