Allegations of Abuse Lead To Shakeup at Iraqi Prison

"One of the things General Sanchez was concerned about was the fact that this was more than one bad apple, one bad incident," an aide to Sanchez said on condition of anonymity, because of the continuing investigation. "Why wasn't the chain of command involved? Why wasn't the chain of command aware?"

In January, after a soldier tipped off investigators about abuses at Abu Ghraib, Sanchez suspended 17 soldiers from their duties and ordered separate criminal and administrative investigations.

The highest-ranking officer to be suspended was Army Reserve Brig. Gen. Janis L. Karpinski, commander of the 800th Military Police Brigade, based in Uniondale, N.Y., to which the 372nd Military Police Company was temporarily attached. Karpinski was responsible for all U.S. military detention facilities inside Iraq.

An administrative review conducted by Army Maj. Gen. Antonio M. Taguba found April 4 that officers in both the company and the larger brigade neglected to properly supervise the work of the prison guards.

A separate review, which grew out of the criminal probe, will examine interrogation practices in the prison, officials said. A new unit, the 16th Military Police Brigade, has taken over responsibility for Abu Ghraib.

Relatives of three of the six soldiers who were charged, and a lawyer for one of them, said in telephone interviews that the soldiers were being made scapegoats for following orders from officers who actively supported, and even commended, the way they treated the prisoners.

The lawyer for Staff Sgt. Ivan L. Frederick II, Gary R. Myers, said in a telephone interview, "We are strongly urging the general [Sanchez] to treat this as an administrative matter, just as all the senior people have been treated."

The soldiers "were provided no guidance on how to run the prison while they were there," Myers said. "They came under the influence of the intelligence community, whose interests may not be necessarily consistent with good prison management. The prison was set up in such a fashion that the intelligence community had far too much influence.

"They were instructing or advising the MPs to create 'favorable conditions' for interrogation. . . . 'Favorable conditions' were conditions where the detainees were susceptible to providing intelligence information, and that process involved techniques of humiliation."

The soldiers were congratulated by their senior officers, he said. "These guys are being told they are doing a fantastic job for their country, that they are saving lives and to keep up the good work," Myers said.

During Frederick's hearing, three of his supervisors appeared, and all invoked their constitutional right against self-incrimination, Myers said. The accused was told he could not question the alleged victims, military investigators or other officers because they were "not reasonably available."

Frederick's wife, Martha, said she and her husband lived in Buckingham, Va., and worked at the Buckingham Correctional Center. "He's not the type of person to do those types of things without being told this is what they wanted him to do," she said. "It seems that the person at the bottom is the one who carries the blame."

The father of another one of the soldiers charged, Spec. Jeremy C. Sivits, from Hyndman, Pa., also maintained that his son was following orders. "He was asked to take pictures and he did what he was told," Daniel Sivits said. "Where was their leadership? Why wasn't somebody supervising these people?"

Sivits said his son was trained by the Army as a mechanic, not a military police officer. "He's never had military police training," he said.

Robin Harman of Lorton also said her daughter, Spec. Sabrina D. Harman, was not properly trained.

"She's being railroaded," Harman said of her daughter, who before the Iraq war was an assistant manager at a pizzeria. "This kid has never hurt anyone in her life. They took her fresh out of boot camp and threw her platoon over there."

Spinner reported from Washington. Staff writer Christian Davenport in Annapolis and staff researchers Bobbye Pratt and Robert Thomason in Washington contributed to this report.