Neuer Untersuchungsbericht zu Irak-Folterungen

--- Das US-Verteidigungsministerium will nächste Woche einen weiteren Untersuchungsbericht zu den sadistischen Ausfällen gegen irakische Gefangene in Abu Ghraib veröffentlichen. Die Medien werden teilweise aber schon vorab mit Details gefüttert: A long-awaited report on the Abu Ghraib prison scandal will implicate about two dozen military intelligence soldiers and civilian contractors in the intimidation and sexual humiliation of Iraq war prisoners, but will not suggest wrongdoing by military brass outside the prison, senior Defense officials said Wednesday. The report will recommend disciplinary action against two senior prison officers: the colonel in charge of the military intelligence brigade that oversaw interrogations at the compound near Baghdad and a general in charge of a reserve military police brigade in charge of the prison. It also will recommend that the intelligence soldiers face criminal abuse charges similar to those lodged earlier against seven reserve military police soldiers, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity. But in the end, Defense officials said, the report implicates no one outside the prison. ... The scandal has drawn international condemnation and questions about U.S. interrogation and detention policies. It also has cast a legal cloud over U.S. moves to begin trials for detainees at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. ... But one senior Defense official said the new report, by Army Maj. Gen. George R. Fay, will make clear when it is released next week that "no one in Washington said, 'Stack people on top of each other, naked.' " ... Some on Capitol Hill said they were dismayed that the investigation failed to implicate more senior military officers or Bush administration officials. The administration has portrayed the abuses as isolated incidents committed in disregard of established procedures. But critics have questioned whether administration policies favoring more aggressive interrogations contributed to a climate in which abuses occurred and whether Fay's findings might be part of a lax Pentagon response. "I'm a little shocked, I guess, that it doesn't go higher than that," a senior congressional aide, speaking on condition of anonymity, said when told of the initial news reports, adding that the findings weren't dramatic.