Rumsfeld to Escape Abu Ghraib Blame From the Commission He Appointed

BBC | August 24 2004

A commission appointed by US Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld is due to publish its report on the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal in Iraq.
The panel was appointed by Mr Rumsfeld at the height of the scandal in May.

Leaks suggest Mr Rumsfeld will be faulted for not exercising sufficient oversight of interrogation policies.

They also suggest senior Pentagon officials will be criticised for failing to recognise deteriorating circumstances at the Abu Ghraib prison.

However, defence officials briefed on the report told the New York Times that Mr Rumsfeld would escape direct accusations of misconduct and of ordering polices that encouraged prisoner abuse.

Reservists accused

The Abu Ghraib scandal surfaced in April when photographs of hooded and naked Iraqi prisoners being maltreated first came to light.

Four of the seven soldiers charged with cruelty and maltreatment of prisoners at the prison are facing preliminary hearings at US barracks in Mannheim, Germany, to decide whether they should stand trial.

Lawyers for reservists Staff Sergeant Ivan Frederick, Sergeant Javal Davis and Specialists Charles Graner and Megan Ambuhl have argued that their clients were following orders.

On Monday, Sgt Frederick said he would plead guilty to some charges, but did not specify which ones.

However, the military judge in charge has threatened to dismiss the case against Spc Charles Graner unless the prosecution speeds up its analysis of documents that could be used as evidence.

Military dogs

The commission appointed by Mr Rumsfeld - headed by former defence secretary James Schlesinger - was given the task of reviewing ongoing Pentagon inquiries and recommend areas that still needed further examination.

However, it expanded its remit, hired a staff of about 20 investigators and focused its attention on senior policy makers and commanders, including interviewing Mr Rumsfeld himself.

The commission's accusations that Mr Rumsfeld and other top military and civilian leaders at the Pentagon did not exercise rigorous oversight are also thought to apply to prisons in Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay as well as in Iraq.

If the leaks are accurate, this would be the first report into the prison scandal that implicitly links Pentagon leadership, including Mr Rumsfeld, to the abuses that occurred at Abu Ghraib, says the BBC's Michael Buchanan in Washington.

Another report into the affair, conducted by the US army, and focussing on the role of military intelligence soldiers, is due to be published in the next few days.

It will criticise senior officers in Iraq for failures of leadership, but clear them and the Pentagon of ordering any abuse, army officials told the Washington Post.

Those briefed on the findings told the newspaper that the investigation found that military police dogs were used to frighten detained Iraqi teenagers.

The report also acknowledges that military intelligence soldiers failed to list a number of prisoners on official records, and hid them from international humanitarian organisations.

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