Pentagon says its policy did not lead to abuses

WASHINGTON - The Pentagon has concluded that its policies did not lead to the abuse of detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay and found no "explicit" pressure from top officials to use extreme interrogation methods, congressional aides said today.

But the latest abuse report, by Navy inspector general Vice Admiral Albert Church, found breakdowns in order and discipline at some units contributed to abuses, and said the Pentagon could have stepped in to prevent them if it had used more aggressive oversight.

Unclassified portions of the Church report are to be released on Thursday at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing.

The investigation - the first overview of the abuse cases - largely tracks the Pentagon's previous contention that its leaders were not directly responsible for sexual and physical mistreatment of prisoners, aides familiar with it said.

The classified report is 368 pages. Aides cited a roughly 25-page unclassified executive summary.

Human Rights First, an advocacy group, said people familiar with the Church report indicated it "fails to fill in the gaps" left by seven previous investigations.

"The deficiencies in the various reports, the failure to punish or prosecute anyone involved in setting interrogation policy, and the steady stream of reports about continuing abuses underscores the need for a bipartisan independent commission to fully examine these issues," said Elisa Massimino of Human Rights First.

The abuses came to light in photographs of US soldiers humiliating, hitting and threatening detainees at Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad, embarrassing the Bush administration and undercutting US credibility as it sought to stabilize Iraq after the March 2003 US-led invasion.

The report reviewed 70 investigations of confirmed abuses out of 180 closed cases. It said 23 of those happened at the point of capture when it said emotions run high in hostile conditions, aides said.

They said the report also blamed eroding US conduct on the enemy's disregard for the laws of war.

While the report did not look specifically into official responsibility, it found no direct pressure from high in the chain of command that led to abusive interrogations.

The summary said it found "no evidence to support the notion that the office of the Secretary of Defense, the National Security staff, Centcom (US Central Command ) or any other organisation applied explicit pressure for intelligence or gave 'back-channel' permission to forces in the field to use more aggressive interrogation techniques" than authorized in the Army's manual or by the command interrogation policy.

The summary broke little new ground, a Democratic aide said, although the full classified report addresses some specific instances of abuse.

This report also did not address a number of issues including the role of the CIA and private contractors in interrogations, or the practice of transferring prisoners to countries that allow torture in interrogations, the aide said.

Three additional reports are expected.

"There are some pretty big holes in this thing...," the Democratic aide said. "I think it would be a shame for the (Senate Armed Services) committee to brush off its hands and say it's done."

- REUTERS