U.S. officer tells of violence at Iraq prison

By Adam Tanner

05/06/04 -- SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A former U.S. military commander in Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison has described a chaotic atmosphere of disdain for Iraqi prisoners in which U.S. guards killed at least four during two riots.

Army National Guard Lt. Michael Drayton commanded the 124-person 870th Military Police Company from November to March at the prison, which is the subject of intense focus after pictures of Iraqi prisoners being abused appeared last week.

"You got to understand, although it seems harsh, the Iraqis they only understand force," he told Reuters in an interview. "If you try to talk to them one on one as a normal person, they won't respect you, they won't do what you want, prisoner or just normal person on the street."

"So you've got to be forceful with them in some ways."

"There is a frustration factor dealing with the Iraqis. Everybody wants to choke them. I don't care who you are, (if) you spend enough time around Iraqis."

"But you knew what the lines were, you knew you couldn't do it," he said.

A veteran of the first Gulf War as a Marine, Drayton described a constant stream of troubling reports such as of prisoners raping boys at the facility. He also told of two riots which resulted in members of his military police company killing Iraqi prisoners.

"These prisoners were throwing bricks and hitting soldiers and causing bodily harm, so the guys did have the right to take them down and they did take prisoners down," he said. "In one riot I think it was two or three (killed)."

He said two instigators of a second riot were also killed.

Following revelations last week that U.S. soldiers abused Iraqi prisoners at the prison, the U.S. Army revealed on Wednesday that 25 prisoners had died in Iraq and Afghanistan in U.S. custody.

They included two Iraqis murdered by Americans, one death described as justifiable homicide, and 12 deaths by natural or undetermined causes. Ten were still being investigated.

HUMILIATION POSITIONS

Drayton, a Sacramento, California insurance adjuster in civilian life, condemned the actions of the men and women, from a different unit, who photographed Iraqi criminals at Abu Ghraib in humiliating positions.

"They put these pictures on (a) disk and they were pretty proud of it, although it was very sick what they did," he said. "What they did was extremely wrong."

A "overwhelming" inflow of prisoners created a chaotic atmosphere in the prison that was notorious as a centre of torture under Saddam Hussein's rule, Drayton said.

He said most of the prisoners there were "security detainees" who had not been convicted of wrongdoing, although several hundred had been found guilty by Iraqi courts of crimes.

U.S. military police worked 12- 18-hour shifts guarding the prison. "At any time we may have had 250 -- the most -- MPs, and you had over 7,000 security detainees and 400 to 500 actual prisoners."

"You had to make up things as you go."

"You get the feeling of being overwhelmed, because you were overworked and it was pretty frustrating," he said. Military intelligence officials often interviewed prisoners but did not help administer the facility, he said.

It was in the violent atmosphere of the prison riots that six soldiers took the infamous photos of abuse that led to their court martial.

He said the prisoners involved were criminals who would be unlikely to provide useful information rather than security detainees.

One of the Iraqis shown in the pictures, Hayder Saddar Abd, was quoted in the New York Times on Wednesday as saying he was never interrogated nor charged with a crime.

Drayton said the abuse was carried out by "just a few individuals who felt that they were dealing with prisoners in their way."

"The company itself that was involved with it, they were a pretty good group. It was just a few bad seeds."

He described them as otherwise unremarkable young soldiers from West Virginia and Maryland.

Reuters