CIA Agent Who Abused Prisoners Wants To Come "Home" To Australia

Philadelphia Daily News reports that a Philadelphia-area native at the center of the Iraq torture scandal has reportedly told friends he wants to get out of there right away and return to Australia, where he claimed three years ago he was joining the CIA.

"Stefanowicz, a 1988 graduate of Souderton Area High School, was called by his Naval Reserve unit and reportedly sent to the Middle East in 2002. But it is the 34-year-old's activities as a civilian interrogator in Iraq for defense contractor CACI International that have put him at the heart of the scandal that has rocked America's reputation in the world.

The explosive internal Army report on torture at Abu Ghraib said that civilian interrogator Stefanowicz 'clearly knew his instructions' to military police officers 'equated to physical abuse.' The report says Stefanowicz is one of the people 'either directly or indirectly responsible for the abuses at Abu Ghraib.'

The February report by Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba charged that Stefanowicz had 'made a false statement to the investigation team regarding the locations of his interrogations, the activities during his interrogations, and his knowledge of abuses.' It said he should be fired."