Nevada soldier says she’s mentioned in probe

Jace Radke

Friday, May 14, 2004 | 11:04 a.m.

Nevada National Guard officials have been in contact with a Yerington woman who believes she is the soldier who is mentioned in a hearing transcript as having tried to report abuse at Abu Ghraib prison only to be reprimanded by supervisors.

Spc. Donna Menesini, 49, of the Henderson-based 72nd Military Police unit, said she is the soldier described by Special Agent Tyler Pieron of the Army's criminal investigation command in a transcript obtained by The New York Times, Nevada National Guard spokeswoman 1st Lt. April Conway said.

Reached this morning at her home in Yerington, about 50 miles southeast of Reno, Menesini, said she didn't want to talk about her time at the prison, or the transcript.

When asked about abuse at the prison, Menesini said that she "didn't see anything."

When asked if she meant she didn't see any abuse while stationed at the prison, Menesini hung up the phone.

Conway said state officials "have not been contacted by anyone investigating the abuse at the prison."

Her 110-soldier National Guard unit served about six months at the prison beginning in May 2003 and was replaced in October by the 372nd Military Police. Members of that Maryland-based unit are facing abuse charges.

Conway said she didn't know what Menesini's allegations of abuse were or what they were related to.

According to the transcript of a May 1 Article 32 hearing, conducted to consider whether to court-martial one of seven members of the 372nd accused of abuse, Pieron testified that a systems analyst had told him of an "older woman" with the Nevada National Guard who had documented abuse but was reprimanded by her chain of command for doing so.

The commander of the Nevada National Guard, Maj. Gen. Giles Vanderhoof, said that discussions and after-action reviews were held with all the soldiers who returned, and that "everything we've heard has been positive regarding the conduct of our soldiers."

Vanderhoof said that the information in the transcript is disturbing, and that his office was "following up to determine if there is validity to this report."

He said information collected from one person is different from "the next person in line." Conway said this morning that Menesini has told Nevada National Guard officials that she saw some things at the prison that were disturbing to her but is not seeking any additional action and has not reported any prisoner abuse.

Vanderhoof said this morning that Menesini had not been reprimanded and that she apparently was upset about the shooting of a prisoner during a riot at the prison.

But Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., said she spoke with Vanderhoof on Thursday. He had denied that the soldier's comments were about detainee abuse, she said.

"He said the focus of her comments were inappropriate sexual behavior between members of the military," Berkley said.

Because it was breaking news, Berkley said things could have changed since then.

According to the transcript of the May 1 hearing, Pieron testified that a systems analyst, Sgt. Samuel J. Provance III, said he overheard conversations describing what military police units did to prisoners -- "using them as practice dummies and knocking them out."

Provance also reported the information about the female Nevada National Guard soldier who tried to report abuse.

Pieron said he thought "several people suspected abuse but did not report it," according to the transcript.

Provance, Pieron testified, said the Nevada soldier told him that "she was afraid of her chain of command" and sent the documentation of the abuse to her relatives.

The 72nd returned to Las Vegas in November. The unit's deployment at the prison overlapped with the 372nd for about three weeks in October.

While Conway didn't know what the abuse was that the Nevada soldier attempted to report, she said there was an incident at Abu Ghraib on June 13 involving a prison riot and the death of a prisoner.

According to an incident report by the 72nd's commander, Capt. Troy Armstrong, a prisoner attempted to escape from a razor-wire pen using a piece of cardboard to protect himself.

After the escape attempt was stopped a head count was conducted, despite the prisoners' refusal to cooperate, Conway said.

Shortly after the count prisoners began throwing rocks and tent poles at soldiers. Three soldiers in guard towers, fearing for the safety of the soldiers being hit with debris, fired at specific prisoners, Conway said.

One prisoner was killed and seven other prisoners suffered gunshot wounds. The incident was investigated and the soldiers in the tower were found to have followed the rules of engagement, Conway said.

In interviews last week, several soldiers with the 72nd said they did not see any of the abuse that included stripping Iraqi prisoners naked and putting them in humiliating poses when they were stationed at the prison.

"We had policies and procedures in place for the prisoners, but by no stretch of the imagination did they include the things we've seen," Daryl Keithley, the 72nd's first sergeant, said during an interview last week. "There was no taking off of their clothes and making them stand off in an area, or anything like what has been shown in the photos."

The 72nd was the first military police unit to guard prisoners at Abu Ghraib, about 20 miles west of Baghdad. The prison sits on 280 acres behind 15-foot-high stone walls that run a mile long on each of its four sides.

For the unit's first 3 1/2 months at the prison they were alone, guarding Iraqis who had committed crimes that were not war-related, such as robbery or murder. By midsummer the prison started to get captives who were prisoners of war, and military intelligence set up at the prison and began conducting interrogations, Keithley said.

The soldiers of the 72nd never participated in any interrogations, Keithley said.

The 72nd earned 10 Purple Hearts during its deployment, and the entire unit returned home safely.