Prisoner treatment defended
KABUL, Afghanistan – The U.S. military said Friday it does not tolerate any mistreatment of detainees, in response to a newspaper report alleging repeated abuse by “young, poorly trained soldiers” at its main base in Afghanistan.
The allegations were contained in a New York Times report Friday that cited a 2,000-page confidential file of the Army’s criminal investigation into the deaths of two Afghans at the Bagram base north of Kabul in December 2002.
“There is no excuse for mistreatment of detainees,” the U.S. military spokesman in Kabul, Col. James Yonts, said in an e-mail response to questions about the report.
“Military and civilian members are expected to abide by the highest standards and when their actions contradict these standards appropriate action will be taken. The command has made it very clear that any incidents of abuse will not be tolerated,” Yonts said.
President Bush was “alarmed by the reports of prisoner abuse” and wants them thoroughly investigated, White House spokesman Trent Duffy said, adding that seven people are being investigated in connection with abuse at Bagram Air Base.
“What the military and what the president supported is investigations, holding people to account,” Duffy said. “We’ve taken steps, we’ve taken new policies to ensure that this doesn’t happen again, and we’re holding people to account.”
The Times reported that the file of the criminal investigation “depicts young, poorly trained soldiers in repeated incidents of abuse,” which in some instances “was directed or carried out by interrogators to extract information.”
It reported that one of the two Afghans, a 22-year-old taxi driver named Dilawar, was pummeled on his legs by guards for several days and chained with his arms to the ceiling. Most of the interrogators believed he was an innocent man who simply drove his taxi past the base at the wrong time, the newspaper said.
The Army has publicly acknowledged the two deaths and announced in October that up to 28 U.S. soldiers face possible charges in connection with what were ruled homicides.
In December, Pentagon officials confirmed that eight deaths of detainees in Afghanistan have been investigated since mid-2002. Hundreds of people were detained during and after the campaign by U.S.-led forces to oust the Taliban regime in 2001.
Following the outcry over prison abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, the military also initiated a review of its detention facilities in Afghanistan and later said it had modified some of its procedures. The review’s findings have yet to be made public.