Rumsfeld cleared in prison abuse scandal; activists decry finding

U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and the Pentagon's top brass were exonerated yesterday of accusations that they ordered, or turned a blind eye to, the brutal torture and humiliation of detainees at Iraq's notorious Abu Ghraib prison.

But although Vice-Admiral Albert Church reported no blood on the hands of the U.S. high command, his findings failed to persuade many of those who believe President George W. Bush has set a permissive and extralegal tone for the war on terrorism.

The unclassified 21-page summary of a 400-page secret report confirms that at least six detainees have died in more than 70 proven cases of abuse in Afghanistan and Iraq, and reveals that the U.S. military was holding an estimated 50,000 detainees in shadowy circumstances as of last September. Otherwise, however, it sheds little new light on the prison horrors.

Rumsfeld cleared in prison abuse scandal; activists decry finding
Friday, March 11, 2005

WASHINGTON -- U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and the Pentagon's top brass were exonerated yesterday of accusations that they ordered, or turned a blind eye to, the brutal torture and humiliation of detainees at Iraq's notorious Abu Ghraib prison.

But although Vice-Admiral Albert Church reported no blood on the hands of the U.S. high command, his findings failed to persuade many of those who believe President George W. Bush has set a permissive and extralegal tone for the war on terrorism.

The unclassified 21-page summary of a 400-page secret report confirms that at least six detainees have died in more than 70 proven cases of abuse in Afghanistan and Iraq, and reveals that the U.S. military was holding an estimated 50,000 detainees in shadowy circumstances as of last September.

Otherwise, however, it sheds little new light on the prison horrors.

"This looks like another whitewash. Almost a year after the Abu Ghraib pictures, we still haven't had an independent investigation into the widespread prison abuse by someone not appointed by or subordinate to Secretary Rumsfeld," said Reed Brody, a special counsel for the New York-based group Human Rights Watch.

U.S. courts dealt another setback to the administration's handling of detainees on Monday, when a federal judge rejected a government effort to indefinitely imprison a U.S. citizen without charge by claiming that he is an enemy combatant.

The move would be a "betrayal of this nation's commitment to the separation of powers that safeguards our democratic values and individual liberties," U.S. District Judge Henry Floyd ruled. He gave the government 45 days to charge or release Jose Padilla, who is alleged to have plotted to detonate a so-called dirty bomb to spread radioactive debris.

Human Rights Watch said Mr. Bush's administration is undermining international respect for rights, and urged the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to condemn "disappearances, torture and other mistreatment of detainees by the United States in its global war on terror."

"It's not just the reputation of the United States that suffers, but international respect for human rights in general is damaged," spokeswoman Joanna Weschler said in Geneva.

Vice-Adm. Church's report found that rules were slack and that the military failed to spot warning signals that things might be going wrong at Abu Ghraib.

But "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," he concluded.

Some of Mr. Bush's staunchest supporters appeared to be in denial about Abu Ghraib, a year after the horrific pictures of abuse and sexual humiliation emerged.

"I don't need an investigation to tell me that there was no comprehensive or systematic use of inhumane tactics by the American military, because those guys and gals just wouldn't do it," said Senator Jim Talent, a Republican from Missouri. "Everything about the culture and the training in the military and at home works against that. That's why the terrorists are attacking us -- because we're not the kind of society that would do that."

Mr. Talent seemed to come close to endorsing physical abuse of detainees.

"Speaking for myself, if our guys want to poke somebody in the chest to get the name of a bomb maker so that they can save the lives of Americans, I'm for it," he said.

Others were not so sanguine. Democrat Senator Carl Levin noted acidly that the scope of Vice-Adm. Church's investigation didn't include detention and interrogation practices by the Central Intelligence Agency.

He also said that exonerating top leaders sends the wrong message to Americans and the rest of the world.

"This failure of accountability of senior leaders sends the wrong signal to our troops and to the American people. It harms the United States's standing as a nation of laws, and it undermines the high standards of our armed forces," Mr. Levin said.

Vice-Adm. Church also confirmed the existence of so-called ghost detainees, a practice in which the CIA detains suspects without documenting them.

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