WASHINGTON — The Army general who conducted a major investigation into U.S. mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners told a Senate panel Tuesday that military police acted "of their own volition" at a facility under the control of military intelligence officers.
His statement was contradicted by a senior civilian Defense Department official who told the Armed Services Committee that military intelligence did not have authority over the military police operations.
The differing accounts by the two officials muddled an already unclear picture of the lines of command at Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad. The distinction could prove significant because soldiers accused of the abuses reportedly have said that they were following orders from intelligence personnel.
Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba told lawmakers that the abuse suffered by some Iraqi detainees at the hands of soldiers was the result of poor leadership, lack of discipline and "no training whatsoever." He also agreed with Pentagon assertions that only a few individuals were involved and that the scandal does not signal a systemic problem in the military.
"We did not find any evidence of a policy or a direct order given to these soldiers to conduct what they did," Taguba said. "I believe that they did it on their own volition."
Taguba (pronounced tah-GOO-bah) said that the military leadership "from the brigade commander on down" shared the blame.
But confusion continued as to whether the soldiers were acting on orders from intelligence officials. At issue is a Nov. 19, 2003, order that placed the prison under the tactical control of the 205th Military Intelligence Brigade.
Stephen Cambone, undersecretary of defense for intelligence, told lawmakers that the order did not give the military intelligence commander authority over military police operations at the prison. Instead, it applied to control over such matters as security, force protection and living conditions for the troops, he said.
But Taguba had a different interpretation of the order, saying that it gave the military intelligence commander control of all units at Abu Ghraib, including the MPs operations.
An investigation into the involvement of military intelligence is among many that are under way. The senators also heard testimony Tuesday that Central Intelligence Agency officers may also have been involved in the abuses.
Recently published photos depicting prisoners naked and in humiliating and sexual situations have caused worldwide outrage and embarrassed the military. Seven soldiers have been criminally charged, and the first court martial is scheduled for May 19.
Committee Chairman John Warner, R-Va., said senators are close to negotiating an agreement with the Pentagon to view possibly more damaging photos and some videos of abuse that have been uncovered as part of the military investigation. It was unclear whether the pictures would be released to the public, but Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld warned last week that the content is so outrageous the photos are "hard to believe."
Vice President Richard Cheney said Tuesday that the release of the photos must be handled in a responsible fashion.
"We wouldn't want — as a result of the release of pictures and the mistreatment of that kind of information — to allow guilty parties off the hook, so that they couldn't be prosecuted," he said in a radio interview. "By the same token, you don't want to see innocent people inappropriately maligned by virtue of the release of photographs."
Asked to describe the unpublished photos, Cheney said, "It was very strong stuff, and I'll just leave it at that."
At the Senate hearing, partisan politics emerged, with Democrats grilling military leaders and some Republicans downplaying the scandal and expressing anger at media and international attention.
"I am also outraged that we have so many humanitarian do-gooders right now crawling all over these prisons, looking for human-rights violations while our troops, our heroes, are fighting and dying," said Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla.
Fellow Republican John McCain of Arizona, who sits next to Inhofe on the dais, appeared to take issue with Inhofe's comments.
In discussing the benefits of the regulations governing international conduct during war, McCain echoed the phrase "humanitarian do-gooders" and expressed his support for the Geneva Conventions.
"It seems to me . . . that we distinguish ourselves from our enemies by our treatment of our enemies," said McCain, who was brutalized as a prisoner of war during Vietnam.
Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., meanwhile, disputed the Pentagon's claim that the prison abuse was the work of a handful of people.
"The despicable actions . . . not only reek of abuse, they reek of an organized effort and methodical preparation for interrogation," he said. "The collars used on prisoners, the dogs and the cameras did not suddenly appear out of thin air."
Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said she found it difficult to believe that a rogue group of prison guards would have, on their own, chosen bizarre sexual humiliations designed to particularly humiliate Muslim men.
"It seems to me that it's far more likely that a group of out-of-control, undisciplined guards would beat up prisoners, not strip them naked and put them in a human pyramid," Collins said. Both Taguba and Lt. Gen. Lance Smith, deputy commander of U.S. Central Command, which oversees military operation in Iraq, said that the photographs of abuse were taken by digital cameras that belonged to individuals, suggesting that they were not part of an interrogation plan.
Warner, though, said he understood that the photographs were to be shown to prisoners' families as a threat.
On Tuesday, a CIA official said the agency's inspector general's office is conducting three investigations into allegations of wrongdoing involving actions in Iraq. One of the incidents occurred at Abu Ghraib, the official said, and the others were in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, confirmed earlier reports that the victim at the prison was an Iraqi officer who died while being questioned and that CIA officers had denied any mistreatment.
At the White House, spokesman Scott McClellan said that the president was briefed on Taguba's report last week and watched some of Tuesday's testimony on television.
"He wants it to be an open and transparent process, so that the world knows that when allegations like this...come to light, that America acts swiftly to bring people to justice," McClellan said.
From its headquarters in Geneva, UNICEF, the U.N. children's agency, issued a statement that it was "profoundly disturbed by news reports alleging that children may have been among those abused" in Iraq detention facilities.
According to news reports, there are allegations that boys were raped at the Abu Ghraib prison and that some children may have been tortured during interrogations.
Also Tuesday, the American Civil Liberties Union released a letter urging President Bush to comply with its seven-month-old Freedom of Information Act request on allegations of torture of detainees.
"Abu Ghraib wasn't the result of a couple of lone sadists in the military — it was a direct and easily foreseen consequence of detention policies that lack transparency and safeguards against this type of abuse," ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero said in a statement.
Meanwhile, at the Pentagon, a senior officer led a town hall meeting by praising Rumsfeld, who has been under attack.
"There's not a single human being in this government, and certainly, not in this building, who works harder or is more dedicated, or is a better patriot than is secretary Rumsfeld," said Gen. Peter Pace, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. "It's my great honor and distinction to serve on his team. I'd ask you to join me in thanking him for his leadership."
Many Democrats and newspaper editorials have recently called for Rumsfeld to resign over the prisoner abuse scandal.
Rumsfeld said last week that he would not remain in the job if he did not believe he could continue to be effective. Since that time, President Bush has praised him and said the "nation owes him a debt of gratitude."