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[[Joe Ryan]], an interrogator working for [[CACI International]] at the prison, kept an online diary of his work. The diary was removed in late April 2004, however the last few entries were rescued from the Google cache: see [[Joe Ryan Abu Ghraib diary April 2004]].
----==Use of Dogs Authorized==*Josh White reported in the July 27, 2005, ''Washington Post'' that [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp------dyn/content/article/2005/07/26/AR2005072601792.html?sub=AR "Abu Ghraib Dog Tactics Came From Guantanamo"] and that "Testimony Further Links Procedures at 2 Facilities."
*The <i>Financial Times</i>' Joshua Chaffin and Demetri Sevastopulo reported June 22/23, 2004, that the [http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1087373195356&p= 1012571727102 "US approved use of dogs in interrogations"]: "The SituationWhite House on [June 22nd] released documents showing the US had for a period approved the use of dogs in the interrogation of prisoners. But it said the practice was later withdrawn and it denied ever sanctioning torture." *R. Jeffrey Smith, [http: Abuse//www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A55703-2004May25.html?referrer=email "General Is Said To Have Urged Use of Dogs,"] ''Washington Post'', TortureMay 26, and Brutality ===2004:
:According to Col. [[Thomas M. Pappas]], "the idea came from Maj. Gen. [[Geoffrey D. Miller]], who at the time commanded the U.S. military detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and was implemented under a policy approved by Lt. Gen. [[Ricardo S. Sanchez]], the top U.S. military official in Iraq." :However, Brig. Gen. [[Mark Kimmitt]], "spokesman for U.S. forces in Iraq," said that "Miller never had a conversation with Colonel Pappas regarding the use of military dogs for interrogation purposes in Iraq. Further, military dogs were never used in interrogations at Guantanamo." :*Douglas Jehl and Eric Schmitt's May 22, 2004, three-page ''New York Times'' article [http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/22/politics/22ABUS.html?th "Dogs and Other Harsh Tactics Linked to Military Intelligence,"] among other details, provides the following: ::"... accounts by American dog handlers who say the use of military working dogs in interrogations at Abu Ghraib was approved by Col. Thomas M. Pappas, the commander of the 205th Military Intelligence Brigade." However, an October 9, 2003, 'memorandum for the record' "listed as permissible a number of interrogation procedures that Army officials have said were allowed only with approval from General Sanchez .... [including] the use of dogs in interrogations and the confining of prisoners to isolation cells was permitted in some cases without a prior approval from General Sanchez." == The Situation: Abuse, Torture, and Brutality ==*The May 3, 2004, ''New York Times'' Op-Ed [http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/03/opinion/03MON1.html "The Nightmare at Abu Ghraib"] states stated the obvious: "The American military made a strange and ill-starred decision when it chose to incarcerate Iraqis in '''Abu Ghraib''', the prison that had become a byword for torture under Saddam Hussein and a symbol of everything the invasion of Iraq was supposed to end. As United States officials have known for months, some of the American soldiers brought their own version of sadism to the site. Now that the rest of the world knows as well, the [[Bush administration]] will have to do more than denounce the scandal as the work of a few bad apples."
*[[Hisham Melham]], a Lebanese journalist, [http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/middle_east/jan-june04/photos_5-3.html speaking] May 3, 2004, on ''PBS Online NewsHour'' said that "The irony [is] that these abuses were taking place in Abu Ghraib, the most notorious prison during Saddam's regime, a facility that should have been razed to the ground and in its place built a shrine or memorial to its many victims. These abuses were taking place in that most notorious jail."
*Flashback: [http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&contentId=A37460-2003Jun26¬Found=true "U.S. Pledges to Avoid Torture. Pledge on Terror Suspects Comes Amid Probes of Two Deaths"] by Peter Slevin, ''Washington Post'', June 27, 2003.
---------
Also see:
*[[Iraqi detainee abuse scandal]]
*[[Afghanistan detainee abuse scandal]]
*[[Taguba Report]]
In the May 17, 2004, ''Slate'', Fred Kaplan wrote [http://slate.msn.com/id/2100683/ "Locked in Abu Ghraib. The prison scandal keeps getting worse for the Bush administration."]
:"If today's investigative shockers--[[Seymour Hersh]]'s [http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?040524fa_fact latest article] in ''The New Yorker'' and a [http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4989438/ three-part piece] in ''Newsweek''--are true, it's hard to avoid concluding that responsibility for the Abu Ghraib atrocities goes straight to the top, both in the Pentagon and the White House, and that varying degrees of blame can be ascribed to officials up and down the chain of command."
*Congressman [[John Conyers, Jr.]], issued a [http://www.house.gov/judiciary_democrats/resofinquirypr62304.pdf statement] calling for full disclosure of documents related to the Abu Ghraib prison scandal at a June 23, 2004, press conference with Minority Leader [[Nancy Pelosi]], Congressman [[Henry A. Waxman]] and others.
:The statement concluded: "The prison scandal is a stain on our nation and an impediment to the prosecution of the war against terror. If this Congress can't find the will to investigate an abuse of this magnitude, it calls into question our entire constitutional system of checks and balances."
:"In a sworn statement to Army investigators obtained by ''USA Today'', Army Lt. Col. Steven Jordan, the top military intelligence officer at Abu Ghraib when abuses occurred, said he was under intense pressure from the White House, [[Pentagon]] and [[CIA]] last fall to get better information from detainees.
:"He also said he had worked out a procedure with CIA interrogators to hide five or six inmates from [[Red Cross]] inspectors in October [2003], the newspaper reported in Friday editions."
