The federal government didn’t crack down on an intelligence firm that provided civilian interrogators to Abu Ghraib prison last fall because the Army never reported any kind of problem, an official said Tuesday.

    The U.S. Interior Department administers the contract between the Army and CACI International Inc., an information technology firm in Virginia that supplied some of the intelligence experts who have been blamed for the abuse of Iraqi prisoners.
    If the Army has a problem with the personnel or services provided by CACI, it is supposed to tell Interior Department officials, who would then deal with the company, Interior Department spokesman Frank Quimby said.
    “At no point during these two delivery orders did the Army indicate there was a problem,” Quimby told The Signal. “They still haven’t.”
    An Army spokeswoman in Washington didn’t have an immediate explanation Tuesday.
    The Interior Department’s Inspector General is conducting a review of the agency’s contracting procedures.
    CACI supplied interrogators and “human intelligence support” to the Army at Abu Ghraib prison under Interior Department delivery orders that were signed in August and December, covering the period when the abuse took place. Two supposed CACI contractors, including a Santa Clarita translator, were named in Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba’s report on abuse at the prison.
    One, John B. Israel, 48, of Canyon Country, is accused of sharing overall responsibility for the abuse, and of saying he didn’t watch prisoners being maltreated despite “several witness statements” to the contrary.
    The other, Steven Stephanowicz of Philadelphia, is accused of lying about his knowledge of abusive interrogations, and of prompting prison guards to soften up detainees for questioning in violation of Army regulations.

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