Red Cross Report Describes Systemic Abuse in Iraq

U.S. forces in Iraq often arrested Iraqis without good reason, routinely used excessive force in the early hours of captivity and abused some prisoners for months to extract information from them, the International Committee of the Red Cross told the Bush administration earlier this year.

The treatment of prisoners who were considered valuable intelligence sources or were suspected in attacks against U.S. forces was sometimes "tantamount to torture," the Geneva-based organization wrote in a February report made public today.

Military intelligence officers told Red Cross monitors that 70 to 90 percent of captives in Iraq last year had been arrested by mistake, the report stated. Some Iraqi families roamed the country for weeks trying to uncover the fate of their imprisoned relatives, who had disappeared into the military detention apparatus.

The Red Cross, which sent investigators to 14 detention centers run by the U.S.-led coalition, also documented eight cases in which Iraqi inmates were shot by American guards between April and November 2003. Seven prisoners died and 18 were injured.

The shootings were "investigated summarily" by U.S. military authorities, the Red Cross concluded. In all cases, coalition authorities concluded the use of live ammunition was justified, while the Red Cross said "less extreme measures" could have been used.

The 24-page report, first revealed by The Wall Street Journal, summarized 29 ICRC visits to detention centers in central and southern Iraq. Although the Red Cross report was not delivered until February, organization officials said the Red Cross teams briefed U.S. authorities on their findings after each visit.

When Red Cross monitors discovered the abuse of prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison in mid-October, they interrupted their visits to request an explanation. It was at Abu Ghraib that U.S. military guards provoked worldwide revulsion by photographing one another as they harassed and humiliated Iraqi prisoners.

The U.S. military intelligence officer in charge of the Abu Ghraib unit told the Red Cross that the abuse of prisoners was "part of the process," the report said. Inmates who cooperated were "drip-fed" items such as clothing, bedding and toiletries in return for good behavior and cooperation.

The ICRC report provides independent evidence from prisoners, guards and military intelligence officers that abuse occurred at Abu Ghraib, where the actions of U.S. troops and government and private interrogators sparked headlines and a bevy of investigations.

But the document goes well beyond conditions at Abu Ghraib to identify what the Red Cross considered "serious violations of international humanitarian law" as established by the Geneva Conventions.

Much of the behavior most troubling to Red Cross monitors was brutality toward newly arrested Iraqis by soldiers who had captured them. Ill-treatment toward new captives was so frequent and consistent, the Red Cross said, that it seemed to reflect a "usual modus operandi" by certain units.

Poor military supervision of battle units may have been a factor, according to the report.

Abuse of prisoners during interrogation and longer-term captivity, however, was not systematic, the Red Cross concluded. Indeed, the monitors said mistreatment typically ceased when prisoners reached prison facilities.

The exceptions were detainees deemed suspects in attacks on foreign forces and those considered to have valuable intelligence. U.S. guards at Abu Ghraib have said they were pressed by intelligence officers to "soften up" captives for questioning.

The Red Cross identified these categories of mistreatment and reported them to leaders of the U.S.-led occupation in Baghdad:

• Brutality during capture or early custody, sometimes causing serious injury or death.

• Physical or psychological coercion.

• Prolonged solitary confinement in cells devoid of daylight.

• Excessive and disproportionate use of force.

Three months before the Defense Department opened an investigation into conditions at Abu Ghraib, Red Cross investigators assigned to monitor compliance with the Geneva Conventions notified U.S. authorities of many of the harsh measures.

The report describes treatment of inmates in Unit 1A, the isolation section of the vast prison complex. Most prisoners there had been arrested in early October. Later in the month, Red Cross staff members witnessed prisoners kept "completely naked in totally empty concrete cells and in total darkness."

Captives who cooperated with U.S. authorities were treated better than those who resisted, according to supervisors interviewed by the Red Cross. Some prisoners were forced to walk the corridors handcuffed and naked apart from women's underwear on their heads. Others were handcuffed to cell doors.

Prisoners told the Red Cross that they were not told why they had been arrested, nor were they given access to lawyers or a review board to challenge their captivity.

"They were often questioned without knowing what they were accused of," the report said. "They were not allowed to ask questions and were not provided with an opportunity to seek clarification about the reason for their arrest."

At the prison camps in southern Iraq run initially by British forces and later by Americans, inmates were treated in the early stages with "general contempt" and "petty violence." When the Red Cross notified the British authorities about ill-treatment by military intelligence officers at the Umm Qasr camp, the report said, the treatment stopped.

Harsh treatment also ceased when the U.S. 800th Military Police Brigade took over guarding the interrogation section at the Umm Qasr facility. The detention camp was later replaced by Camp Bucca, about one mile away.

During the period covered by the Red Cross report, more than 100 "high value detainees" had been held for nearly 23 hours a day in solitary confinement at Baghdad International Airport, the Red Cross said. On Oct. 30, the Red Cross requested that the harsh regimen be replaced with a system consistent with the Geneva Conventions.

The Red Cross listed "methods of ill-treatment most frequently alleged" by Iraqi prisoners who described their interrogation. They included hoods placed over prisoners' heads to prevent them from seeing, to disorient them and to prevent them from breathing freely.

"Hooding was sometimes used in conjunction with beatings, thus increasing anxiety as to when blows would come," the Red Cross said.

"The practice of hooding also allowed the interrogators to remain anonymous and thus to act with impunity," the report continued. "Hooding could last for periods from a few hours to up to two to four consecutive days, during which hoods were lifted only for drinking, eating or going to the toilets."

Other practices listed by the Red Cross included:

• Handcuffing with flexi-cuffs, sometimes so tight and used for such long periods that they caused skin wounds and nerve damage.

• Pressing Iraqis' faces into the ground with boots.

• Beatings with pistols and rifles; slapping, punching, kicking with knees or feet.

• Threats of reprisal against family members, imminent execution, transfer to the U.S. detention facility in Guantanamo, Cuba.

• Insufficient sleep, food or water. Denial of access to open air.

• Acts of humiliation including standing naked or with women's underwear over their heads "while being laughed at by guards, including female guards, and sometimes photographed in this position."

• Prolonged exposure to hot sun on days when the temperature topped 120 degrees.

"The practices described in this report are prohibited under international humanitarian law," the Red Cross report concluded. "They warrant serious attention."