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http://www.usnews.com/usnews/usinfo/press/prison.htmThe most comprehensive view yet of what went wrong at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison, based on a review of all 106 classified annexes to the report of Major General Antonio Taguba, shows abuses were facilitated -- and likely encouraged -- by a chaotic and dangerous environment made worse by constant pressure from Washington to squeeze intelligence from detainees.
Daily life at Abu Ghraib, the documents show, included riots, prisoner escapes, shootings, corrupt Iraqi guards, filthy conditions, sexual misbehavior, bug-infested food, prisoner beatings and humiliations, and almost-daily mortar shellings from Iraqi insurgents. Troubles inside the prison were made worse still by a military command structure that was hopelessly broken.
Taguba focused mostly on the MPs assigned to guard inmates at Abu Ghraib, but the 5,000 pages of classified files in the annexes to his report show that military intelligence officers -- dispatched to Abu Ghraib by the top commander in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez -- were intimately involved in some of the interrogation tactics widely viewed as abusive.<snip> The documents provide new insights, as well as additional compelling details on how Abu Ghraib was spiraling out of control, and how top military commanders battled behind closed doors. General Sanchez and Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, a reservist who commanded the 800th MP Brigade, did not see eye-to-eye. Her brigade was given the assignment to run the prison, but last November Sanchez put military intelligence in charge of the facility.(read the rest at link) sw
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