Guardsman says state can be proud of its soldiers, who tried to stop abuse

By WILLIAM McCALL

The Associated Press

PORTLAND - Sen. Ron Wyden sent a letter Sunday to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld asking for an investigation of a newspaper report that Oregon National Guard soldiers were ordered to abandon an effort to prevent Iraqi jailers from abusing prisoners.

The Oregonian newspaper reported Sunday that guardsmen saw dozens of Iraqi prisoners being abused on June 29, Iraq's first day as a sovereign nation after the U.S. invasion last year.

Oregon National Guard Capt. Jarrell Southall provided the Portland newspaper with a written account of the incident that was later confirmed by the U.S. Embassy in Iraq.

Southall's account also was supported by other guardsmen interviewed by a reporter embedded with the Oregon National Guard 2nd Battalion, 162nd Infantry.

According to Southall, a guardsman radioed for help after seeing blindfolded and bound prisoners being beaten in enclosed grounds near the Iraqi Interior Ministry.

A team of Oregon soldiers responded, disarmed the Iraqi jailers and gave first aid to the prisoners. They also found dozens more prisoners in a nearby building and what appeared to be torture devices - metal rods, rubber hoses, electrical wires and bottles of chemicals.

But when Lt. Col. Daniel Hendrickson of Albany radioed superiors for instructions, the guardsmen were ordered to withdraw.

The soldiers told The Oregonian they wanted Americans to know about their efforts to protect prisoners after the abuse scandal involving U.S. personnel at Iraq's Abu Ghraib detention center.

Hendrickson, a Corvallis police officer, said he could not discuss details. But he said Oregon should be proud of its soldiers for their attempt to prevent the abuse.

In his letter to Rumsfeld, Wyden asked "that a full investigation immediately commence to determine whether proper procedure and law were followed by the American military commander(s) who allegedly gave the order to return tortured prisoners to their torturers."

Wyden noted that Hendrickson was ordered to stand down and return the prisoners by "a superior or superiors" in the Army's 1st Cavalry Division.

The Democratic senator said the incident suggests that "the policy of the U.S. is that we will no longer engage in torture, but we will turn a blind eye as it is committed by others."

A Defense Department spokesman in Washington, D.C., declined to comment Sunday, saying Pentagon officials had not yet seen the letter.

Gov. Ted Kulongoski, a Democrat and former Marine who has attended the funerals of Oregon soldiers killed in Iraq, said Sunday he was proud of the Oregon National Guard.

"I am honored by their professionalism as soldiers, their conviction about what is right, and their basic sense of humanity," Kulongoski said.