EQUIPO NIZKOR |
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12may04
General blames leaders, training in abuse.
The general who investigated the abuse of Iraqi detainees testified Tuesday that the ''egregious acts of violence'' by U.S. military guards represented a dramatic breakdown in leadership and discipline by soldiers and commanders at the Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad.
Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba said he found no evidence of specific orders directing soldiers to commit such acts, but he disagreed with a senior Pentagon civilian over who was in charge of U.S. military police at the prison.
The hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee left uncertain whether guards at Abu Ghraib, and perhaps other detention centers in Iraq, felt pressure to help extract information from prisoners about the anti-U.S. insurgency, weapons of mass destruction, ties to terrorist groups or other issues of urgent interest to top Bush administration officials.
Several Republican and Democratic senators said there were indications that top commanders created an atmosphere that encouraged soldiers to violate military law and Geneva Conventions rules governing the treatment of prisoners.
Sen. John Warner, the Virginia Republican who chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee, said some of the photos of naked Iraqis in humiliating poses were meant as threats and weren't the result of spontaneous cruelty.
''These youngsters didn't understand the nuances of Muslim culture to have, as some people say, staged those photographs, which, I understand, were going to be shown to the prisoner's family by way of threat, unless he came forward with some valuable information,'' Warner said.
Warner asked Taguba to explain in ''your own soldier's language'' how the abuses occurred.
''Failure in leadership, sir, from the brigade commander on down; lack of discipline; no training whatsoever, and no supervision. Supervisory omission was rampant,'' Taguba replied.
During the hearing, senators received word that a website had posted a video of the beheading of American civilian Nick Berg by an al Qaeda militant in Iraq. In the video, a masked man says the killing is in retaliation for the humiliations at Abu Ghraib.
Returning from a floor vote, Warner said the news had shaken the entire institution. He urged the military to speed its investigation so that the problem could be dealt with quickly to quell the repercussions.
''Senators on the floor are in a virtual state of shock about this report, about this alleged beheading,'' Warner said. ``It is clear in this report that servicemen and women serving in Iraq, Afghanistan and around the world are now . . . subjected to this type of threat.''
Senators also heard from Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence Stephen Cambone, who oversees the Pentagon's military intelligence operations, and Gen. Lance Smith, the deputy commander of U.S. Central Command, which oversees Iraq.
Who was in charge
Under questioning by Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan, the panel's senior Democrat, Taguba and Cambone contradicted each other on whether guards were under the control of military intelligence. Taguba wrote in his report that such a practice was ``not doctrinally sound.''
''Is that your conclusion?'' Levin asked.
Taguba said: ``Yes, sir, because the order gave [a military intelligence colonel] tactical control of all units that were residing at Abu Ghraib.''
Cambone disagreed, contending that the colonel didn't have authority over military police.
The issue is significant because several of the seven military guards facing courts-martial in abuse cases have said they acted under orders or suggestions from military intelligence personnel.
Tuesday's testimony sustained attention on a scandal that has rocked the Bush administration and triggered demands for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's resignation.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., an Air Force reservist and former military prosecutor, said anyone in the chain of command could be held accountable.
''The people who are in charge of maintaining good order and discipline, the people who are in charge of making sure there were enough troops available and the culture did not exist the way it did, they are candidates for prosecution for dereliction of duty. . . . Who knows how far that will go,'' Graham said.
But Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., ridiculed the attention the abuse case is getting and attacked the prison detainees.
``They're murderers, they're terrorists, they're insurgents. Many of them probably have American blood on their hands. And here we're so concerned about the treatment of those individuals.''
Photographs of U.S. soldiers harassing naked Iraqi detainees have caused an uproar. Additional photographs, which officials say are far worse than anything made public so far, are expected to be available to lawmakers for private inspection today.
'Gitmo-Izing' in Iraq
Senators questioned whether Gen. Geoffrey Miller, who formerly ran the military detention center at Guantánamo Naval Base in Cuba, attempted to apply the less-restrictive standards used to question terrorism suspects in Guantánamo to Iraqi detainees in Abu Ghraib. Miller has been quoted as saying he wanted to ''Gitmo-ize'' the Iraqi interrogation system.
'This `Gitmo-ization' is a concern because I think everybody knew what Gitmo-izing meant,'' said Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. ``In Gitmo they are not treated according to the Geneva Convention for the treatment of prisoners of war.''
Cambone said that while standards may differ at Guantánamo and Iraq, both require the humane treatment of prisoners. He said Miller's recommendations were simply that guards share information with interrogators.
''I cannot help but suspect that others were involved,'' said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine. ``That military intelligence personnel were involved, or people further up the chain of command, in suggesting . . . to these guards specific types of abuse that were designed to break these prisoners.''
Knight Ridder correspondents Sumana Chatterjee and Jonathan Landay contributed to this report, which contains material from The Boston Globe.
[Sourece: The Miami Herald, Usa, 12may04]
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