29 September 2004 - Earlier this month the Blair government acknowledged that British forces were part of the military chain of command at the Abu Ghraib prison, Baghdad at the time when the torture and abuse of Iraqi prisoners occurred.

In a parliamentary answer to Adam Price, the Welsh nationalist Plaid Cymru MP, Armed Forces Minister Adam Ingram admitted that two intelligence officers, Colonel Chris Terrington and Colonel Campbell James, were "embedded within" the US unit responsible for interrogations of Iraqi prisoners. Colonel Terrington is said to have joined the intelligence chain of command at Abu Ghraib in November 2003, when many of the most serious abuses occurred.

During the parliamentary debate Price said, "Ministers have clearly given us a false impression about British responsibility and involvement in relation to Abu Ghraib." He said that it was unacceptable for ministers to "put the best possible gloss" on a "very disturbing" matter.

The new information about British involvement first emerged last month during the Tabuga investigation that was set up by United States authorities after pictures of torture at Abu Ghraib hit the newspapers and the Bush administration could no longer cover up the fact that American soldiers were involved in serious abuse and systematic torture. This included breaking chemical lights and pouring the phosphoric liquid on prisoners, sexual humiliation including sodomising a detainee with "a chemical light and perhaps a broom stick", and using military dogs to terrorise inmates.

Lieutenant Colonel Steve Jordan, the US director of the joint interrogation and debriefing centre at Abu Ghraib who is one of the officers accused in the scandal, described Colonel Terrington as the second in command of intelligence at the prison—and who was told about abuses there.

When Colonel Jordan was asked about his "supervisory chain", he replied: "Initially, sir, it was to Colonel Steve Bolts ... and then to General Fast and eventually it changed over to a new deputy, a British colonel, Chris Terrington."

When in February this year he was asked about his supervisors, Colonel Jordan said that on paper he directly worked for the British Colonel Campbell James—who was then second in command—but that practically he directly worked for General Fast and kept Colonel James informed because of the British versus American pecking order.

The testimony confirms that high ranking British intelligence officers were second in command of the unit that were responsible for the interrogations of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib and they were kept informed about what was going on there. However, despite these disclosures Armed Forces Minister Adam Ingram and Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon deny any direct responsibility for supervising US personnel at Abu Ghraib, claiming that British officers were only involved at the prison after the torture was exposed.

A Ministry of Defence spokesman confirmed last week that Colonel Terrington was in the "US intelligence chain of command", but insisted, "He was never in a post of command over Abu Ghraib or any aspect of it" and that British personnel had "no knowledge of any specific allegations" of abuse.

This is the second time that the Blair Labour government has been caught out lying about their knowledge of abuses at the infamous prison.

The government claim that they were informed in late April after the notorious photographs of prisoners being sexually and physically abused by US guards were released. But Hoon was later forced to admit that British diplomats in Baghdad found out about the abuses in February from a report by the International Committee of the Red Cross. Hoon still maintained that this information was withheld from the Ministry of Defence. But Foreign Secretary Jack Straw conceded that it was a mistake and told MPs that 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".

Colonel Terrington himself has now admitted that US commanders officially told him that in late January at least one inquiry into abuses at the prison was under way.

In every aspect relating to the occupation of Iraq the British government continues to act like a bunch of criminals caught red handed and trying to lie their way out of any responsibility.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2004/sep2004/abug-s29.shtml