NYT Earlier Jail Seen as Incubator for Abuses in Iraq (Col. Pappas)

[maddezmom]

WASHINGTON, May 14 — An American-run detention center outside Baghdad known as Camp Cropper was reportedly the site of numerous abuses of Iraqi prisoners several months before the mistreatment of prisoners unfolded last fall at Abu Ghraib prison, according to documents and interviews.

The detention facility, on the outskirts of Baghdad International Airport, appears to have served as an incubator for the acts of humiliation that were inflicted months later on Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib. At both sites, the mistreatment has been linked to interrogations overseen by the 205th Military Intelligence Brigade, based in Wiesbaden, Germany.

The alleged abuses at Camp Cropper last May and June were severe enough to have prompted formal complaints to American commanders from visiting officials of the International Committee for the Red Cross. After several visits to Camp Cropper, where they interviewed Iraqi prisoners, officials of the I.C.R.C. in early July 2003 cited at least 50 incidents of abuse reported to have taken place in a part of the prison under the control of military interrogators.

~snip~

After the I.C.R.C. complaints, the military interrogation site at Camp Cropper where the abuses took place was closed down, senior military officials said, though they declined to discuss the committee's report or to say whether it had prompted that move. "A decision was made to close the camp and consolidate at Abu Ghraib," a senior military officer said.

It remains unclear whether any disciplinary action was taken at the time against members of the 205th Brigade. The brigade commander, Col. Thomas M. Pappas, who took command at the end of June 2003, was later put in charge of interrogations at Abu Ghraib and was implicated by the Army's investigation of abuses as being "either directly or indirectly responsible" for the actions of those who mistreated and humiliated Iraqi prisoners there.

~snip~

more: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/15/politics/15ABUS.html

[molly]

1. They knew and never disciplined this guy

just moved him on. :grr:

[maddezmom]

3. and he's "now" under investigation....

if those phots never made it to the media, he'd still be going about his business with blessings from above.

[truthisfreedom]

2. hey, they were just growing bushco overseas.

under orders from the top. the stinky top.