PENTAGON'S investigations of abuses: blatant example of whitewashing: congressional Republicans accept systematic violations or human rights

More Excuses (washingtonpost.com): "More Excuses

Sunday, March 13, 2005; Page B06

THE PENTAGON'S investigations of its own abuses of detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere have taken on a predictable pattern. Officials compile voluminous reports -- there have now been 10 -- detailing shocking mistreatment, widespread violations of laws and the Geneva Conventions, and failures by senior military commanders and civilian officials up to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld. They then conclude there was 'no policy of abuse' and duck the question of whether anyone above the low-ranking personnel now being prosecuted should be held accountable.

The report delivered to Congress last week by Vice Adm. Albert T. Church III, which was intended to fill the gaps of previous reviews, provides a blatant example of this whitewashing. Though it comprises 360 pages, the Pentagon released only a 21-page executive summary. This euphemistically describes "missed opportunities" in the management of interrogation of detainees but insists -- directly contradicting at least three previous Pentagon reports -- that these did not contribute to the 70 cases of proven abuse, including six deaths, that it covers.
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Congress could put a stop to this bureaucratic cover-up, but despite loud public protestations, its Republican leadership appears not to have the stomach to do so. Sen. John W. Warner (R-Va.), chairman of the Armed Services Committee, once vowed to pursue the prisoner abuse investigation wherever it led, but Thursday's hearing was the first he had scheduled on the matter in more than six months. Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) has angrily warned against limiting punishment only to low-ranking personnel; he didn't participate in the latest hearing. Meanwhile, Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) continues to refuse a request by Democratic senators for an investigation into credible reports of torture, abuse and homicide by the CIA in a clandestine network of overseas prisons, a scandal for which there has been no public accounting, much less accountability. Willingly or not, congressional Republicans are identifying themselves as a party ready to accept systematic American violations of human rights.