Gen. Miller Set to Command Iraq Prisons
Wednesday May 5, 2004 8:01 AM
By PAISLEY DODDS
Associated Press Writer
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) - The Army major general appointed to run Iraq's prisons in fallout of a major scandal weathered controversy in his last assignment overseeing the detainment center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller spent more than a year at Guantanamo Bay, boasting that detainees there had become much more cooperative during his time there. But he was in charge during a time when one interrogator was accused of espionage and human rights groups leveled their most scathing criticism at the camp.
The career military officer from Menard, Texas, began his time at Guantanamo with tough talk.
``If you attack America, then you, too, could end up in Guantanamo,'' Miller, 55, said in a fiery warning as he took control of the U.S. prison camp for terror suspects on Cuba's eastern tip.
He softened his tone soon after arriving at Guantanamo in October 2002, promising to release detainees who didn't pose a threat and to increase information from uncooperative prisoners.
Miller was appointed to the Iraq job last month, replacing Gen. Janis Karpinski. She was suspended amid investigations into the allegations that U.S. soldiers abused Iraqi inmates at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison.
In response to the claims in Iraq, Miller on Tuesday said he would eliminate some interrogation techniques considered humiliating, such as the hooding of prisoners.
By the end of his stint at Guantanamo in March, the square-jawed Miller said intelligence tips at the U.S. prison camp had increased dramatically and that detainees, accused of links to Afghanistan's ousted Taliban regime or the al-Qaida terror network, were being more cooperative.
He said three-fourths of the approximate 600 detainees had confessed to some involvement in terrorism and many had exposed former friends.
He attributed those success to a reward system he started, which included the opportunity for detainees to live communally in a medium-security prison and to get extra perks, such as packets of sugar or exercise time.
But Miller's time in Guantanamo was not all smooth.
Under his watch, one interrogator was charged with espionage and is up for court martial this month. Another interrogator was charged with transporting secret documents; his case is pending. A Muslim chaplain - and close adviser to Miller - was charged with mishandling classified information and adultery, though those charges were recently dropped.
Miller also faced steady criticism from human rights groups over the U.S. detention mission itself, which they say is abusive. None of the detainees have been charged yet, and some have been held for more than two years. The U.S. government has yet to agree on a date for tribunals.
In a rare public rebuke, the International Red Cross condemned the prolonged detentions at Guantanamo in October, saying that mental instability and attempted suicides among detainees indicated severe problems with the U.S. operation.
Miller, who said his deployment to Guantanamo would likely last for two years, always contended that the detainees were being treated humanely.
Coming from an assignment in South Korea, Miller succeeded Brig. Gen. Rick Baccus, who left Guantanamo after complaints from some interrogators that he was too concerned about prisoner treatment.
Some former prisoners who returned to Afghanistan recently complained of torture at Guantanamo, saying they were abused and deprived of sleep - similar allegations to those made by former Iraqi prisoners.
Officials at Guantanamo say interrogations are often done at night but deny mistreating detainees. And unlike the situation in Iraq, there have been no U.S. military punishments over alleged abuses at the Cuban prison