Official: Probe preceded abuse charges

A committee chairman wants answers from Army officials.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The U.S. military did a "top-level review" last fall of how its detention centers in Iraq were run, months before commanders first were told about the sexual humiliation and abuse of Iraqis that has created an international uproar, a Pentagon official said.
Larry Di Rita, the top spokesman for Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, said Monday the review was done at the request of Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the senior American commander in Iraq.
Di Rita did not say what prompted the review. He said it "drew certain conclusions," which later were taken into account by Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba, who began an investigation Jan. 31, focusing on an unidentified soldier's report of prisoner mistreatment at Abu Ghraib prison.
That second probe led to findings of blatant and sadistic abuse by U.S. military police and perhaps others. It has drawn wide condemnation, particularly with the publication of photos documenting the mistreatment.
Di Rita did not disclose the earlier review's findings, and he said he could not disclose what Taguba found because his report is classified and is under review by senior officials.
Containing controversy
Di Rita, seeking to contain the prisoner abuse controversy, provided a time line of the military's response to the reported abuse at Abu Ghraib. He said it first came to the attention of commanders in Iraq when an unidentified soldier reported it to his superiors Jan. 13. The next day, Sanchez ordered a criminal investigation, and since then four other probes have begun, Di Rita said.
The only one of the five dealing directly with the role of military intelligence officials in prisoner operations was opened April 23 by a senior Army intelligence official, Di Rita said. The rest deal more broadly with prison operations or the role of military police.
Response
President Bush urged Rumsfeld on Monday to quickly get to the bottom of the Abu Ghraib scandal and to ensure that American soldiers found guilty of misbehavior are appropriately punished.
Bush, in an interview Monday with The Detroit News, the Detroit Free Press and Booth Newspapers, said he had been "shaken" by the reports of prisoner abuse "because I know that this doesn't reflect the values of our country."
Members of Congress urged quick action also. But Di Rita said, "It's going to take some time to sort through exactly what the facts were."
The chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Sen. John Warner, R-Va., summoned Army officials to face his panel today.
Another Republican, Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, said she fears that photos depicting Iraqi prisoners in U.S. custody apparently being sexually humiliated and physically abused, which have been widely broadcast on TV, could incite more violence against American troops in Iraq.
In early February, the Army inspector general began a review of U.S. detention facilities throughout Iraq and Afghanistan, at about the time the chief of the Army Reserve, Lt. Gen. James R. Helmly, began an assessment of training for his MPs and military intelligence personnel, Di Rita said.
Di Rita said repeatedly that he could provide no information about allegations that private contractors were involved in the abusive situation at the Abu Ghraib prison.
"I'll tell you right now, I have nothing to say about that. I just don't know anything about it," he said.
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