How troops got torture tricks

2004-05-08 21:17

London - American soldiers' abuse of Iraqi prisoners appears to loosely follow a system of pressure techniques taught to some British and American troops, a newspaper alleged on Saturday.

Details of abuse at Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad seemed to match the tactics of a system called R2I, for "resistance to interrogation," designed to cause shock and humiliation, The Guardian newspaper quoted an unidentified former officer from Britain's elite special forces as saying.

The newspaper said British and American special forces soldiers learned the techniques - including keeping prisoners naked for long periods and subjecting them to sexual humiliation - so they would be better able to resist if enemy troops subjected them to similar pressure.

The military source reportedly said American guards depicted in photographs of abuse at Abu Ghraib appeared to have learned only fragments of information about the R2I techniques and were applying them haphazardly, without understanding how dangerous they could be.

"It was clear from discussions with US private contractors in Iraq that the prison guards were using R2I techniques, but they didn't know what they were doing," the newspaper quoted its source as saying.

He said the system also included forcing prisoners to wear hoods, depriving them of sleep, making them disoriented in time and depriving them of warmth, water and food.

The Ministry of Defence declined to comment on whether special forces were taught such techniques, but said British soldiers followed Geneva Convention rules about treatment of prisoners.

Also on Saturday, The Mirror newspaper ran a cover picture that appeared to show a British soldier taking what it called a "trophy photograph" of a prisoner whose hands were bound and teeth bloody.

It said the cover photo had come from an unidentified soldier it called "Soldier D". The newspaper quoted him as saying "there were no rules" for treatment of prisoners and alleging that detainees were regularly beaten by as many as 12 soldiers each.

He said the prisoner in the picture had been arrested for smuggling oil and described seeing him "dragged into the vehicle, beaten up, kicked and punched".

"I saw beatings like this every day," the soldier reportedly said. "We'd pull a guy from the back of the wagon with his hands still tied, then up to 12 of us would give him a kicking and leave him on the floor."

Soldier D was also quoted as saying that British soldiers took photos and videos of abuse so they could boast of their toughness.

Authorities told them to get rid of the images, but "There was one CD going round our room with about 500 shots on it. Some were 'before and after' pictures of beatings," he reportedly said.

The soldier, whom the Daily Mirror said was too frightened to go to authorities, said he had participated in brutality and regretted doing so.

- AP