Army abuse: brigadier should have tried harder

The British Army wasn't prepared for handling prisoners in Iraq, and had forgotten the strict rules against torture and abuse - including hooding and sleep deprivation - laid down in Northern Ireland in 1972. These are the conclusions of the Army's own report, released today, into the abuse and unlawful killing of Iraqi prisoners in Basra in the summer of 2003.

The author, Brigadier Robert Aitken, says that only 'a tiny number' of the 120,000 British men and women who have served in Iraq since March 2003 have been involved in the abuse, torture, killing even.

He says that the Military Police and the Army Prosecuting Authority have learnt much. Each soldier is now reminded that he or she may not use hoods, noise disorientation, and denial of sleep and victuals.

The problem is that the forces were not reminded of this in March 2003, and the report admits that they had little clue about

what they were getting into in Basra, or anywhere else in Iraq for that matter. "The Army failed to anticipate the difference in the operational climate between Iraq and, say, the Balkans after Dayton or Northern Ireland after 1977, and did not modernise its doctrine accordingly."

Moreover, only five soldiers have been convicted by courts martial for misdemeanours in 2003 - four for abuse at the 'Bread Basket' logistics base, and one for the killing of the hotel manager Baha Musa, and then only after pleading guilty.

Yet Baha Musa was one of four Iraqis who died, or were killed in British custody. Brigadier Aitken can only say: "We still haven't got to the bottom of what happened," and new inquiries will now begin four-and-half years after the event.

The whole report has a whiff of what the Army might call 'lack of situational awareness' about the society it serves, both in Iraq and Afghanistan, and back home in the UK. Brigadier Aitken's 'must try harder' report isn't good enough.