- WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- A
long-awaited Army report on Thursday found 94 cases of abuse of prisoners
in Iraq and Afghanistan but blamed "a few individuals" and not
the military leadership -- a finding Senate Democrats called hard to believe.
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- The report represented the Army's official evaluation
of prisoner detention and interrogation operations in the two countries
that produced the physical and sexual abuse of Iraqi prisoners at the Abu
Ghraib jail and at least three dozen deaths of detainees.
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- Lt. Gen. Paul Mikolashek, the Army's inspector general
who conducted the report and appeared before the U.S. Senate Armed Services
Committee, described a series of shortcomings, including ambiguous policies
and unclear responsibilities for troops.
-
- But the report stated, "We were unable to identify
system failures that resulted in incidents of abuse."
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- Democratic lawmakers accused the Army of failing to look
for systematic problems.
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- "I don't think you've done the job that you have
to do. Maybe you were told not to do it," Democratic Sen. Jack Reed
of Rhode Island said.
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- The report cited 94 cases of "confirmed or possible"
abuse of prisoners, including death, sexual assault, physical assault and
theft, but concluded "we were unable to identify system failures that
resulted in incidents of abuse."
-
- The Army ordered the report in February, weeks after
commanders learned of the physical and sexual abuse of prisoners at Abu
Ghraib.
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- Mikolashek said he found "no evidence" of so-called
ghost detainees, prisoners kept off the books by U.S. forces and hidden
from the International Committee of the Red Cross.
-
- But he said he was not disputing either Maj. Gen. Antonio
Taguba's report on Abu Ghraib that exposed and criticized the practice,
or Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who said he ordered the secret detention
of an Iraqi prisoner held for more than seven months without notifying
the ICRC.
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- "We did not go back and do a post mortem on that
particular issue," Mikolashek said.
-
- Reed responded: "General, I just think the premise
of your report -- that there's been no systematic problems -- is undercut
by the fact that you didn't look at some systematic problems."
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- Mikolashek's report also faulted the military for failing
to "clearly specify" the roles of military intelligence and military
police.
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- But it concluded: "The abuses that have occurred
are not representative of policy, doctrine or soldier training. These abuses
should be viewed as what they are -- unauthorized actions taken by a few
individuals, and in some cases coupled with the failure of a few leaders
to provide adequate supervision and leadership."
-
- Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan, the panel's ranking Democrat,
said, "In light of frequently changing ... rules of engagement, as
they were called, for interrogations in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere,
it is difficult to believe that there were not systemic problems."
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