'Aiding the enemy' probe starts for US officer

Camp Victory (Iraq), Apr 30: A formal investigation began todayto decide if a US Army officer accused of ''aiding the enemy'' while heran a US detention centre in Iraq should face a court-martial.

Lieutenant-Colonel William Steele, commander of the 451st MilitaryPolice Detachment, ran the detention facilities at Camp Cropper, nearBaghdad international airport, where insurgents and former senior aidesto Saddam Hussein are held.

He is charged with fraternising with a detainee's daughter, havingan improper relationship with a translator, providing unmonitoredmobile phones to prisoners, unauthorised possession of classifiedinformation and keeping pornographic videos.

Steele, tall and wearing wire-rimmed spectacles, appeared at theinvestigation at a US military base called Camp Victory near Baghdad'sairport. He has been in detention in Kuwait since last month.

The offences are alleged to have occurred between October 2005 andFebruary 2007. The US military has said the charges are only anaccusation of wrongdoing and that Steele is entitled to the presumptionof innocence.

Evidence will be presented during an Article 32 hearing expectedto last two or three days. The formal investigation will determinewhether Steele should face a court-martial.

Steele, charged under the Uniformed Code of Military Justice, isaccused of aiding the enemy by providing detainees with unmonitoredmobile phones between October 2005 and October 2006.

He is the highest-ranking US officer to face a charge of aidingthe enemy since Captain James Yee, a Muslim chaplain serving atGuantanamo Bay, was charged in September 2003 with mutiny, sedition,aiding the enemy, adultery and possession of pornography.

Yee spent 76 days in solitary confinement before the army's case against him collapsed at trial.

Camp Cropper, which holds more than 3,000 detainees, is whereSaddam spent his final days before his execution on December 30. It wasexpanded to include prisoners from Abu Ghraib prison, notorious for theprisoner abuse scandal involving US troops.

The military confirmed for the first time last week that Saddamhad not been held at Camp Cropper as it was always widely believed butat another, secret facility during his three years of incarceration.

The former Iraqi president visited Camp Cropper only for medicalcheckups and stayed there before his execution, the military said.

Reuters>