WASHINGTON – The Army general whose report on mistreatment of Iraqi detainees helped ignite an international firestorm clashed yesterday with a top civilian Pentagon official over whether guards at Abu Ghraib prison should have assisted military intelligence officers with interrogations.
Maj. Gen. Antonio M. Taguba told Congress yesterday that “a failure in leadership” at the prison led military police to collaborate with intelligence officers and civilian contractors to abuse and humiliate prisoners there.
Taguba found that the MPs had been asked to “set the conditions” for questioning of detainees, a phrase that has been interpreted as softening up prisoners for questioning. He testified that cooperation between jailers and interrogators flies in the face of military regulations.
But Stephen A. Cambone, the undersecretary of defense for intelligence, disagreed with Taguba, saying that Army doctrine allows intelligence personnel and military police guards to cooperate in handling detainees to elicit better information.
“The notion was that you had to have a … cooperative attitude, team building – call it what you will – between the MPs and the MIs,” Cambone said, referring to military police guards and military intelligence personnel.
Cambone is one of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld’s closest aides and wields great influence at the Pentagon. The holder of a Ph.D. in political science, he is the first-ever undersecretary of defense for intelligence, and his appointment was seen by many as an attempt by Rumsfeld to consolidate the Pentagon’s control over intelligence programs.
In a day of probing hearings before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Taguba and Cambone also differed sharply about who was in charge at Abu Ghraib when the abuses took place.
The general testified that a November 2003 order from Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, the senior U.S. commander in Iraq, effectively put a military intelligence commander – Col. Thomas M. Pappas of the 205th Military Intelligence Brigade – in control of the prison.
But Cambone testified that the order did not give military intelligence officers control over the guards.
“I do not believe that the order placing Colonel Pappas in charge gave him the authority to direct the [guards’] activities,” said Cambone, turning pointedly to Taguba, who was seated next to him, as he challenged the general’s assessment.
Taguba said the abuse had been perpetrated by soldiers who had “a lack of discipline, no training whatsoever, and no supervision.” Their actions, depicted in graphic photographs that have been beamed worldwide, “were probably influenced by others – not necessarily directed by others,” Taguba said.
Seven enlisted members of the Western Maryland-based 372nd Military Police Company are the only persons facing criminal charges stemming from the alleged abuse. More senior soldiers were charged with administrative violations.
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“At the end of the day, a few soldiers and civilians conspired to abuse and to conduct egregious acts of violence against detainees and other civilians, outside the bounds of international laws and the Geneva Convention,” Taguba said.
Asked whether their conduct was the result of an order, he replied, “I believe that they did it of their own volition. … We didn’t find any order whatsoever, sir – written or otherwise – that directed them to do what they did.”
The release of shocking video of the beheading of an American civilian by a group with ties to al-Qaida cast a pall over the hearings, as lawmakers and witnesses noted that the prison abuse scandal had increased the chances that Americans might be subjected to such violence.
In a related matter, Senate leaders struck a deal with the Pentagon to gain access for a three-hour period this afternoon to hundreds of photographs and videos graphically depicting the detainee mistreatment. Senators are to view the images in a secure, sound-proofed vault in the Capitol where they receive classified briefings and look at sensitive documents.
Meanwhile, at the Pentagon, employees gave embattled Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld a standing ovation at a gathering where he said that the prisoner abuse scandal should not be allowed to define the way the U.S. military is seen by the world. An auditorium full of Defense Department workers rose to applaud after Marine Gen. Peter Pace, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, urged them to thank Rumsfeld for his leadership.
Cambone echoed Rumsfeld’s somber words to Congress last week, offering his “deepest apology” for the abuse.
“We are dismayed by what took place,” Cambone said. “Iraqi detainees are human beings. They were in U.S. custody. We had an obligation to treat them right, and we didn’t do that. That was wrong.”
The disagreements between Taguba and Cambone went to the heart of lawmakers’ questions about what went on at Abu Ghraib. Senators pushed the Pentagon witnesses to clarify who was in charge of those soldiers accused of the abuse, where they were getting their orders, and precisely what their role was in the interrogation of detainees. “Who gave the order to ‘soften up’ these prisoners, to ‘give them the treatment’? Was this a policy? Who approved it?” asked Sen. Robert C. Byrd, a West Virginia Democrat.
Cambone and several military officials testified that the military had made it clear that the Geneva Conventions dictating humane treatment of prisoners during armed conflict applied in Iraq. There was no military policy, they said, that would have allowed the abuse at Abu Ghraib; nor was any order given to the soldiers to conduct it.
But Taguba said he believes that a major leadership breakdown led low-ranking, poorly trained soldiers who thought they were answering to military intelligence officers to engage in the mistreatment.
Military intelligence personnel were “influencing [soldiers’] actions to set the conditions for successful interrogation operations,” Taguba said. Later, he added that “the guards – those who were involved – looked at [military intelligence personnel] as competent authority.”
Sen. John W. Warner, the Virginia Republican who chairs the Armed Services panel, voiced doubt that the guards would have dreamed up on their own the humiliation of prisoners – which included nudity and forced sexual acts, particularly offensive in Islamic culture. He suggested that the pictures were taken as a blackmail tool to force prisoners to divulge information. “These youngsters didn’t understand the nuances of Muslim culture,” Warner said.
Taguba’s testimony painted a picture of a chaotic atmosphere at Abu Ghraib, where a brigade that was supposed to be specially trained for prison work – the 800th Military Police Brigade, of which Maryland’s 372nd was a subordinate unit – was unprepared for its duties, and where commanders were embroiled in a turf war that contributed to overall confusion.
Brig. Gen. Janis L. Karpinski, commander of the 800th, clashed with Pappas over who was in charge at the prison, Taguba testified.
Partisan bickering erupted over the prisoner abuse crisis as Republicans accused Democrats of exploiting the disturbing pictures and horrific allegations for political gain.
GOP Sen. James M. Inhofe of Oklahoma singled out John Kerry, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, whose campaign sent an e-mail Monday that chided the Bush administration for its handling of the scandal, called for Rumsfeld’s resignation and sought contributions for Kerry’s campaign. Inhofe said he was “outraged by the press and the politicians and the political agendas that are being served by this.”
<!– ART CREDITCHUCK KENNEDY : KNIGHT RIDDER/TRIBUNE
ART CREDIT–> <!– CUTLINE TEXTMaj. Gen. Antonio Taguba (from right), Undersecretary of Defense Stephen Cambone, Lt. Gen. Lance Smith at hearing.
CUTLINE TEXT–> <!– ART CREDITCHUCK KENNEDY : KNIGHT RIDDER/TRIBUNE
ART CREDIT–> <!– CUTLINE TEXTPentagon intelligence chief Stephen Cambone and Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba clashed during their testimony on the Abu Ghraib scandal to the Senate Armed Services Committee.
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