Retreat, but no surrender

By: Charles Geraci On Aug. 8, Mike Francis ? a reporter for The Oregonian in Portland ? gained national attention when he exposed a high-level U.S. military decision in late June ordering Oregon National Guardsmen to leave the scene after they came to the aid of Iraqi prisoners being abused by Iraqi jailers in Baghdad. But Francis is not satisfied with the initial response from the Army.

The U.S. military apparently was not moved by the report. Col. Jill E. Morgenthaler, a public affairs officer with the multinational force, told Francis, "The battalion commander did a thorough inquiry." A U.S. military public affairs officer in Iraq wrote via e-mail, "We see no reason for a further investigation."

Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) promptly asked the Pentagon to investigate. Francis is not aware of any response from Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. But Francis insists he's not done reporting the story. "The subject is not closed," he says. "There are a lot of questions left to be answered." Among them: Who gave the order for the guardsmen to retreat, and what happened to the abused, some likely tortured, prisoners?

In the aftermath of the handover of sovereignty to the Iraqis, Francis points out, "You have to ask yourself the question, 'Is this the only place in Iraq where abuse has occurred?' If you polled the soldiers, I think most would suggest that it's quite likely happening somewhere else."

Francis' story was accompanied by 15 photos, some quite graphic. He says only that an unnamed soldier gave him a disc of pictures of prisoners while he was in Iraq, embedded in the 2nd Battalion, 162nd Infantry regiment of the Oregon Army National Guard. Francis had received a tip from a guardsman in mid-July. Subsequent conversations with about a dozen other soldiers confirmed prisoner abuse occurred inside the compound of the Iraqi Interior Ministry.

In the midst of Francis' questioning, he received a written account from Capt. Jarrell Southall, an Oregon guardsman who witnessed the abuse, and was willing to have his name used in the article, despite possible repercussions.