Monday October 17, 2005

FRONTLINE Presents "The Torture Question" Tuesday, October 18, 2005, from 9 to 10:30 P.M. ET on PBS

BOSTON, Oct. 17 /PRNewswire/ -- Another American soldier has come forward to reveal abusive interrogation techniques by military personnel in Iraq. Tony Lagouranis, a former Army interrogator at Abu Ghraib and member of a special intelligence team in Iraq, has given FRONTLINE a firsthand account of his involvement in the harsh treatment of prisoners.

"It's all over Iraq," Lagouranis told FRONTLINE. "The infantry units are torturing people in their homes. They would smash people's feet with the back of an axhead. They would break bones, ribs. That was serious stuff."

Lagouranis' comments are included in an upcoming FRONTLINE, "The Torture Question," airing nationally on Tuesday, October 18, at 9 P.M. ET on PBS (check local listings). The program includes interviews with other interrogators who also say the abuse of prisoners throughout Iraq is more widespread than previously reported.

"Most of the abuses around Iraq are not photographed," a soldier who requested anonymity told FRONTLINE. "And this makes it even harsher, because around Iraq, in the back of a Humvee or in a shipping container, there's no camera, and there's no one looking over your shoulder, so you can do anything you want."

The Pentagon has said the abuses at Abu Ghraib were the acts of a small handful of soldiers and that the problem has not migrated out into the country. "If it was only the night shift at Abu Ghraib, which it was, it was only a small section of the guards that participated in this. It's a pretty good clue that it wasn't a more widespread problem," said Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Richard Myers in August of this year.

Lagouranis tells FRONTLINE that he was using military dogs to threaten prisoners in Mosul in the spring of 2004. "These are big German shepherds. When I would ask the prisoner a question and I didn't like the answer, I would cue the handler so the dog would bark and jump on the prisoner," Lagouranis said. "They wet their jumpsuits because they were so scared, especially because they'd have a blindfold and they can't figure out-you know, that's a pretty terrifying position to be in."

The FRONTLINE documentary airs just as Sen. John McCain's amendment mandating humane treatment of prisoners passed in the U.S. Senate 90-9. President Bush has threatened to veto an appropriations bill containing the McCain amendment if it reaches his desk.

The amendment came after another American soldier, Capt. Ian Fishback, reported to Human Rights Watch that American troops had engaged in prisoner abuse throughout Iraq. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld dismissed Fishback's allegations as "secondhand."

"Our interview with Tony Lagouranis is a firsthand account of abuse beyond Abu Ghraib," said FRONTLINE producer Michael Kirk. "We have off-the-record interviews with many more soldiers telling us the abuse at Abu Ghraib was neither unique nor isolated to the prison, and that it continues throughout the country."

The allegations come at the end of a film that chronicles how the United States government authorized the use of coercive tactics after the Sept. 11 attacks. The film investigates the government's use of rendition and alleged abuse at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba; Abu Ghraib; and throughout Iraq.

"The Torture Question" is a FRONTLINE co-production with the Kirk Documentary Group. The producer, writer and director for FRONTLINE is Michael Kirk. The co-producer is Jim Gilmore. FRONTLINE is produced by WGBH Boston and is broadcast nationwide on PBS. Funding for FRONTLINE is provided by the Park Foundation and through the support of PBS viewers. FRONTLINE is closed-captioned for deaf and hard-of-hearing viewers. FRONTLINE is a registered trademark of WGBH Educational Foundation. The executive producer for FRONTLINE is David Fanning.

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