He wrote that he was helping the interrogators: "Military intelligence has encouraged and told us 'Great job.'"

"They usually don't allow others to watch them interrogate. But since they like the way I run the prison, they have made an exception," said one excerpt.

"We help getting them to talk with the way we handle them," said another. "We've had a very high rate with our style of getting them to break. They usually end up breaking within hours."

Gary Myers, an attorney defending Frederick, told 60 Minutes II that the soldiers should never have been charged, because of the failure of commanders to provide proper training and standards.

"The elixir of power, the elixir of believing that you're helping the CIA, for God's sake, when you're from a small town in Virginia, that's intoxicating," said Myers. "And so, good guys sometimes do things believing that they are being of assistance and helping a just cause."

Frederick told CBS he didn't see a copy of the Geneva Conventions' rules for handling prisoners of war until after he was charged.

Frederick said far too few soldiers were on hand for the number of prisoners: "There was, when I left, there was over 900. And there was only five soldiers, plus two noncommissioned officers, in charge for those 900 -- over 900 inmates."

Kimmitt, the military spokesman, was asked by CBS about understaffing.

"That doesn't condone individual acts of criminal behavior no matter how tired we are," he said.

The 372nd had been scheduled to return home beginning this month after a year in Iraq but was ordered to remain in the country for up to three months to provide security for military and civilian convoys.

Since arriving in Iraq last spring, the reservists performed law enforcement duties around the city of Hillah for six months before dividing into three sections to provide escort duty, military police work around Baghdad and security at Abu Ghraib prison west of Baghdad. Officials were uncertain where the 372nd would be based for its convoy duty.

Sun staff writer Lynn Anderson and researcher Paul McCardell contributed to this article.