2004-8-27
This is Steve Ember with In the News in VOA Special English.
This week, there were two reports on the treatment of Iraqis by
American troops at the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad. Both reports
said responsibility for the abuses that took place was not limited
to low-level guards. But neither investigation found any orders to
mistreat prisoners.
Army investigators found that twenty-three members of military
intelligence and four civilian workers were directly involved in
abuse. These findings could result in administrative or criminal
charges. Eight other people, including two civilians, were found not
to have reported cases of abuse.
The Army report places blame mainly on a lack of training among
the troops and a lack of leadership by their commanders. It says
rules for questioning prisoners were sometimes unclear.
In April, pictures from Abu Ghraib were made public. Some showed
prisoners forced into painful positions. Others showed men unclothed
and placed on top of one another. Still others showed the use of
dogs to threaten prisoners.
The Army investigators found that
troops hid eight Iraqi prisoners from the International Committee of
the Red Cross. One prisoner later died.
General Paul Kern led the investigation by three Army generals.
They discovered what he called "serious misconduct and a loss of
moral values."
Criminal cases are being heard against six military police
officers in Iraq. Their lawyers have argued that the soldiers were
following orders from military intelligence officers and civilian
contractors. One soldier has pleaded guilty and was sentenced to a
year in prison.
Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez was the top American commander
in Iraq at the time. He was criticized for leadership failures, but
not found directly responsible for the abuses. Four high-level
military officers, however, face possible administrative charges.
On Friday the New York Times described some parts of the Army
report that were not made public. These reportedly say that General
Sanchez approved the use of some severe methods to get information
from prisoners in Iraq. The newspaper says these interrogation
methods were meant to be limited to prisoners held in Guantanamo
Bay, Cuba, and Afghanistan.
The other report this week came from an independent committee led
by former Defense Secretary James Schlesinger. The committee
examined the policies for people captured in Iraq and Afghanistan.
It says there was no evidence of any policy to abuse prisoners.
Still, it says top civilian and military officials in the Defense
Department share part of the blame for what happened.
The report says it is clear that pressures for additional
intelligence resulted in stronger interrogation methods. But it says
there are signs that the Department of Defense is now "on the path"
to dealing with the failures that led to the abuses.
In the News, in VOA Special English, was written by Cynthia Kirk.
This is Steve Ember.