The 9/11 commission wasn't alone in unveiling a report in Washington today. At a last-minute hearing, sure to be overshadowed by the 9/11 findings, the Army inspector general released the results of an investigation into prisoner abuse in Iraq and Afghanistan:
"The U.S. military has found a total of 94 cases of confirmed or alleged abuse of prisoners by U.S. soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan since the fall of 2001, the Army's inspector general said Thursday in a long-awaited report made public at a hastily called Senate hearing."
"The Pentagon had refused until now to give a total number of abuse allegations since the prisoner abuse scandal broke this spring. The 94 number is significantly higher than all other previous estimates given by Pentagon officials."
"The inspector general investigation, ordered Feb. 10 after the allegations of abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq came to the attention of top Army officials in Washington, concluded that there were no systemic problems that contributed to the abuse. In some cases, the report found, the abuse was abetted or facilitated by officers not following proper procedures."
"In contrast to its own findings, however, the Army report also cites a February report from the International Committee for the Red Cross that alleged that 'methods of ill treatment' were 'used in a systematic way' by the U.S. military in Iraq."
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