Probe: Leaders Didn't Order Prison Abuse

AP on Yahoo ^ | 3/9/05 | Robert Burns - AP

[NormsRevenge]

WASHINGTON - A comprehensive U.S. military review of prisoner interrogation policies and techniques for the global war on terrorism concluded that no civilian or uniformed leaders directed or encouraged the prisoner abuse documented in Iraq (news - web sites), Afghanistan (news - web sites) and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

"We found no link between approved interrogation techniques and detainee abuse," the review concluded.

The review led by Navy Vice Adm. Albert T. Church did cite, however, a number of "missed opportunities" in the development of interrogation policies, according to a 21-page executive summary of his findings due to be publicly released Thursday. The Associated Press obtained a copy Wednesday.

Among the missed opportunities was a failure to provide commanders in Iraq and Afghanistan with specific and early guidance on interrogation techniques. "We cannot say that there would necessarily have been less detainee abuse had these opportunities been acted upon," Church wrote.

Had that guidance been provided earlier, "interrogation policy could have benefited from additional expertise and oversight," he wrote.

The probe also found, in the cases of detainee operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, that the dissemination of approved interrogation policy to commanders in the field was generally poor. And in Iraq in particular it found that compliance with approved policy guidance was generally poor.

By contrast, compliance with the authorized interrogation methods was in nearly all cases exemplary at Guantanamo Bay, where terrorism suspects have been held since January 2002, the report said. It attributed this to strict command oversight and effective leadership, as well as adequate resources.

The review was done last summer, and Church is to present his findings at a congressional hearing on Thursday.

The Church probe was among several triggered by disclosures last spring of prisoner abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison complex in Iraq. Church, formerly the Navy's chief investigator, was directed to look at how interrogation policies were developed and implemented from the start of the terror war in the fall of 2001.

"An early focus of our investigation was to determine whether DOD (the Department of Defense (news - web sites)) had promulgated interrogation policies or guidance that directed, sanctioned or encouraged the abuse of detainees. We found that this was not the case," the Church probe concluded.

"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," it added.

Church did not directly investigate the Abu Ghraib matter or address questions about accountability for senior defense officials involved in interrogation policy. Both of those matters have been investigated by others.

Many of the details underlying Church's conclusions remain classified.

While the problems cited by Church in the dissemination of interrogation policy guidance to commanders in Iraq and Afghanistan were found to be "certainly cause for concern," Church concluded that "they did not lead to the employment of illegal or abusive interrogation techniques."

Church also addressed the assertion raised by some in Congress that commanders in Iraq were under undue pressure from Washington to extract more useful intelligence information from prisoners.

"It is certainly true that `pressure' was applied in Iraq through the chain of command, but a certain amount of pressure is to be expected in a combat environment," Church concluded. And he determined that interrogators in Iraq did not believe that any such pressure "subverted their obligation to treat detainees humanely in accordance with the Geneva Conventions."

Church examined the 187 Pentagon (news - web sites) investigations of alleged prisoner abuse that had been completed as of Sept. 30, 2004, of which 70 he counted as having substantiated actual abuse. Six of the 70 involved prisoner deaths. Of those 70, only 20 were related to interrogations; the other 50 were not associated in any way with questioning.

Church found no "single, overarching reason for abuse."

___

Associated Press writer Liz Sidoti contributed to this report.

[EllaMinnow]

Bump.

[ArmyBratproud]

I'm sure Chris Matthews will be all over this.

Shocking that Dan RATher did not report it. Being his last liberal hoorah and all.