Steven Stephanowicz

Steven Anthony Stefanowicz was involved, as a private contractor for CACI International, in the interrogations at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

Steven Stefanowicz grew up in the suburban Philadelphia town of Telford, Pennsylvania. He graduated from Souderton Area High School in 1988. He was a center on the boys' basketball team, and a class leader. He graduated with a B.S. from the University of Maryland in 1995. He moved to Australia in 1999 following his Australian then-girlfriend Joanna Buttfield. A naval reservist, following the September 11 attacks, he sought full-time deployment with the Navy in 2002. He left the Navy in September 2003 and found employment with CACI.

Stefanowicz was "a contract interrogator for the 205th Intelligence Brigade." He was known in the prison by the nickname "Big Steve". It has been alleged that he ordered and oversaw abusive interrogations which some have labelled as torture.

According to the New York Times, "In mid-August, a team of civilian interrogators led by Steven Stephanowicz, a former Navy petty officer and an employee of a Virginia company called CACI International, began work at Abu Ghraib under a classified one-year military contract. ... Their job was to conduct interrogations in conjunction with military police and military intelligence units, according to a company memorandum."

In the report by Major General Antonio M. Taguba regarding the alleged acts of brutality, abuse, and torture at the Enemy Prisoner of War facility at Abu Ghraib and other Enemy Prisoner of War Camps in Iraq and Afghanistan, Taguba said, "'Specifically I suspect that Col. Thomas M. Pappas, Lt. Col. Steve L. Jordan, Mr. Steven Stephanowicz and Mr. John Israel were either directly or indirectly responsible for the abuses at Abu Ghraib and strongly recommend immediate disciplinary actions ..."

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