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(回答先: 監督責任者に不手際 虐待調査の少将証言（共同通信） 投稿者 シジミ 日時 2004 年 5 月 12 日 06:24:32)
Taguba: No direct order given for abuse
'I believe that they did it on their own volition'
http://edition.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/05/11/politics.abuse.main/index.html
Tuesday, May 11, 2004 Posted: 1936 GMT (0336 HKT)
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The U.S. Army general in charge of the investigation into abuse of some Iraqi prisoners blamed "a failure of leadership" for the situation, and said there was no evidence that the soldiers involved were acting under orders.
Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba on Tuesday told the Senate Armed Services Committee that he did not find any evidence "written or otherwise" that the soldiers involved in the abuse were ordered to soften up prisoners for interrogation.
"We did not find any evidence of a policy or a direct order given to these soldiers to conduct what they did. I believe that they did it on their own volition and I believe that they collaborated with several MI (military intelligence) interrogators at the lower level," Tugaba said.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, asked if the acts seen in the pictures were the result of a handful of soldiers "having a good time in a perverted way" or whether they were acting on orders from someone else.
"I would say they were probably influenced by others, but not necessarily directed specifically by others," Taguba said.
Tugaba said the root of the problem was a "failure in leadership ... from the brigade commander on down."
"Lack of discipline, no training whatsoever and no supervision. Supervisory omission was rampant."
In his report, Taguba concluded that U.S. military police in Iraq inflicted "sadistic, blatant and wanton criminal abuse" on prisoners in their custody numerous times. Seven soldiers face criminal charges in the case and six others, all officers or noncommissioned officers, have been reprimanded. (Gallery: Abuse at Abu Ghraib -- contains graphic images, viewer discretion advised)
In Tuesday's hearing, Sen. Carl Levin, D-Michigan, said the abuse allegations "reek of an organized effort and methodical preparation for interrogation."
"The collars used on prisoners, the dogs and the cameras did not suddenly appear out of thin air," Levin said. "These acts of abuse were not the spontaneous actions of lower ranking enlisted personnel who lacked the proper supervision."
Some of those implicated in the case have said they were told to prepare the prisoners for questioning by military intelligence officers at Abu Ghraib. (Gallery: The military's report on abuse allegations in Iraq)
Taguba was accompanied by Stephen A. Cambone, undersecretary of defense for intelligence, and U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. Lance L. Smith, deputy commander with U.S. Central Command.
Cambone said that the U.S. government "made clear that the Geneva Conventions apply to our activities in that country" and said that "members of our armed forces should have been aware of that."
But he said that there was a breakdown at the Abu Ghraib prison, which is being investigated.
Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski was in charge of the 800th Military Police Brigade, which operated 12 prison facilities in Iraq, including Abu Ghraib. Karpinski, Cambone said, was "as best as I understand it ... not frequently at Abu Ghraib."
Karpinski has been relieved of her command and reprimanded.
In an interview with CNN's Aaron Brown, Karpinski said that although the MPs accused of abuse belonged to a company under one of her battalions, they were taking their orders from military intelligence. (CNN Access: Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski)
Taguba told the senators that Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the commanding general of U.S. troops in Iraq, put Abu Ghraib under the command of a military intelligence unit in November 2003, but Cambone testified that the MI commander was only in charge of the facility, not of the MP units.
Taguba said he found "friction" between Karpinski, and the MI brigade commander, Col. Thomas Pappas, and was concerned because information about what was going on in the prison had not reached the MP brigade command.
"We were puzzled about the fact that none of this stuff was going above the battalion commander," he said.
While Taguba said his investigation had found no evidence that knowledge of the abuse went above the brigade level, he pointed out that his query looked into the military police angle only and that a separate investigation into the military intelligence side was under way.
He told the senators that none of several other detention facilities under the same brigade command had problems of the type found at Abu Ghraib and that only Abu Ghraib had been placed under the control of military intelligence.
A Red Cross report delivered to U.S. and British officials in February warned that prisoners considered likely sources of intelligence faced coercion that in some cases was "tantamount to torture." (Red Cross: Treatment of Iraqis 'tantamount to torture')
Taguba testified that he had not read the Red Cross report, but agreed with its finding that the abuse was systemic. He said he was told that some inmates were moved around to avoid visits by Red Cross officials.
Republican Sen. Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma said he was not the only one who was "more outraged at the outrage" than by the treatment of Iraqi prisoners, some of whom "have American blood probably on their hands."
"The idea that these prisoners -- you know, they're not there for traffic violations. If they're in cell block 1A or 1B, these prisoners -- they're murderers, they're terrorists, they're insurgents," Inhofe said. "Many of them probably have American blood on their hands. And here we're so concerned about the treatment of those individuals."
On the other side of the aisle, Democrat Mark Dayton of Michigan never asked a question during his time, instead using it to accuse Pentagon officials of sanitizing the abuse and obscuring the truth.
"That's why the pictures have been so important," he said. "The pictures showed us the truth. ... We were told there were papers and orders ... and everyone followed those orders except for a few people who did very bad things unbeknownst to anyone else who were all doing what they were supposed to be doing to save American lives."
"Those pictures were disruptive," he added, "because they defy that sanitizing."
But Graham dismissed the partisan wrangling, saying he believed an investigation into prison abuse should "be bringing us together and not tearing us apart."
He directly asked Taguba how he would feel if Saddam Hussein were treated in the way some Iraqi prisoners were.
"We still have to follow the tenets of international law," Taguba said.
Photo controversy
Tuesday's session took place as Democrats and Republicans tried to establish whether and how to release to members of Congress digital video clips and possibly hundreds of additional pictures of the abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad.
Photographs of naked, hooded Iraqi prisoners being sexually humiliated stirred anger at home and abroad, prompting President Bush to publicly apologize for their treatment. (Poll: Bush approval hits new lows; chart of poll results)
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld revealed during testimony last week that hundreds of other photographs existed, as well as digital video. (Rumsfeld tells Congress of his 'failure')
Senate leaders said that there is broad bipartisan agreement that the images should be made available to members of the Senate, but said that they do not want to take possession of that material until the rules under which senators will view them are properly established.
"Once the question of these pictures coming up here was raised, I decided this is an institutional problem," said Armed Services Committee Chairman John Warner, who said he has asked the Pentagon not to send the pictures up until the Senate is ready.
Lawyers for Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, Minority Leader Tom Daschle, Warner and ranking committee Democrat Carl Levin are now examining the legal issues around the release of the pictures and videos, a process that could take all of Tuesday at least.
"We're not starting this game until we know how it ends," said a senior Frist aide.
Senate leaders also said that a decision to release the photographs to the public should be made by the Pentagon, no matter how strongly members of Congress may feel about the issue.
The senate leaders also are insistent that when the Senate is done looking at the photos and video, they will promptly be returned to the Pentagon.
"If and when this is going to be released to the public, the Senate is not going to have a role in it," said the aide.
Other developments
The Senate voted 92 to 0 on Monday for a resolution "condemning the abuse of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison [and] urging a full and complete investigation."
Nearly three-quarters of Americans surveyed said the mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. soldiers depicted in widely broadcast photographs was unjustified under any circumstances, according to a CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll released Monday. But few respondents directly blame Bush or Rumsfeld for the incidents. (Poll: 73 percent say Iraqi abuse unjustified)
President Bush stood beside his embattled defense secretary Monday, praising Rumsfeld for "courageously leading our nation in the war against terror." Bush said Rumsfeld was "doing a superb job" after a meeting at the Pentagon. (Bush backs Rumsfeld)
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