Abuses by U.S. forces in Iraq included stripping women:

Abuses by U.S. forces in Iraq included stripping women: report
LOS ANGELES, May 04, 2004 (Kyodo via COMTEX) --

U.S. military police personnel mentally and physically abused detainees in Iraq by videotaping and photographing them, both male and female, nude as well as intimidating them with military dogs, the Los Angeles Times reported Monday citing a U.S. military report.

Senior officers "failed to comply with established regulations, policies and command directives in preventing detainee abuses," Army Maj Gen. Antonio Taguba wrote in the classified investigative report completed in March, according to the daily.

The New Yorker magazine reported the existence of the report on its website Sunday, while the Los Angeles Times reported details for the first time, which could lead to an escalation in anti-U.S. sentiment in Iraq and other Arab nations.

According to the newspaper, the torture of Iraqi prisoners at U.S. military prisons in Abu Ghraib, west of Baghdad, occurred between October and December.

The abuses included attaching wires to detainees' fingers, toes and penis to simulate electric torture, as well as using military dogs to intimidate and frighten detainees, and in at lease one case biting and severely injuring a detainee, the daily said in quoting from the investigative report.

Islam, the religion of most Iraqis, considers dogs unclean.

The U.S. military personnel photographed and videotaped naked detainees, including women, in various sexually explicit positions, the newspaper said.

The Los Angeles Times said the report also noted that "very little instruction or training was provided to MP (military police) personnel on the applicable rules of the Geneva Convention relative to the treatment of prisoners of war."

The newspaper also quoted the report as saying the "sadistic" abuses were "caused or exacerbated by poor leadership and the refusal...to both establish and enforce basic standards and principles among its soldiers."

The paper said the report appears to undermine an early round of explanations by U.S. officials that the abuses were isolated acts of a small number of low-ranking soldiers.

2004 Kyodo News (c) Established 1945

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