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This is an archive article published on August 25, 2004

‘Rumsfeld faulted in prison abuse’

Top Pentagon officials and the military command in Iraq contributed to an environment in which prisoners were abused at Abu Ghraib, a panel ...

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Top Pentagon officials and the military command in Iraq contributed to an environment in which prisoners were abused at Abu Ghraib, a panel probing the detentions has concluded, a defence official said today.

The independent four-member panel, headed by former Defence secretary James Schlesinger, found that Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and the Joint Chiefs of Staff failed to exercise proper oversight over detention policies at prisons in Iraq and Afghanistan, and at Guantanamo Bay, the official added.

The panel, however, didn’t find that Rumsfeld or military leaders had directly ordered abuses like stripping prisoners and sexually humiliating them.

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A separate Army probe headed by Maj Gen George Fay faulted Lt Gen Ricardo Sanchez, the top US commander in Iraq then, for not addressing troubles at Abu Ghraib, an Army official said.

The report, to be released tomorrow, also found some military police used dogs to menace teenage detainees.

In Germany, the highest-ranking US soldier, Ivan Frederick, accused of abusing Iraqi prisoners reached a deal to plead guilty to some charges at his court martial in October, one of his lawyers said.

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