By Thomas E. Ricks
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, April 5, 2004; Page A13

The Army is investigating an allegation that U.S. troops killed an Iraqi detainee when they forced him and another man to jump from a bridge into the Tigris River, and a battalion commander has been disciplined for impeding the probe, officers familiar with the investigation said.

The action against Lt. Col. Nate Sassaman marked the second time in recent months that a battalion commander in the 4th Infantry Division has been disciplined in connection with mistreatment of Iraqis. Sassaman, well-known in the Army since he was a star West Point quarterback two decades ago, received a reprimand for helping subordinates mislead Army investigators as they began their inquiry, an officer familiar with the situation said. Several other soldiers received similar punishment.

Army officers said they are working to understand what happened on the bridge Jan. 4 near the Sunni Triangle town of Samarra, including such basic facts as whether anyone died in the river that night. The soldiers have admitted they forced the two men into the river but say they saw both men swim to shore and emerge, officials said.

"There are elements of what happened in Samarra . . . that still are under investigation and in dispute," said Col. Frederick Rudesheim, commander of the brigade that includes Sassaman's battalion. "What we don't know is what really happened that evening. What I know is that we did something wrong."

That night, Rudesheim said, an infantry patrol picked up two Iraqi men on curfew violations. "For no explicable reason," he said, soldiers in the patrol, from the battalion's Alpha Company, forced the two men to jump into the Tigris River.

At least one of the men made it to shore and filed a complaint about the incident some days later. He said his compatriot had drowned, according to Rudesheim, who said he later met with the man who filed the complaint.

A body was recovered from the river about 10 days after the incident, Rudesheim said, but military authorities are not sure it is the man who was detained that night. Investigators have received another report that the man is alive in Samarra. To this day, Rudesheim said, soldiers in the patrol "still contend they saw both men getting out of the water, up a slight embankment, as they departed."

In any case, he said, "forcing these detainees into the water was very wrong, and soldiers are facing either judicial or nonjudicial action, pending the outcome of the investigation."

Sassaman's "lapse in judgment," Rudesheim said, was in not telling investigators that it was true the Iraqis had been forced into the river. "What was being said initially was that they were dropped off, and the flex cuffs cut off them, and that was all there was to it. . . . They left that piece out, that they had actually been in the water."

He added: "It came as a complete shock to me that there was any cover-up -- it just floored me."

Rudesheim declined to say how many soldiers had been reprimanded and how many more remain under investigation. Sassaman's letter of reprimand came from Army Maj. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, commander of the 4th Infantry Division, officials said.

Sassaman did not respond to repeated requests for comment made by telephone and e-mail over several days. Odierno did not respond to a request to comment for this article.

Lt. Col. Bill MacDonald, the spokesman for the 4th Infantry Division, said by e-mail when initially queried in February, "There is an ongoing investigation still pending and discussing anything beyond that would be speculation." He did not respond to subsequent e-mails and telephone calls.

There has been a spate of allegations recently against U.S. troops concerning treatment of detainees.

Late last month, the Army charged six U.S. soldiers with abusing and mistreating prisoners at the military jail west of Baghdad. In January, three Army reservists were discharged for kicking and punching prisoners at a detention center near the southern city of Basra. In October, eight Marine reservists were charged with mistreating prisoners of war at a camp near Nasiriyah, about 200 miles south of Baghdad. Two of them were charged with negligent homicide in a prisoner's death in June.

Another battalion commander in the 4th Infantry Division was disciplined a few weeks before the January incident in Samarra. Late last year, Lt. Col. Allen B. West, commander of an artillery unit, pleaded guilty to beating and threatening to kill an Iraqi prisoner. He was accused of firing his pistol near the prisoner's ear. He was fined $5,000 and relieved of his post.

The January incident was not the first of its kind in the battalion, said one soldier in the battalion who spoke on condition of anonymity. A few months earlier, he said, troops forced an Iraqi to jump from a bridge into the Tigris near Balad. The man survived, subsequently complained and sought compensation, the soldier said. Rudesheim would not discuss details but confirmed such a complaint had been made.

The soldier said that rough handling of detainees was common in his unit but that he thought it was often warranted. "It's a little like the French colonel in 'The Battle of Algiers,' " he said, referring to the 1965 film about the Algerian uprising against French colonial rule. That is, he explained, the French officer said, " 'You're all complaining about the tactics I am using to win the war, but that is what I am doing -- winning the war.' "

Sassaman is one of the Army's higher-profile lieutenant colonels. Twenty years ago he quarterbacked West Point's team to its first bowl game: the 1984 Cherry Bowl, played against Michigan State University (Army won, 10-6). He made headlines for playing much of the season with three cracked ribs, wearing a flak jacket under his uniform to protect his injured torso.

Over the past year, as Sassaman commanded the 1st Battalion of the 8th Infantry Regiment, part of the 3rd Brigade of the 4th Infantry Division, he was frequently quoted in news accounts. He caused some controversy for a remark he made to the New York Times in December. "With a heavy dose of fear and violence, and a lot of money for projects, I think we can convince these people that we are here to help them," the newspaper quoted him as saying.

Poor discipline and acts of brutality generally are seen as indications of troubled, low-morale units.

But Rudesheim said Sassaman's battalion performed well in Iraq. "This unit has performed superbly for almost an entire year in combat in the Sunni Triangle," he said.

He added, "There were also mitigating circumstances regarding the decisions." Two days before the Samarra incident, he said, one of Sassaman's favorite subordinate officers, an engineering unit captain named Eric T. Paliwoda, had been mortally wounded, and Sassaman had held the dying officer before putting him aboard a medical evacuation flight. "He basically died in Nate's arms," Rudesheim said.

Staff researcher Lucy Shackelford contributed to this report.