BAGHDAD, May 19 (UPI) -- A senior U.S. Army officer told the Washington Post the military tried to block the Red Cross from making spot inspections of the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad.
The unidentified officer said after the International Committee of the Red Cross observed abuses on two unannounced inspections in October and complained in writing on Nov. 6, the military told the agency inspectors should make appointments before visiting.
The Red Cross report was made after its inspectors witnessed or heard about such practices as holding Iraqi prisoners naked in dark concrete cells for several days at a time and forcing them to wear women's underwear on their heads while being paraded and photographed.
But the senior Army officer said the military did not start any criminal investigation before it replied to the Red Cross on Dec. 24.
In an interview, Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, commander of the 800th Military Police Brigade, whose soldiers guarded the prisoners, said she signed the Army's response on Dec. 24, but that it had been drafted primarily by Army lawyers.
The investigation went full-blown in January when photographs of the abuses came to the attention of criminal investigators.
