Intelligence officer kept prisoner abuse secret

By SEVERIN CARRELL and ANDREW BUNCOMBE

LONDON / WASHINGTON - A senior British intelligence officer knew in January this year that Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib were allegedly being abused but failed to tell his superiors, The Independent on Sunday has reported.

Colonel Chris Terrington, one of the highest-ranking British military intelligence experts posted to Iraq, was told there was "one or more" secret inquiries into alleged abuses at the infamous prison - four months before Tony Blair and Geoff Hoon, the Secretary of State for Defence, were informed.

The scandal erupted in late April after now notorious photographs of prisoners being sexually and physically abused by US guards were released, provoking one of the worst crises of the Iraq conflict for the US and British governments.

It emerged that this was the first British politicians knew of the scandal. Mr Hoon was later forced to admit that British diplomats in Baghdad had learnt of the alleged abuses in February from a report by the International Committee of the Red Cross, but withheld it from ministers.

Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, conceded that was a mistake. He told MPs the Red Cross report had exposed "evidence of appalling and disgusting human rights abuses in Abu Ghraib prison for which there can be no excuse".

Now, however, the Ministry of Defence has admitted that Col Terrington was officially told by US commanders in late January that at least one formal inquiry into those abuses was under way - a month earlier than the Government has previously admitted.

Opposition MPs called last night for a Commons inquiry. Adam Price, a Plaid Cymru MP, said: "British officials and ministers should have been told about this at the earliest opportunity. We need to know why this information was not passed on and whether there was an official policy of keeping damaging and embarrassing information from ministers and Parliament."

Investigations in the US have blamed the abuse at Abu Ghraib and other prisons on the importation of tough methods first used on suspected "enemy combatants" at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, where controversial military tribunals are now getting under way.

Last week, the tribunals were severely undermined by a request from the Pentagon's senior prosecutor, Colonel Robert Swann, that the presiding officer, Colonel Peter Brownback, consider resigning because of his lack of impartiality.

Col Brownback has in turn suggested two of his colleagues step down for similar reasons.

In a filing to the court, Col Swann said he was effectively agreeing with defence lawyers who argued that the presiding officer - in effect the judge - might not be sufficiently impartial to ensure a fair trial, because he had close personal links to retired army General John Alternburg, the so-called "appointing authority", who was brought in by the Pentagon to oversee the tribunals.

In another twist, Col Brownback has recommended that two members of the judging panel - air force Lt-Col Timothy Toomey, an intelligence officer who was involved in the capture of suspects in Afghanistan, and army Lt-Col Curt Cooper, who called Guantanamo prisoners "terrorists" - should stand down.

- INDEPENDENT

Herald Feature: Iraq