RC was told abuse ‘part of the process’; Bush praises Rumsfeld

By: Nabil Raza

GENEVA, Switzerland: As a report disclosed Monday said the Red Cross saw American officers mistreating Iraqi prisoners by keeping them naked in total darkness in empty cells, and that up to 90 percent of Iraqi detainees were arrested by mistake, US President Bush issued a strong endorsement of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld – who assumed full responsibility of the abuse - telling him, “You are doing a superb job.”

The report by the International Committee of the Red Cross, which has special access to war zone prisons under international treaties, supports its allegations that abuse of Iraqi prisoners by American soldiers was broad and “not individual acts” — contrary to Bush's contention that the mistreatment “was the wrongdoing of a few.”

During a visit to Abu Gharib in October, Red Cross delegates witnessed “the practice of keeping persons deprived of their liberty completely naked in totally empty concrete cells and in total darkness,” the confidential report said.

“Upon witnessing such cases, the ICRC interrupted its visits and requested an explanation from the authorities. The military intelligence officer in charge of the interrogation explained that this practice was ‘part of the process'.”

It said it found evidence supporting prisoners' allegations of other forms of abuse during arrest, initial detention and interrogation. Among the evidence were burns, bruises and other injuries consistent with the abuse that prisoners alleged.

The 24-page document was confirmed by the ICRC as authentic after it was published Monday by the Wall Street Journal.

Although much of the abuse described in the report appears to have taken place in jails run by US forces, the report also describes the death of an Iraqi prisoner in custody in the British zone of Basra last September.

The victim's name is blacked out, but Britain's defense ministry said it referred to detainee Baha Musa, whose death Britain says it has been investigating since last year. The Red Cross report described him as one of nine men arrested in a Basra hotel and “made to kneel, face and hands against the ground, as if in a prayer position. The soldiers stamped on the back of the neck of those raising their head.”

His death certificate said he died of a heart attack, although witnesses saw a body with a broken nose and ribs.

In South African city of Cape Town, former President Nelson Mandela lashed out Monday at the US and Britain for the invasion of Iraq and abuse of Iraqi prisoners. He said in a special session of Parliament: “We look on with horror as reports surface of terrible abuses against the dignity of human beings held captive by invading forces in their own country.”

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