US Senate may question Bremer on abuse scandal

Former US administrator in Iraq, L. Paul Bremer, may testify about the scandal of American soldiers abusing Iraqi prisoners at a congressional hearing next week, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee said Thursday.

After a closed briefing on the status of several Pentagon investigations into the treatment of prisoners in Iraq, Senator John Warner told reporters that he was trying to arrange an open hearing for next week with Bremer, who stepped down with the transfer of power to an interim Iraqi government on June 28.

Bremer reportedly had raised questions about the US military's treatment of Iraqi prisoners before the release of photographs in late April showing the abuse of Iraqis at the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad.

Information was still being uncovered as late as Thursday morning on additional possible breaches of the Geneva Convention and Defense Department rules on treatment of prisoners, Warner said.

"New incidents that occurred in the past were revealed every day and would need to be investigated," he said.

The Senate committee would hold hearings as seven Pentagon reviews of US abuse of detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere are finished, he said. The panel would hold hearings as individual reports are available instead of waiting for all of them to be done, Warner said.

The Senate Armed Services Committee has conducted three public hearings on the abuse scandal since May.

Source: Xinhua