Military Police Moved from Incarceration Staff and Placed Under Military Intelligence

In the fall of 2003, after Miller’s visit to Abu Ghraib, the military police were taken from Janis Karpinski’s command and placed under the control of military intelligence. This meant that they were now to take places in interrogations. Ken Davis, a member of the military police, remembers being told that he was to ensure that prisoners “have a bad night” before interrogations using any means he deemed necessary. Other military police personnel relate instances of making the detainees take showers with women present to create sexual degradation, or waking prisoners up often at specified times,  or creating environments that would ensure prisoners did not get any sleep.

Charles Graner was chosen to work the night shift because of his work experience in civilian prisons. He was one of two military police working the night shift on Tier 1 at the time. Ken Davis relates a story of finding out that Graner was losing his voice yelling at prisoners. At that time he also told Davis that he was having moral compunctions about what he was being ordered to do, but felt that he didn’t have a choice. His sense of unease with his orders but unwillingness to disobey them seemed to be characteristic of the military police in their new position.