STEVE NOVOTNY
Amid the scandal of prisoner abuse in Abu Ghraib during Operation Iraqi Freedom, 1986 UNO graduate Steve Novotny shined as an example of the right way to do things. Under Saddam Hussein, Abu Ghraib was a house of horrors where criminals and opponents were executed and tortured. The U.S. Army’s 372nd Military Police Company took command of the prison after Operation Iraqi Freedom forces drove off Hussein’s army. Sadly, abuse in the prison continued — by U.S. forces. Criminal charges were filed against seven soldiers who abused prisoners there between October and December of 2003. All seven were reservists in the 372nd, one of eight battalions within the 800th Military Police Brigade that operated 12 U.S. prisons and detention camps across Iraq. The brigade included the Omaha-based 530th MP Battalion commanded by Novotny, a lieutenant colonel with the U.S. Army Reserve. But when Congressional investigations into Abu Ghraib commenced in the spring of 2004, not only did none of the blame fall on Novotny’s shoulders, but the Nebraska native was praised for his command at one of the detention facilities, Camp Ashraf. Virginia Congressman Ed Schrock singled the Nebraskan out as “One battalion commander who did his job very well in the detention business, better than anyone else. I think we ought to thank him for that.” Military officers, lawmakers and aides broke into applause.
That didn’t mean Novotny’s command was easy. Camp Ashraf, about 45 miles northeast of Baghdad, was filled not with Iraqis, but Iranians. Specifically, the People’s Mujahedin Of Iran (PMOI), a militant, Marxist- Islamist organization founded in the 1960s and listed by the U.S. State Department as a terrorist group. Expelled from Iran, PMOI found sanctuary in Iraq with Hussein providing financing and weapons as the PMOI fought against fellow countrymen during the Iraq- Iran war. Novotny, who also served six months during Desert Storm as a captain with the 403rd military police company, a unit he had joined following a 12-year active duty career, assumed command of Camp Ashraf in June 2003. He oversaw up to 800 reserve, active duty and national guard troops who processed PMOI members into a terrorist database via fingerprinting, palm printing, DNA collection and retinal scans. His command ended in February 2004. A few months later, he was testifying about abuses committed by fellow servicemen. He abhors the abuses and how it tainted the “thousands who worked there honorably.” Novotny not least among them.