White House Responsible For Prisoner Abuse, Not Soldiers, Senate Report Finds

WASHINGTON — The physical and mental abuse of detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, was the direct result of Bush administration detention policies and should not be dismissed as the work of bad guards or interrogators, according to a bipartisan Senate report released Thursday.

The Senate Armed Services Committee report concludes that harsh interrogation techniques used by the CIA and the U.S. military were directly adapted from the training techniques used to prepare special forces personnel to resist interrogation by enemies that torture and abuse prisoners. The techniques included forced nudity, painful stress positions, sleep deprivation, and until 2003, waterboarding, a form of simulated drowning.

The report is the result of a nearly two-year investigation that directly links President Bush's policies after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, legal memos on torture, and interrogation rule changes with the abuse photographed at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq four years ago. Much of the report remains classified. Unclassified portions of the report were released by the committee Thursday.

Administration officials publicly blamed the abuses on low-level soldiers_ the work "of a few bad apples." Committee Chairman Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., called that "both unconscionable and false."

"The message from top officials was clear; it was acceptable to use degrading and abusive techniques against detainees," Levin said.

Arizona Republican and former prisoner of war Sen. John McCain, called the link between the survival training and U.S. interrogations of detainees inexcusable.

"These policies are wrong and must never be repeated," he said in a statement.

Lawrence Di Rita, a senior aide to former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld at the time the Abu Ghraib and other abuses took place, disputed the report.

"This oddly timed report provides no evidence that contradicts more than a dozen other investigations that found that there was no systematic or widespread detainee mismanagement," Di Rita told The AP. "A relatively small number of people abused detainees, and they were brought to justice in criminal or civil proceedings."

The report comes as the Bush administration continues to delay and in some cases bar members of Congress from gaining access to key legal documents and memos about the detainee program, including an August 2002 memo that evaluated whether specific interrogation techniques proposed to be used by the CIA would constitute torture.

That memo, written by Jay Bybee, then-chief of the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel, was guided in part by an assessment of the psychological effects of resistance survival training on U.S. military personnel. The CIA provided that document to his office, Bybee told the Senate Armed Services Committee in an October letter, obtained by The Associated Press.

Comments

[miguelobrien]

And please let's not forget Congoleeza Rice, who was right there in the detail meetings. She is the true end of affirmative action as we know it. Has anyone ever checked her knees for callouses?

There are a few bad apples, all right, but at the top of the barrel. And she is one of the worst. Phony doctorate, phony academic career, phony pol. Now she will be a phony war criminal.

[Brainspore]

According to insiders Rice and Cheney downright hate each other, so she can't be all bad.

[Bendersky]

Amazing how the government takes years to come up wiht the same information anybody with a ounce of sense knew while the torturing was just starting. Then they get to act indignant and outraged even though they sat around and let it happen.

[imusintheevening]

There exists one elephant-sized question.

What will be done to hold those responsible accountable?

[harriettubman]

The REAL axis of evil: Hannity, Limbaugh, Rumsfeld, Bush, Fox news, Cheney

[goldcoastsailor]

Rumsfeld's head needs to be slowly severed on camera.

[keepemhonest]

World's most hated individuals: Ad olf Hit ler, W. Bush, D. Cheney, K. Rove, Rumsfeld, M. Thatcher, Nap o lean, Muss o lini, Nix on, Joseph McCarthy, Pol Pot, bin Lad en ... hmmmm.... some directory, huh

[LyndafromAustralia]

DUH!

The name Donald Rumsfeld translates to the anagram Slumland Fodder.

[Dystopic]

and

Damn Folded Slur

[madisonhack]

Public whippings were inspired by this sort of political maneuvering by Bush & Co. Cat-o-nine tails for all of them! Seriously, when does the House (Pelosi) finally get sick of looking at themselves in the mirror and finally start an impeachment proceeding so Bush can't pardon these people, and himself?

[KateinAZ]

I fear that Pelosi and Reed are up to their necks in this mess. They WERE briefed on all of this and never said a word. We will not see justice out of this bunch!

[1dogs2]

True that they never said a word. That's because they are required by law to say nothing about security briefings, and if they had said anything, given the WH propaganda machine and the gutless press, the big story would have been that the Dem leadership had committed treason by leaking top secret info, not that the WH had violated U.S. and international law.

[grf67]

So who is going to hold him accountable and when?

[bioluminescence]

If the report reveals discrepancies between its findings and the sworn testimony of Administration officials during previous Senate hearings aren't these discrepancies worthy at least of investigation for possible contempt of Senate charges?

[ladybastet]

I just hope that they all follow through and CONVICT Rumsfeld, et al. If not then really all this will do is further prove we as a nation have double standards. =/

[Douglas1966]

"A relatively small number of people abused detainees, and they were brought to justice in criminal or civil proceedings."

It's time to bring to justice the people who gave these people their orders, including Rumsfeld and the people at the Justice Department who claimed a right to torture. Of course, the paper trail leads directly to the White House...

[greyseal in tampa]

Ru.msfeld responsible for Ab.u Ghr.aib? Yeah, and water is wet.

[dissanayake]

Blame the rubber stamp republican majority.

[Brainspore]

Don't let the Democrats off the hook either. They've been running congress since 2006 and still haven't made any serious attempts to reign in abuses of power.

[tbone99]

The timing is interesting - now that the Bush regime is over, but not soon enough to blow the whistle.

How many $100 an hr experts did this take?

And what the hell are the gonna do about it?

[Brainspore]

The timing may be fortuitous in at least one respect. If Rumsfeld is convicted of a crime after Obama is sworn in the odds of getting a pardon will drop dramatically.