US general approved pressure tactics on Iraqi prisoners

The top US military commander in Iraq approved high-pressure tactics used on inmates at the infamous Abu Ghraib prison, The Washington Post reported Saturday.
US Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez approved letting senior officials at Abu Ghraib "use military dogs, temperature extremes, reversed sleep patterns, sensory deprivation and diets of bread and water on detainees whenever they wished," according to the Post, citing US government documents.
Sanchez borrowed heavily from a list of interrogation tactics used at the detention center at the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, according to the Post.
In early September 2003, Sanchez authorised prison officials to use the pressure tactics without having to seek authorisation from higher-ranking officials outside the prison.
However, military officials at the Tampa, Florida headquarters of the US Central Command raised objections to 32 measures that Sanchez had approved.
By October 2003, those measures were ended, and prison officials were to obtain Sanchez's direct approval to use the remaining authorised pressure tactics, the Post reported.
Sanchez will be replaced by a four-star general - possibly General George Casey, vice chief of staff of the army - when the transitional Iraqi government takes office on June 30, senior Pentagon officials said in late May.
Pentagon officials said earlier that Sanchez's future would likely be on hold until the investigations are completed, emphasising it was not a matter of punishment but of command accountability.
650 PRISONERS TO BE FREED FROM ABU GHRAIB: The US-led coalition in Iraq is to release another 650 detainees from the infamous Abu Ghraib prison on Monday, its deputy director of military operations said in Baghdad on Saturday.
"The next detainee release from Abu Ghraib is scheduled for 14 June when 650 detainees are scheduled to be released," Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt told a Baghdad news conference.
Over the past month, hundreds of detainees have already been set free from the facility at the centre of the US prisoner abuse scandal.
Nine busloads of prisoners left the jail on the western outskirts of the Iraqi capital on June 6, following another 13 busloads on May 28. A further 464 detainees were released on May 21.
US commanders first launched the policy of freeing low-threat prisoners early this year, as it faced mounting overcrowding in detention centres across Iraq.
They accelerated the programme in May after graphic footage was shown around the world of US prison guards threatening and sexually humiliating prisoners at Abu Ghraib last autumn.