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Nation & World News U.S. officials face allegations of prisoner abuse Contrarily, a U.S. civilian's escape from Iraqi captors provides an uplifting story By Deborah Horan Chicago Tribune (KRT) BAGHDAD, Iraq — American Thomas Hamill, the truck driver ab ducted in early April and shown in footage released by his captors, was found alive Sunday by U.S. soldiers on patrol north of Baghdad after ap parently escaping from his captors. The good news came on an other wise grim day elsewhere in Iraq, as nine soldiers were killed in three inci dents, and controversy grew over al leged prisoner abuse by U.S. soldiers, as the overseer of guards at U.S.-run prisons in Iraq, who is under investi gation, lashed out at her superiors in published reports. West of Baghdad, six soldiers were killed and 30 were wounded in a mor tar attack on a military base outside the flash-point city of Fallujah, a Marine spokesman said. He declined to give further details, and it was unclear whether the soldiers were Marines. In Baghdad, two soldiers were killed when a pre-dawn roadside bomb detonated as their convoy passed, a military spokesman said. A few hours later, another soldier was killed and 10 were wounded when a bomb exploded near their military base in the northern city of Kirkuk, the spokesman said. On Saturday night, Shiite militia men attacked a U.S. convoy with small arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades near the southern city of Amarah. Two soldiers were killed, the military said. The violence came as the Marines continued to recruit Iraqis, many of them former members of Iraq's for mer army, to a new security force set to patrol Fallujah amid hope that a fragile cease-fire might hold. Last week, the Marines agreed to al low former senior commanders who served under Saddam Hussein to take charge of the Fallujah Brigade in a shift in strategy that the Bush admin istration hopes will curb an insur gency that has fueled weeks of fight ing in the city. At least one Saddam-era officer, Gen. Jassim Mohammed Saleh, was named in early reports as a possible top commander of the unit. But a sen ior military official in Baghdad said Sunday that the makeup of the top leadership is under discussion. The brigade is likely to be commanded by another Saddam-era general, Mo hammed Latif, the official said, and Saleh may be installed as commander of the brigade's 1st battalion. But Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, cast doubt on whether either Iraqi general would hold a top position in the new Fallujah force, telling several tel evision networks that neither one was formally approved. 'They have not been vetted; they have not been put in charge," Myers said. Fallujah, the scene of heavy fighting since Marines entered the city on April 5, has been relatively calm since the Marines negotiated a deal with the town's tribal and ex-military leaders last week. On Sunday, the city remained quiet, as Marine's continued to pull back from front-line positions in the southern part of the city, Arab news channels reported. In Baghdad, mili tary officials remained cautiously op timistic that calm might continue. "Perhaps the belligerents in Fallu jah are playing wait and see," a top commander said. "They don't know what to make of this (agreement)." Hamill was discovered late Sunday morning when members of the 2nd Battalion, 108th Infantry Regiment, spotted the 43-year-old civilian con tractor while patrolling an oil pipeline near Balad, 35 miles south ofTikrit, a military official said. Hamill identified himself to the soldiers and then led them to the house where he was held captive, the official said. Soldiers detained two Iraqis found inside, one armed with an assault rifle. Hamill was taken by helicopter to a nearby military base and then moved to Baghdad, according to a statement from the 1st Infantry Division. A gun shot wound to his arm, apparently re ceived during the initial kidnapping, was infected, the military said. He otherwise was not injured and was re ported in stable condition. "He has spoken to his family," said Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, a top mili tary commander in Iraq. "He is now ready to get back to work." Meanwhile, outrage over pictures of Iraqi prisoners apparendy being bru talized by U.S. soldiers in a Baghdad prison continued to grow. According to Newsweek, Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, the commander of the Army Reserve's 800th Military Po lice Brigade in charge of Iraq's prison guards, lambasted coalition com mander Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez for dumping the blame for the treatment of the prisoners on her and other Army reserves. "Holding me responsible for what happened at the squad level is absurd," Karpinski said in tin exclusive interview published in this week's issue. "Why not hold Sanchez responsible?" (cj 2004, Chicago Tribune. Distributed by Knight Ridder/ Tribune Information Services. Chicago Tribune foreign correspondent Evan Osnos contributed to this report. Officials: Episodes of prisoner abuse in Iraq ‘isolated’ The military says the claims were reported and handled internally by U.S. officials By Stephen J. Hedges Chicago Tribune (KRT) WASHINGTON — Facing a grow ing international uproar over photo graphs that show the abuse of Iraqi prisoners held inside a U.S. military detention facility near Baghdad, the nation's top general said Sunday that the ill treatment of those detainees was isolated, and not representative of the U.S. military prisons elsewhere in the country. "The pictures we've seen, the ac tions that we saw on those photo graphs, that is appalling behavior, not acceptable behavior by any stan dards," said Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. "It's important to realize that it was American soldiers that turned these people in, and that as soon as we found out about it, we took very quick action to investigate that situation." Myers, appearing on CBS' "Face the Nation," said an investigation is under way, at the direction of Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, to determine whether abuse also oc curred in other facilities. But he stressed that an investigation of the Abu Ghraib prison incidents suggests that it is limited to a single unit. "Where a handful of people can sully the reputation of hundreds of thousands of people that are over there trying to give a better life to 50 million people, it's a big deal, be cause we take this very seriously," Myers said. "Our code of conduct, our ethics, our values, I think, it's known in society are very solid, among the highest standards of any organization, any group." Myers comments came as human rights groups suggested that the mis treatment of prisoners by the U.S. military has occurred in other places, and is not limited to a single cell block inside Abu Ghraib, a sprawling compound that was known as Iraq's most notorious prison during the reign of deposed Iraqi leader Sad dam Hussein. The military began to investigate re ports of abuse by guards inside the UW Summer Quarter is open to you! For more information, call 800-550-2917 or visit summer, washin gton.edu "Where a handful of people can sully the reputation of hundreds of thousands of people that are over there trying to give a better life to 50 million people, it's a big deal, because we take this very seriously.... Our code of conduct, our ethics, our values... are very solid, among the highest standards of any organization, any group." Gen. Richard Myers Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff i prison in January, and in March it an nounced that it had recommended charging six military police officers and suspended another 11 as a crimi nal investigation continued. One of ficer has so far been recommended for court-martial. The Geneva Conventions prohibit "outrages upon the personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrad ing treatment" of prisoners. The impact of the Abu Ghraib alle gations erupted with new force last week, when the CBS program "60 Minutes II" released photographs tak en by guards of Iraqi prisoners forced into humiliating poses. The prisoners were naked and hooded, and were forced to kneel in a human pyramid or stand in sexually suggestive positions. One photograph shows a dead Iraqi prisoner. Pressure for a broader, public inquiry in the United States is building. Five Democratic senators asked for a review into the use of private contractors in Iraq, includ ing those used in prisons. Sen. Joseph Biden, a Delaware Democ rat and ranking member of the Sen ate Foreign Relations Committee, said Sunday that the Bush adminis tration will have to move quickly to limit the damage caused by the prisoner abuse revelations. "We should demonstrate to the Arab world that this is urgent," Biden said on the "Fox News Sun day" show. "This is the single most significant undermining act that's occurred in a decade in that region of the world, in terms of our stand ing, in my view." (c) 2004, Chicago Tribune. Distributed by Knight Ridder/ Tribune Information Services. ^OMMOn ApaNMrjMfe [Mom/ 018934 Wmm Call today to ask about our $100 off move-in special. For a limited time only. come take a tour today! 338-4000 umversiTY COMMONS apartments 90 Commons Drive, Eugene, Or 97401
