Prison abuse: Pentagon cleared

2005-03-10 19:57

Washington - US military policies did not cause prisoner abuse in Iraq, Afghanistan or Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, an internal Pentagon report concluded, although it faulted the US defence department for some errors that contributed to the scandal.

The findings are contained in a report commissioned by the US military and led by US navy inspector-general vice-admiral Albert Church, who presented an unclassified version of the document at a hearing of the senate armed services committee on Thursday.

The report clears the US military of complicity in the use of sexual or physical abuse of prisoners, particularly in Iraq.

"Even in the absence of a precise definition of 'humane treatment,' it is clear that none of the pictured abuses at Abu Ghraib bear any resemblance to approved policies at any level, in any theatre," the 25-page report said.

Even in Iraq, where the most egregious abuses took place, "interrogators clearly understood that abusive practices and techniques - such as physical assault, sexual humiliation, terrorising detainees with un-muzzled dogs, or threats of torture or death - were at all times prohibited", the report said.

The document - which runs to nearly 400 pages in its classified form - is the latest in a series of outside and internal investigations launched following the prison abuse scandal, and like earlier reviews, it largely exonerates Pentagon top brass of culpability.

Could have prevented some of it

The prison abuse scandal came to light after images were released showing US soldiers hitting, threatening and taunting detainees at Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad.

The Church report - which reviewed more than 70 investigations of confirmed abuse, while broadly clearing the Pentagon - found, however, that the US defence department could likely have prevented some of the abuse and more aggressively supervised troops tasked with monitoring detainees.

The report speaks of "missed opportunities" by military officials in failing to learn from earlier conflicts about ways to forestall the torture of detainees, and a general failure to take into account the possibility that prisoner abuse could even occur.

"They did not evidence any specific awareness of the risk of detainee abuse - or any awareness that US forces had confronted this problem before," the report said.

The document also referred to "ambiguities" in military interrogation policy - which, while not permitting abuse, were not helpful in preventing it.

Current US interrogation policy "is explicit in its prohibition of certain techniques (but) contains several ambiguities which, although they would not permit abuse, could obscure commanders' oversight of techniques being employed, and therefore warrant review and correction", Church wrote.

- AFP