WASHINGTON -A high-level Army investigation of prisoner interrogation techniques in Iraq has found no evidence that abuse by U.S. military police or intelligence officers is widespread, officials said yesterday.
The review continues, however, and the Army has not determined whether all six soldiers charged with abusing Iraqi prisoners will face a military trial.
The investigation, led by officials in the office of the Army's deputy chief of staff for intelligence, is looking broadly at interrogation methods in Iraq. It is not a criminal investigation of the cases that occurred last fall involving the Army Reserve's 372nd Military Police Company, officials said.
Among the most pressing questions is the extent of prisoner abuse and whether it is condoned or encouraged by U.S. military or civilian intelligence officials who have overseen the interrogations.
Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, the Army Reserve commander who oversaw the prison system until recently, said in weekend interviews with The New York Times and Washington Post that she knew nothing of the alleged abuse until it was reported. She suggested it may have been encouraged by military intelligence officers, who kept tight control of the cellblock where the abuse occurred.
Attempts to reach Karpinski, who has returned from Iraq, were unsuccessful Sunday.
Amnesty International, the London-based human rights group, said it has uncovered a pattern of torture of Iraqi prisoners by coalition troops. The group called for an independent investigation into the claims of abuse and said it received scores of reports of ill treatment of detainees.
Dan Senor, spokesman for the U.S. occupation authority in Baghdad, said the reported abuse is being aggressively investigated by the military.
Careers will be ended and criminal charges are going to be leveled
he told CNN's Late Edition.
Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said he was confident that the vast
majority of American soldiers involved in the Iraqi prison system are acting properly. He said it was clear from the high-level Army investigation under way that abuse is not widespread.
I would say that categorically Myers told ABC's This Week.
There is no no evidence of systematic abuse in this system at all
including the U.S. military prison system at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where about 600 suspected terrorists are detained, he said.
We review all the interrogation methods. Torture is not one of the methods that we're allowed to use and that we use. I mean
it's just not permitted by international law
and we don't use it
Myers said.
The Joint Chiefs chairman said that as soon as the initial allegations came to light, an investigation team was sent to Iraq at the request of Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz. The central focus has been the Abu Ghraib prison west of Baghdad, but Myers said the investigation is looking at prisons throughout Iraq to determine the extent of abusive or illegal handling of prisoners.
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