Investigating the Charges   

Three Reuters employees and one NBC employee were held for questioning by U.S. forces after filming a helicopter crash site in January 2004 near the restive town of Fallujah. The four men, all Iraqis, were accused of shooting down the helicopter and were held for three days. During that time, they said, they were abused and humiliated by U.S. forces. The men were released and were not prosecuted.

Reuters and NBC demanded the military investigate the men's claims. The Pentagon agreed and found in their investigation that there was no wrongdoing. Reuters is still seeking a more thorough inquiry.

An executive summary of an investigation into the men's detention by the 82nd Airborne Division, which had held the four, said "No specific incidents of abuse were found."

"Each of the soldiers responsible for the care and handling of the four detainees have been reviewed and provided statement under oath; none admit or report knowledge of any physical abuse or torture. The detainees were purposefully and carefully put under stress, to include sleep management, in order to facilitate interrogation; they were not tortured," according to the summary.

In addition, the report said, soldiers at a checkpoint near the crash site said the Iraqis fired at them and behaved like insurgents.

The executive summary cast doubt on the statements of Ahmed Mohammed Hussein al-Badrani and Sittar Jabbar Hussein al-Badrani, saying their stories did not match the statement of the third Reuters employee, Salem Ureibi.

Salem "specifically did not state or allege that he was hit or physically abused during the interrogation process or detention," said the executive summary. "Substantially different from his account, two of the three Reuters employees' statements allege they were physically abused and made to do degrading and disrespectful acts during their detention at [the Army base] Volturno."

In response, David Schlesinger, global managing editor for Reuters, wrote in a letter dated February 3, 2004, that the military's investigation was "woefully inadequate."

"It appears that the investigation consisted of simply interviewing the accused soldiers (all of whom presumably would have faced significant discipline if they had admitted engaging in the alleged activities) and taking their word that no transgressions occurred. Despite our offer, no effort was made to interview our staff," Schlesinger wrote.

He requested that a more thorough investigation be conducted at higher levels of the military. "In short, the military's conclusion of its investigation without even interviewing the alleged victims, along with other inaccuracies and inconsistencies in the report, speaks volumes about the seriousness with which the U.S. government is taking this issue," Schlesinger wrote.

Reuters and NBC asked for a second investigation.

Ultimately Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the top commander in Iraq at the time, issued a decision saying the investigation was adequate and would not be reopened. The word came in a letter dated August 16, 2004, from Pentagon spokesman Lawrence Di Rita.

"I understand you may be dissatisfied with the results of the investigation," Di Rita wrote. But "the relevant military authorities in Iraq reviewed the investigation in light of your comments and found no reason to reopen it, or to direct further review." Di Rita again rejected Reuters' efforts to get the military to reopen the inquiry in a letter dated March 7, 2005.

In response to a request for an interview for this story, the Pentagon said it had no further comment and planned no further action on the matter, according to Lt. Col. Barry E. Venable, a U.S. Army press officer, who had forwarded the request to Di Rita's office. Reuters has submitted a Freedom of Information Act request for the entire investigation report and all material related to reviews of the inquiry.

"We hope that once we receive these documents, it will be even clearer than previously that no credible investigation was conducted and that a new, thorough and independent investigation must be carried out into the abuse of our staff," Andrew Marshall, chief correspondent in Iraq for Reuters, wrote in an e-mail to AJR.

For more on the journalist's accusations, See "A Grim Foreshadowing?," June/July 2005 by Jill Carroll.