Army Quietly Releases Prison Abuse Report

[ For the most part, this got buried yesterday. -d ]

DN!:

Army Quietly Releases Prison Abuse Report
The 9/11 report was not the only major report issued in Washington yesterday. 
At a hastily arranged meeting of the Senate Armed Forces Committee, the Army 
released a 300-page report detailing prison abuse in Iraq and Afghanistan that 
attempted to absolve the military of most wrongdoing in Iraqi and Afghan prisons.

The report cited 94 cases of confirmed or possible detainee abuse or torture 
-- include 20 incidents that led to the prisoner's death.

But the report concluded the cases of abuse at Abu Ghraib and other prisons 
were "aberrations" and not "systemic" problems.

Critics of the report noted that many of the report's findings directly 
contradicted early reports by the International Committee of the Red Cross as 
well Army Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba.

The Army also failed to investigation several key findings of Taguba's 
including reports that "ghost detainees" were shuttled from prison to prison 
in Iraq to avoid oversight by the Red Cross and that interrogators used dogs.

Several Senators openly questioned the Army's Inspector General about how he 
could fail to examine the ghost detainees or the use of unmuzzled dogs in the 
jails.

Senator John McCain asked, "What else didn't you investigate? If we didn't 
investigate a gross and egregious violation such as that... I'm curious what 
else you didn't investigate."

The Army's report was issued during a poorly attended hearing of the Senate 
Armed Services Committee that was announced only the night before and was held 
while most Senators were receiving a briefing on the 9/11 Commission's findings.


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