Faults leading to Iraqi prisoners abuse trace to Rumsfeld: report

US soldiers guarding the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad are mainly blamed for the Iraqi prisoners abuse, but senior commanders and defense officials up to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld can be faulted for failed leadership and oversight, a four-member investigation panel said in a report released on Tuesday.

"There is both institutional and personal responsibility at higher levels" over the abuses, and "military and civilian leadersat the Pentagon share this burden of responsibility," the panel headed by James Schlesinger, the former US secretary of defense, said in the report.

The report said there was direct responsibility on soldiers andcommanders in the field rather than in Washington.

"There was direct responsibility for those activities on the part of the commanders on the scene up to the brigade level," because they did not adequately supervise what was going on at AbuGhraib, and there was indirect responsibility at higher levels, because the weaknesses at Abu Ghraib were well-known and corrective action could have been taken and should have been taken,Schlesinger said at a Pentagon press conference.

There was "chaos at Abu Ghraib" and "sadism on the night shift," he said.

Schlesinger said Rumsfeld's office could be faulted for inadequate supervision, but he objected to the suggestion that Rumsfeld should step down.

The report did not suggest that Rumsfeld ordered any of the abuses or encouraged them, but indicated that his policies createdsome confusion at lower levels of the military.

The independent panel of civilian defense experts was created in May by Rumsfeld to look into the abuse and how effectively the Pentagon addressed it. It interviewed Rumsfeld twice during its investigation.

The report blamed commanders in the field for the abuses, and was particularly critical of Ricardo Sanchez, the top US commanderin Iraq when the abuses occurred in late 2003.

"We believe Lt. Gen. Sanchez should have taken stronger action in November when he realized the extent of the leadership problemsat Abu Ghraib," the report said.

Schlesinger said there were 300 cases of abuses being investigated, many of them outside Abu Ghraib. "So the abuses werenot limited to a few individuals."

Prisoner interrogation policies in Iraq were inadequate and deficient, according to the report, and the changes made by Rumsfeld between December 2002 and April 2003 over interrogation techniques contributed to the uncertainties in the field as to what actions were allowed and what were forbidden.

The mistreatment of prisoners would have been avoided with proper training, leadership and oversight, it said.

In a statement released on Monday, Rumsfeld said the panel provided "important information and recommendations that will be of assistance in our ongoing efforts to improve detention operations."

In another development, a US military judge during a hearing of the Abu Ghraib prison abuse case in Germany refused on Tuesday to order Rumsfeld to testify about prisoner interrogation policy.

Seven US military police officers have been charged with abusing prisoners at Abu Ghraib, and one of them, Jeremy Sivits, pleaded guilty to three abuse charges in May and was sentenced to one year in prison.

Photographs showing American soldiers abusing Iraqi prisoners were made public in April, which caused a widespread outrage, particularly in the Arab world, prompting US President George W. Bush to apologize.

Source: Xinhua