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Taguba Report Annex 63: Testimony of Captain Reese, Commander, 372nd Military Police Company

Feb. 21, 2004 | DOA | ACLU-RDI 308
Cpt. Reese was the commander of the soldiers directly involved in detainee abuse at Abu Ghraib. He said of his men “I'm appalled by what I saw from my soldiers; 2 out of the 7 here are correctional officers. And they were specifically put there for that reason”. He also commented on the conditions he found upon arrival at Abu Ghraib: “We I first arrived [at Abu Ghraib] in October and entered the MI wing my first reaction was "Wow there is a lot of nude people here". I was told that it was a MI tactic that was used to make the detainees uncomfortable. I was told it was ok; nothing was illegal or wrong about it. The Ml had a partition set-up so they can conduct their exercises in privacy. The exercises conducted of making the detainees do PT drills. I didn't know it was wrong at the time, but I know now”. When asked if he was trained on the Geneva Conventions he stated “No” and added “I may not be the smartest guy, sir, but I understand there's certain things you can and can't do when you're dealing with civilian internees”. The interview covered his mission orders and chain of command. The interview was then concluded.