[2] 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.
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.
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".
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.
The Army inquiry concluded there was confusion on this matter under Captain Wood's leadership, and some interrogation techniques continued to be used without the required authorization.
[13] In testimony before the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee: Wood's role at Abu Ghraib is featured in Alex Gibney's 2008 Academy award-winning documentary Taxi to the Dark Side.
She and her small platoon of 15 interrogators from the 519th Military Intelligence Battalion returned from Afghanistan to their base at Fort Bragg, North Carolina earlier in the month.