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Senate Report Pins Torture on Rumsfeld

Bipartisan panel, including McCain, concludes detainee abuse not just because of 'a few bad apples'

By Drew Nelles, Newser Staff

Posted Dec 11, 2008 2:48 PM CST

(Newser) – Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other top White House officials were responsible for detainee abuse at US military prisons, a bipartisan Senate report finds. After 2 years of hearing testimony and reviewing documents, the study—released by Sens. John McCain and Carl Levin—traces controversial interrogation practices like sleep deprivation directly to high-level Bush administration decisions, the Washington Post reports.

“The abuse of detainees in US custody cannot simply be attributed to the actions of ‘a few bad apples’ acting on their own,” the report states. The report reserves scorn for a 2002 memo signed by President Bush declaring that the Geneva Conventions do not apply to Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters, and a Rumsfeld project to compile interrogation techniques based on Chinese torture methods.

[Images (4)]

[Quotes (3)]

Amnesty International stages an anti-torture demonstration through the streets of Belfast, Northern Ireland, June, 15, 2008. (AP Photo)

An unidentified detainee stands on a box with a bag on his head and wires attached to him in late 2003 at the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad, Iraq. (AP Photo)

A new Senate report links top Bush White House decisions to abusive interrogation techniques. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's staff began compiling interrogation techniques based on Chinese torture methods in 2002, a bipartisan report says. (AP Photo)

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...senior officials in the United States government solicited information on how to use aggressive techniques, redefined the law to create the appearance of their legality, and authorized their use against detainees. - Senate Armed Services Committee report

Our values and the laws governing warfare teach us to respect human dignity, maintain our integrity, and do what is right. Adherence to our values distinguishes us from our enemy. - Gen. David H. Petraeu

The Committee's report details the inexcusable link between abusive interrogation techniques used by our enemies who ignored the Geneva Conventions and interrogation policy for detainees in U.S. custody. - Sen. John McCain

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Senate Report Pins Torture on Rumsfeld