Carolyn Wood

United States Army Captain Carolyn Wood is a military intelligence officer who served in both Afghanistan and Iraq. She was implicated by the Fay Report to have "failed" in several aspects of her command regarding her oversight of interrogators at Abu Ghraib. She was alleged by Amnesty International to be centrally involved in the 2003 Abu Ghraib and 2002 Bagram prisoner abuse cases. Wood is featured in the 2008 Academy award-winning documentary Taxi to the Dark Side.

Wood previously served ten years as an enlisted soldier in the U.S. Army, rising to the rank of Staff Sergeant, before being commissioned as an officer.

In July 2002, Wood was in command of about 20 analysts and interrogators in the intelligence unit located at Bagram Collection Point. She expanded the interrogation procedures with the use of stress positions, isolation for up to thirty days, removal of clothing, and exploitation of detainees' phobias, such as the use of barking dogs.

Two prisoners, Dilawar and Habibullah, were killed in custody in December. When Military Police guards were charged with their beatings they tried to mitigate their responsibility by attempting to link the intelligence unit's expanded interrogation procedures as leading to such abuse. The MPs had been trained to use non-lethal force on violent and combative detainees, including painful peroneal strikes referred to as "compliance blows". These strikes are used in civilian law enforcement but were later determined to not be part of Army doctrine. Their arguments failed to exonerate them but was readily accepted by critics and opponents of the U.S. side in the war on terror.

Many of the enhanced interrogation procedures, such as the use of barking dogs, were later overturned after review by military lawyers. The practice of shackling a captive's hands above their heads was classified as criminal assault.

Wood was called as a witness during the court martial of Willie Brand, the first GI to be charged. But, on legal advice, Wood invoked her right to protection against self-incrimination. The Arizona Daily Star quoted speculation over Wood's role, addressing the concern that Wood had been unaware of the most extreme abuse of her subordinates, and addressing the concern that Wood had merely passed on authorization for the abuse from more senior officers.

Wood arrived in Abu Ghraib on August 4, 2003 and took the initiative to recommend the establishment of the Hard Site in Abu Ghraib based on her experience in Afghanistan.

The Hard Site was opened on August 25, 2003. This was intended as an isolation area to house detainees determined to be of intelligence value, but it was also used by MPs to isolate violent detainees. It became the location of the incidents that first provoked public controversy after criminal detainees were moved into the Hard Site for rioting, and then later revealed to have been humiliated by guards on the night shift.