Bush administration policies responsible for detainee abuse

[admin]

Bush administration policies responsible for detainee abuse
Posted: 09:20 AM ET
WASHINGTON (CNN) — Bush administration policies — not just individual
guards and interrogators — are responsible for detainee abuse in Guantanamo
Bay, Iraq, and Afghanistan, a Senate Armed Services Committee report said.

The authorization of aggressive techniques by Defense Secretary Donald
Rumfeld and other senior officials “was both a direct cause of detainee abuse
and conveyed the message that it was OK to mistreat and degrade detainees in
U.S. custody,” according to the report. — issued on Thursday by Sen. Carl
Levin, D-Michigan, the committee chairman, and ranking member Sen. John McCain,
R-Arizona.

The committee conducted a more than 18-month long investigation,
interviewing more than 70 people and reviewing hundreds of thousands of
documents. The executive summary and conclusions of the report were released on
Thursday.

Making reference former Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz’s remark
that the Abu Ghraib abuses were the result of a few “bad apples,” Levin said
“the abuses at Abu Ghraib, Gitmo and elsewhere cannot be chalked up to the
actions of a few bad apples.”

“Attempts by senior officials to pass the buck to low ranking soldiers
while avoiding any responsibility for abuses are unconscionable. The message
from top officials was clear; it was acceptable to use degrading and abusive
techniques against detainees,” Levin said.