WASHINGTON, Oct 22 (AFP) - The US government released thousands of pages of documents related to prisoner abuse in Iraq and Afghanistan that include details on three deaths in custody at Abu Ghraib and the alleged molestation of a female inmate by soldiers.
The documents were released to the American Civil Liberties Union and the New York Civil Liberties Union in response to a court order that the government comply with a year old request under the Freedom of Information Act, the ACLU said Thursday.
They include most of the annexes to the investigation report into the abuses at the Abu Ghraib prison by Major General Antonio Taguba, army Criminal Investigation Division (CID) reports, internal FBI memoranda as well as exchanges of letters between government officials and members of Congress.
The ACLU posted some documents on its website together with an index and brief description of the documents. It said it would post the other documents in the coming days.
Portions of many of the documents were blacked out by government censors, but they appeared to contain some new details on the abuses at Abu Ghraib and at US detention facilities in Afghanistan.
Three reports from the army's CID record the deaths at Abu Ghraib of three inmates within days of each other in August 2003 just before most notorious abuses began.
In each case, CID investigations concluded that the "manner of death was natural," including that of a prisoner who had been on a hunger strike for eight days, according to the ACLU's summary.
The hunger striker as identified in a CID report as Dham Spah who died August 16, 2003 at Abu Ghraib.
The other prisoners were Najem Abed Mohamed who died August 8, 2003 at Abu Ghraib and Emad Kazem Taleb, who died at the prison on August 20, 2003, according to the documents.
Other documents from a commander's "report of disciplinary or administrative" action details an incident October 13, 2003 in which an unidentified female detainee alleged she was abused by soldiers.
The detainee, whose name was deleted, alleged that "inside the cell, one of the soldiers held her hands behind her back while another soldier forcibly kissed her," the summary quoted the report as saying.
"The soldiers took her out of the cell and took her downstairs, where they showed her a naked Iraqi man and told her that if she did not do what they said, then they would take her clothes off and make her look like the Iraqi man," it was quoted as saying.
The detainee said the soldier "removed her shirt, leaving her in her bra."
The investigation "did not establish sufficient evidence to prove or disprove (that the soldiers) committed the offenses," the summary quoted the report as saying.
Another commander's report on disciplinary action, with an attached CID investigation report, told of an unidentified lieutenant who "took an Iraqi teenager out of view of others and fired off a shot in an attempt to scare the Iraqi before releasing him."
The report said there was probable cause to charge the lieutenant with "assault, release of a detainee without proper authorization, obstruction of justice, conduct unbecoming, willful dereliction of duty and cruelty and maltreatment."
CID records covering a period between December 26, 2001 and July 6, 2002 note that a detainee "was abused by US forces, by being beaten on the hands, feet, and chest, while being detained in the Peshawar, Pakistan and Kandahar, Afghanistan detainee facilities."
It concluded that "investigation failed to prove or disprove Mr. (Redacted) was abused by US forces as he was not able to be located for a victim interview at his hometown of Gardez, Afghanistan."
Yet another commander's disciplinary report related to a December 31, 2003 incident found "probable cause" to charge a specialist who allegedly threatened an Iraqi detainee with a firearm and then fired a shot into the ground, and butt-stroked him in the back of the head and face with his weapon.

10/22/2004 17:55 GMT - AFP