US camp officer empathised with detainees: Hearing

Camp Victory (Iraq), May 2: A former commander of a US detention centre holding members of Saddam Hussein's regime expressed empathy for detainees and said he wanted to make their lives better, an investigation heard today.

Lieutenant-Colonel William Steele, former commander of the 451st Military Police Detachment, faces nine charges, including aiding the enemy by providing an unmonitored cell phone to detainees, at a military investigation to determine whether he should face a court-martial.

The investigation heard Steele was questioned by a special agent attached to the US military's counter-intelligence directorate in Baghdad on February 22, the same day Steele's quarters had been searched by military investigators.

Special Agent John Nocella was one of two agents who questioned Steele on February 22 and again the next day, when he said Steele went to his office and said he had spoken to legal counsel and admitted his guilt.

''He said he had spoken to counsel, he knew what he'd done was wrong, he was guilty,'' Nocella said of the February 23 conversation.

Nocella was asked by prosecutor Captain Michael Rizzotti about privileges given to detainees in ''Compound Five'' at Camp Cropper, where detainees who were regarded as being of strategic significance were held.

Asked by Rizzotti if during their initial Feb. 22 interview Steele expressed empathy towards high-value detainees because he understood their ''personal anguish'', Nocella said: ''Yes, he did''.

''Did he tell you he was a humanitarian and he felt compelled to make their lives better?'' Rizzotti asked. ''Yes, he did,'' Nocella replied.

Steele had explained this was because the detainees had not been found guilty of any offences, the investigation at the US military base Camp Victory heard.

Steele, former commander of the 451st Military Police Detachment and in charge of detention facilities at Camp Cropper, had been detained in Kuwait since last month.

Insurgents and former senior aides to Saddam are held at the camp, near Baghdad international airport.

Steele is accused of fraternising with a detainee's daughter, having an improper relationship with a translator, providing unmonitored mobile phones to prisoners, unauthorised possession of classified information and keeping pornographic videos.

The hearing heard earlier that Steele became agitated on February 22 when his quarters were being searched and later learned that his cellular phone was to be confiscated.

The investigation heard that Steele went back to his quarters during the search despite an order not to.

The hearing was told on its opening day yesterday that Steele gave computer programmes to a detainee's daughter.

Steele is charged under the Uniformed Code of Military Justice for offences alleged to have occurred between October 2005 and February 2007. The US military has said the charges are only an accusation of wrongdoing and that Steele is entitled to the presumption of innocence.

While the charge of aiding the enemy can result in a death penalty, a US military legal spokesman said life imprisonment would likely be the maximum penalty Steele faced.

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

The army eventually dropped his case.

Reuters>