Army members say their unit beat prisoners in Iraq routinely

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http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/nation/3367764

WASHINGTON - Three former members of the Army's 82nd Airborne Division say members of their battalion in Iraq routinely beat and abused prisoners in 2003 and 2004 to help gather intelligence on the insurgency and to amuse themselves.

The new abuse allegations, the first involving members of the elite unit, are contained in a report by Human Rights Watch. They have also been reported by one of the soldiers, a decorated Army captain, to top aides of two senior Republicans on the Senate Armed Services Committee, Sen. John W. Warner of Virginia, the panel chairman, and John McCain of Arizona.

The captain approached the aides after he tried to report the allegations to his superiors for 17 months. Senate aides said Friday that they found the captain's accusations credible enough to warrant investigation.