|
US witness: 'Cover-up' at Iraq Abu Ghraib
(Agencies/abcnews)
Updated: 2004-05-19 08:49
Dozens of soldiers - other than the seven military police reservists who have
been charged - were involved in the abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison, and there
is an effort under way in the Army to hide it, a key witness in the
investigation told ABCNEWS.
Sgt. Samuel Provance, from the
302nd Military Intelligence Battalion stationed at Abu Ghraib last
September. | "There's definitely a cover-up," the
witness, Sgt. Samuel Provance, said. "People are either telling themselves or
being told to be quiet."
Provance, 30, was part of the 302nd Military Intelligence Battalion stationed
at Abu Ghraib last September. He spoke to ABCNEWS despite orders from his
commanders not to.
"What I was surprised at was the silence," said Provance. "The collective
silence by so many people that had to be involved, that had to have seen
something or heard something."
Provance, now stationed in Germany, ran the top secret computer network used
by military intelligence at the prison.
He said that while he did not see the actual abuse take place, the
interrogators with whom he worked freely admitted they directed the MPs' rough
treatment of prisoners.
"Anything [the MPs] were to do legally or otherwise, they were to take those
commands from the interrogators," he said.
Top military officials have claimed the abuse seen in the photos at Abu
Ghraib was limited to a few MPs, but Provance says the sexual humiliation of
prisoners began as a technique ordered by the interrogators from military
intelligence.
"One interrogator told me about how commonly the detainees were stripped
naked, and in some occasions, wearing women's underwear," Provance said. "If
it's your job to strip people naked, yell at them, scream at them, humiliate
them, it's not going to be too hard to move from that to another level."
According to Provance, some of the physical abuse that took place at Abu
Ghraib included U.S. soldiers "striking [prisoners] on the neck area somewhere
and the person being knocked out. Then [the soldier] would go to the next
detainee, who would be very fearful and voicing their fear, and the MP would
calm him down and say, 'We're not going to do that. It's OK. Everything's fine,'
and then do the exact same thing to him."
Provance also described an incident when two drunken interrogators took a
female Iraqi prisoner from her cell in the middle of the night and stripped her
naked to the waist. The men were later restrained by another MP.
Pentagon Sanctions Investigation
Maj. Gen. George Fay, the Army's deputy chief of staff for intelligence, was
assigned by the Pentagon to investigate the role of military intelligence in the
abuse at the Iraq prison.
Fay started his probe on April 23, but Provance said when Fay interviewed
him, the general seemed interested only in the military police, not the
interrogators, and seemed to discourage him from testifying.
Provance said Fay threatened to take action against him for failing to report
what he saw sooner, and the sergeant fears he will be ostracized for speaking
out.
"I feel like I'm being punished for being honest," Provance told ABCNEWS.
"You know, it was almost as if I actually felt if all my statements were
shredded and I said, like most everybody else, 'I didn't hear anything, I didn't
see anything. I don't know what you're talking about,' then my life would be
just fine right now."
In response, Army officials said it is "routine procedure to advise military
personnel under investigative review" not to comment.
The officials said, however, that Fay and the military were committed to an
honest, in-depth investigation of what happened at the prison.
But Provance believes many involved may not be as forthcoming with
information.
"I would say many people are probably hiding and wishing to God that this
storm passes without them having to be investigated [or] personally looked at."
| |
 |
|
|
|
|
Today's
Top News |
|
|
|
Top World
News |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
