>What mainstream are you looking at? On the contrary -- it looks to
>me as though every news org from the NY Times and Washington Post to
>Newsweek and Time (not Fox, of course) is working overtime trying to
>see how far up the "chain of command" the authority for the torture
>can be traced (actually not only torture but outright murder, as the
>Times pointed out on its front page -- no cover-up here! --
>yesterday).
Wall Street Journal - May 27, 2004
Missing Papers Have Reference to Rumsfeld
By GREG JAFFE and DAVID S. CLOUD Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL May 27, 2004; Page A2
WASHINGTON -- U.S. officials said that among documents regarding the Iraq-prison scandal that the Pentagon failed to give Congress is one described as a "draft update for the Secretary of Defense" on interrogation rules.
The date and contents of the document referring to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld are unknown. But Col. Thomas Pappas, the senior intelligence officer at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison, has suggested in testimony to Army investigators that it discusses a set of rules to guide interrogations in Iraq and suggests that military police should "support interrogations," said a U.S. official.
It isn't clear if the draft document ever reached the defense secretary. Congressional investigators want to review it to see if Mr. Rumsfeld was involved in crafting or at least approving tough interrogation rules for prisoners in Iraq.
Congressional staffers raised concerns last week that they hadn't received 2,000 pages of the 6,000-page Army investigation into the prison-abuse scandal, conducted by Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba. Wednesday, the Pentagon acknowledged it inadvertently failed to give the Senate Armed Services Committee a full copy of the report.
Several members of the Senate Armed Services Committee are focusing on whether senior Pentagon officials played a role in putting in place coercive interrogation practices that later figured in the abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib. Pentagon spokesman Larry DiRita said neither Mr. Rumsfeld nor any of his senior Pentagon staff played such a role.
"I think we've exhaustively concluded that they were done in theater and improved in theater," he said. "There was no oversight or approval of any procedures and techniques being used in Iraq here in the Pentagon."
Also missing are three documents relating to a visit in late summer by Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller's to Iraq to provide suggestions on improving interrogations, officials said. They include Gen. Miller's written report about a visit to Abu Ghraib, and briefings he delivered upon entering and leaving Iraq, officials said. At the time, Gen. Miller was overseeing the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and is currently in charge of all U.S. detention facilities in Iraq.
Senior U.S. officials have testified that neither Mr. Rumsfeld nor his senior staff members were formally briefed on the results of Gen. Miller's visit. In a press conference Wednesday, Mr. DiRita also said no documents were purposely withheld. "The perception that was left was unfortunate, which is that we were somehow trying to withhold something from the committee," he said. "That was certainly not the case."
The Pentagon has asked Gen. Taguba, who is in Kuwait, to send a complete copy of his report, including all attachments, to Congress. Armed Services Committee Chairman John Warner (R., Va.) said in a memo to committee members, "I continue to believe that the department is working in good faith with the committee to provide a complete copy of the Taguba Report."
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WSJ.com - May 27, 2004 9:18 a.m.
UPDATE: US Senate Got Incomplete Prison Report -Pentagon DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
WASHINGTON (AP)--The Pentagon said it inadvertently failed to give the Senate Armed Services Committee a full copy of the 6,000-page Army investigation into the prison abuse scandal.
Pentagon spokesman Lawrence Di Rita said Wednesday no critical information was withheld and that the Defense Department would submit the missing documents to the panel.
Chairman John Warner, R-Va., sent a memo to committee members Wednesday saying that he continues "to believe that the department is working in good faith with the committee to provide a complete copy of the Taguba report."
The report by Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba found "numerous incidents of sadistic, blatant and wanton criminal abuses" inflicted on Iraqis held at Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad between last October through December. The committee has held three hearings about the abuses and is planning more.
Committee staff raised concerns last week that they hadn't received 2,000 pages of the report and its annexes.
Di Rita said the committee was provided with a CD-ROM of the report and "there was a disconnect between the CD-ROM and the printed submission."
"The perception that was left was unfortunate, which is that we were somehow trying to withhold something from the committee. That was certainly not the case," he said.
In some cases, Di Rita said, the material was improperly labeled. In others, it was material that "wasn't unique to the investigation," such as a field manual, he added.
Senate staff last week released a list of missing documents directly related to the investigation, including a report by Gen. Geoffrey Miller, who, while commander of the Guantanamo Bay prison camp for terrorism suspects, toured U.S. prisons in Iraq and recommended changes in interrogation tactics. Another document was described as a draft update of Miller's visit, prepared for Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld.
Assistant Secretary of Defense Powell A. Moore sent a letter to Warner on Tuesday, saying the Pentagon has contacted Taguba in Kuwait and asked him to provide the missing material. The Pentagon was also copying "as many of the relevant documents as are available in the Pentagon" and would send them to the committee, he said.