Murky procedures, lack of oversight and inadequate resources led to mistakes in the way US troops treated Iraqi and Afghan detainees. But two Pentagon reports, released publicly for the first time, found no widespread mistreatment or illegal actions by the military.
A human rights organization called the reports released on Friday a whitewash that ignored countless documented accounts of detainee abuse.
One report detailed several incidents involving US special operations forces in 2003-04. It said interrogators fed some Iraqi detainees only bread and water for up to 17 days, used unapproved interrogation practices such as sleep deprivation and loud music and stripped at least one prisoner.
That report concluded the detainees' treatment was wrong but not illegal and reflected inadequate resources and lack of oversight and proper guidance rather than deliberate abuse. No military personnel were punished as a result of the investigation.
The findings were included in documents the Pentagon released to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on Friday under a Freedom of Information request. They included two major reports -- one by Army Brigadier General Richard Formica on specials operations forces in Iraq and one by Brigadier General Charles Jacoby on Afghan detainees.
While some of the incidents have been reported previously and reviewed by members of Congress, this was the first time the documents were made public. Many portions of the reports were blacked out, including specific names and locations.
"Both the Formica and the Jacoby reports demonstrate that the government is really not taking the investigation of detainee abuse seriously," said Amrit Singh, an ACLU attorney.
Singh called the reports "a whitewash." In particular, she said, there have been numerous documents showing that special operations forces abused detainees, but Formica only reviewed a few cases.
Pentagon spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Mark Ballesteros said: "We've undertaken significant steps to investigate, hold people accountable and change our operations as appropriate. This is all part of our effort to be transparent and show that we investigate all allegations thoroughly, and we take them seriously."
Less than a week ago, three detainees committed suicide at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility in Cuba, highlighting accusations of abuse. A little more than two years ago, the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal in Iraq came to light, with its graphic photographs of detainees being sexually humiliated and threatened with dogs.
The US administration has been criticized internationally for abusive treatment of detainees. Late last year, Congress forced Bush to accept a ban on the cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of prisoners by US troops.
Administration officials have said the US uses legal interrogation techniques -- not torture -- to gain information that could head off terror attacks.
The Formica review recommended better training, new standards for detention centers and updated policies for detainee operations, among other things. The final report is dated November 2004.
Formica reviewed three allegations of abuse by special operations forces who held detainees in temporary facilities, often hastily set up near where they were captured. He found that overall conditions "did not comport with the spirit of the principles set forth in the Geneva Conventions," which require humane treatment of prisoners.
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