No Policy Of Abuse At Abu Ghraib But Failure Of Leadership: Outside Report

WASHINGTON, Aug 24 (AFP) - Mistreatment of Iraqi detainees by US soldiers at Abu Ghraib prison resulted from a failure of leadership and discipline and was not official policy, according to a report released Tuesday.
"There is no evidence of a policy of abuse promulgated by senior officials or military authorities," the outside report commissioned by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said.
The report said the abuses, which included naked, hooded detainees photographed in sexually humiliating positions, "represent deviant behavior and a failure of military leadership and discipline."
"Still," the report continued, "the abuses were not just the failure of some individuals to follow known standards, and they are more than the failure of a few leaders to enforce proper discipline."
The committee was appointed by Rumsfeld to look into the abuses at the prison between October and December 2003. Pictures of the abused detainees were widely published in the media and led to sharp criticism of US treatment of detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan and at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
It was headed by former defense secretary James Schlesinger.