Iraqi abuse referred to as 'vigilante justice'

BAGHDAD, Iraq — A female Army soldier in the notorious 320th Military Police Battalion meted out "vigilante justice" on Iraqi prisoners she believed had raped former POW Jessica Lynch, according to a letter from her battalion commander obtained by The Associated Press.

Lt. Col. Jerry L. Phillabaum, the troubled battalion's commander, leveled the allegation in a rebuttal to charges against his leadership of the 320th, some of whose soldiers were charged with abusing prisoners last fall at the Abu Ghraib prison west of Baghdad.

The soldier Phillabaum named, then-Master Sgt. Lisa Girman, 35, called her former commander's description of the incident "completely false" and said Phillabaum was an "incompetent" leader trying to cover up his shortcomings by blaming others.

"It's funny how the leadership continues to point downward," said Girman, a Pennsylvania state trooper in civilian life. "That night there was no abuse, there was no evidence of abuse."

In an April 12 memo to Lt. Gen. Thomas Metz, deputy commander of coalition forces in Iraq, Phillabaum said the soldiers abused the prisoners without the knowledge or encouragement of battalion commanders. Phillabaum gave a copy of the memo to AP.

Phillabaum said Girman and three other MPs from the battalion abused the prisoners after transporting them to Camp Bucca in southern Iraq on May 12, 2003.

"When Master Sgt. Lisa Girman returned to Camp Bucca shortly before midnight, she took vigilante justice against EPW (enemy prisoners of war) that she believed had raped Pfc. Jessica Lynch," Phillabaum wrote.

"Four out of the 10 320th MP Battalion soldiers abused some of the EPWs; a clear indication that the abuse was the responsibility of those individuals acting alone and was not condoned by myself or any leader at Camp Bucca."

On Tuesday, Girman said that, at the time of the incident, she did not know who the prisoners were or whether they had any connection with Lynch, a supply clerk who was wounded and captured by Iraqi forces in the opening days of the war and then rescued from an Iraqi hospital in April 2003.

According to medical records cited in her biography, Lynch also was sodomized, apparently during a three-hour gap she cannot recall.

In Charleston, W.Va., Lynch's attorney, Stephen Goodwin, said she "would not condone the use of what happened to her as a reason to abuse prisoners."