General Antonio Taguba Testifies

He had found no evidence to suggest the abuse was part of a policy ordered from the highest levels of the military or the government.

Maj Gen Taguba was appearing at the committee's second hearing into abusive treatment of Iraqi prisoners at the hands of US captors, some of whom forced the detainees to assume sexually humiliating positions.

Photographs of the alleged abuse have been published internationally and on the internet, causing particular outrage in the Arab world, placing US and British government action in Iraq under intense scrutiny.

Senator Robert Byrd, questioning the general, said the abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison was not just about guards and interrogators lacking in personal values, but "about policies and planning" from a higher level.

Mr Byrd asked Maj Gen Taguba , "Who gave the order to soften up these prisoners, to 'give them the treatment?' Was this policy? Who approved it?"

Maj Gen Taguba replied: "I did not find any evidence of a policy or a direct order given to these soldiers to conduct what they did. I believe that they did it on their own volition. I believe that they collaborated with several MI [military intelligence] iterrogators at the lower level, based on the conveyance of that information through interviews and written statements."

But he said that armed forces personnel, civilian contractors and "other government agencies" - likely to be viewed by the committee as a euphemism for the CIA - were involved in the abusive treatment of prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison.

"A few soldiers and civilians conspired to abuse and conduct egregious acts of violence against detainees and other civilians outside the bounds of international laws and the Geneva Convention," he said.

Senator Carl Levin, the senior Democrat on the panel, insisted that "all of those up and down the chain of command must be held accountable ... for the brutality and dishonour they brought" on the troops.

"These acts of abuse were not the spontaneous actions of lower enlisted personnel," he said. They were "clearly planned and suggested by others".

Questions over the ultimate responsibility for control of the Abu Ghraib prison produced a contradiction between the evidence of Maj Gen Taguba and Stephen Cambone, the under-secretary of defence for intelligence.

Maj Gen Taguba said that control had been turned over to military intelligence officials, while Mr Cambone said it resided with the military police.

In a further disagreement, Maj Gen Taguba said it was against army rules for intelligence troops to involve MPs in setting conditions for interrogations, and that his investigation had not found "any order whatsoever, written or otherwise," that directed the military police to cooperate with intelligence forces at the prison. Mr Cambone said he believed it was appropriate for the two groups to collaborate.

But Mr Cambone backed up the suggestions of possible CIA involvement in the abuse at Abu Ghraib. "There were people brought by agency personnel to that place ... There may have been interrogations conducted by the agency personnel while they were there," he said.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1214407,00.html

VIEW FULL TEXT OF TAGUBA REPORT:
http://www.indybay.org/news/2004/05/1679599.php