WASHINGTON/MANNHEIM (Reuters) - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld came under fire on Tuesday from a high-level inquiry into the Abu Ghraib prison scandal but a U.S. military judge ruled he did not have to testify at a trial arising from the abuse of Iraqi prisoners.
A four-member panel headed by former Defense Secretary James Schlesinger issued a report accusing the chain of command from Rumsfeld down of leadership failures that created conditions for the abuse late last year that sparked anti-American outrage across the world.
Schlesinger described the situation at the U.S.-run Baghdad prison as "'Animal House' on the night shift," a reference to a 1970s U.S. film about riotous behavior at a student boarding house.
But he said it was clear that Rumsfeld had issued no orders for the mistreatment of prisoners and direct responsibility ended with field commanders in Iraq.
"Command failures were compounded by poor advice provided by staff officers with responsibility for overseeing battlefield functions related to detention and interrogation operations," said the report, commissioned by Rumsfeld in May.
"Military and civilian leaders at the Pentagon share this burden of responsibility."
Seven military police personnel have been charged so far in connection with the abuse at Abu Ghraib, which became public in April when photographs emerged of naked, hooded Iraqi prisoners being sexually humiliated and threatened with dogs.
In Mannheim, Germany, the judge hearing some of the cases, James Pohl, dismissed a motion brought by one of the accused, Sgt. Javal Davis, to force Rumsfeld to testify.
One of Davis's lawyers, Paul Bergrin, referred to memos which he said showed Rumsfeld had approved hooding and stripping of prisoners, who could also be put in stress positions and subjected to "physical conduct."
RUMSFELD "APPROVED TECHNIQUES"
"As insurgencies (in Iraq) increased, the need for actionable intelligence increased. These techniques were approved by Donald Rumsfeld," Bergrin said. He and other defense lawyers say their clients were following orders to break inmates for interrogation.
One of the seven and the highest-ranking among them, Staff Sergeant Ivan Frederick, has reached a deal to plead guilty to some charges at his court martial in Baghdad in October, lawyer Gary Myers told reporters.
"He has, unlike many, accepted responsibility for corrupt behavior generated by the circumstances that existed in Abu Ghraib," Myers said.
Shortly after the scandal erupted President Bush rejected calls for Rumsfeld's resignation, saying the defense secretary was doing a "superb job." Bush also described the abuse as the work of "a small number" of soldiers.
The Schlesinger panel however said in its report that 300 cases of abuses being investigated, many beyond Abu Ghraib. "So the abuses were not limited to a few individuals." He said there was "sadism" by some Americans at Abu Ghraib.
The report said interrogation policies in Iraq were inadequate and deficient, and changes made by Rumsfeld between December 2002 and April 2003 in what techniques were permitted contributed to uncertainties in the field as to what was allowed and what was not.
The report said an expanded list of more coercive techniques that Rumsfeld allowed for al Qaeda and Taliban suspects held in Guantanamo Bay "migrated to Afghanistan and Iraq, where they were neither limited nor safeguarded."
A senior Army official said that a separate investigation headed by Maj. Gen. George Fay would fault Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, at the time the top U.S. commander in Iraq, for leadership failures for not addressing troubles at Abu Ghraib.
The Fay report, to be released on Wednesday, found Sanchez and his staff were preoccupied with combating an escalating insurgency and did not focus on the festering problems at Abu Ghraib, the Army official said.
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