*Andrea Elliott, [http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/14/international/middleeast/14ABUS.html?th "Unit Says It Gave Earlier Warning of Abuse in Iraq,"] ''New York Times'', June 14, 2004:
:Early warnings were sounded in November 2003, by both the Red Cross, which "alerted American military commanders in Iraq to abuses at Abu Ghraib," and "a small unit of interrogators at Abu Ghraib prison began reporting allegations of prisoner abuse ... in [previously unreported] internal documents sent to senior officers, according to interviews with military personnel who worked in the prison."
*Edward T. Pound, [http://www.usnews.com/usnews/issue/040607/usnews/7prison.htm "Up in the cellblocks. A Pentagon memo defines just who gets to see some inmates at Abu Ghraib--and when,"] ''U.S. News & World Report'', June 7, 2004 (Issue):
:"The restrictions were put in place despite the Army's avowed commitment to 'free and unfettered access' to Abu Ghraib and other detention facilities in Iraq, in compliance with the [[Geneva Conventions]]. The new policy was drafted after the Red Cross, in visits to Abu Ghraib last October and November, uncovered abusive treatment."
*Douglas Holt and Stephen J. Hedges, [http://fairuse.1accesshost.com/news1/chtr6.htm "Army's probe of abuse questioned. External panel recommended,"] ''Chicago Tribune'', May 30, 2004.
===Abuse More Widespread===
*Fred Hiatt, [http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A3520-2004May30?language=printer "Why Hawks Should Be Angry,"] ''Washington Post'', May 31, 2004.
*[http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A61941-2004May27.html "The Homicide Cases,"] ''Washington Post'', May 28, 2004.
*The Associated Press reports reported on May 30, 2004, that [http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2004/05/30/2003157538 "US abuses alleged at other facilities."]
:"Several US guards allege they witnessed military-intelligence operatives encouraging the abuse of Iraqi prison inmates at four prisons other than Abu Ghraib ... Court transcripts and Army investigator interviews provide the broadest view of evidence that abuses, from forcing inmates to stand in hoods in 49oC heat to punching them, occurred at a Marine detention camp and three Army prison sites in Iraq besides Abu Ghraib.
:A May 5, 2004, document prepared by the [[Criminal Investigation Command]] "at the request of Army officials ... lists the status of investigations into three dozen cases, including the continuing investigation into the notorious abuses at Abu Ghraib." The "summary of deaths and mistreatment involving prisoners in American custody in Iraq and Afghanistan shows a widespread pattern of abuse involving more military units than previously known."
*Douglas Jehl and Andrea Elliott, [http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/29/international/middleeast/29ABUS.html?th "Cuba Base Sent Its Interrogators to Iraqi Prison,"] ''New York Times'', May 29, 2004:
:"The involvement of the Guantánamo teams has not previously been disclosed, and military officials said it would be addressed in a major report on suspected abuses by military intelligence specialists that is being completed by Maj. Gen. [[George Fay]] ... [The report] will be the second major chapter in the Army's examination of the prisoner abuses in Iraq. Military officials said he would determine whether tactics used by military interrogators at Guantánamo and in Afghanistan were wrongly applied in Iraq, including at Abu Ghraib."
*Mark Rothschild, [http://www.antiwar.com/rothschild/?articleid=2677 "Karpinski Was 'Set Up,' but Sanchez Takes the Fall,"] ''antiwar.com'', May 28, 2004:
:*Also see '''Reshuffling the Chain of Command''' below.
*Elisabeth Bumiller, [http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/27/politics/27PRIS.html "Pentagon Was Blindsided by Bush Pledge to Raze Prison,"] ''New York Times'', May 27, 2004:
:"'This office was not aware of any plans to raze Abu Ghraib or build another prison,' said a Pentagon spokesman who insisted that he not be identified because he did not want to be seen as contradicting the president."
:"Some of the defenses of the prisoner abuse I've seen over the past few weeks have centered around two assumptions, one erroneous, one unproven.
:"The second part, that the torture was somehow ameliorated by its results, was hard to debate one way or the other. Beyond the validity of any information received - did they actually get any information? According to [Jehl and Schmitt's report], no. In fact, most of the information didn't even come from prison interrogations."
===Reshuffling the Chain of Command===
*Robert Burns, [http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040525/ap_on_re_us/prisoner_abuse_general_1 "General Who Led Abu Ghraib Guard Suspended,"] AP, May 24, 2004: "Brig. Gen. [[Janis Karpinski]] ["suspended from command of the 800th Military Police Brigade"] and other officers in her brigade were faulted by Army investigators for paying too little attention to the prison's day-to-day operations and not acting strongly enough to discipline soldiers under her command for violating standard procedures. ... Karpinski's suspension, which has not been announced by the Army, was the latest in a series of actions against officers and enlisted soldiers implicated in the abuse scandal at Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad."
:*Although President Bush made the announcement that the Abu Ghraib prison would be destroyed in his May 24, 2004, speech on [[Iraqi sovereignty: June 30, 2004]], AP reporter Lara Jakes Jordan had already reported that a "proposal to destroy" the Abu Ghraib prison was "moving forward" in the House of Representatives on May 20th, "as lawmakers voted to include it in a defense spending bill." [http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040521/ap_on_go_co/prisoner_abuse_prison]
:*Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez , the recently announced as the head of the new [[Multi-National Force-Iraq]] (MNF Iraq), will be leaving was to leave Iraq [http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5013551/ July 1, 2004], "when the United States hands over power" to the [[Iraqi Interim Government]]. [http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5013551/]
::Sanchez will be replaced by Gen. [[George W. Casey, Jr.]], "the Army's second-ranking general," according to senior [[Pentagon]] officials on May 25, 2004. [http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/25/politics/25SANC.html?th]