The US army general whose investigation into ill-treatment at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq found that "sadistic, blatant and wanton criminal abuses" were being inflicted on Iraqi prisoners will testify at a public hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee in Washington today. Conor O'Clery, North America Editor, reports from New York
Maj-Gen Antonio Taguba compiled his devastating report after a soldier at the prison complained on January 13th. 2004 that he had seen pictures of abuse and humiliation on a compact disc belonging to a military policeman.
The Pentagon is planning to show new images of the abuse to Congress members under restricted conditions, possibly today. Senators and Representatives may be able to view the material in a room on Capitol Hill that will be closed to the press and public.
Officials debated yesterday whether to later release all the material to the media rather than have damaging revelations dragged out over a period.
White House spokesman Mr Scott McClellan said that the Pentagon was weighing the question of privacy, as individuals shown in the pictures might take legal action, and the administration also did not want to prejudice any court martial action.
"If there's more to come, let's get it out," said Republican Senator Lindsey Graham. "For God's sake, let's talk about it because (US) men and women's lives are at stake given how we handle this."
A sample of the new pictures shown to President Bush in the Pentagon yesterday included "inappropriate actions of a sexual nature" but they stopped short of rape, a Pentagon official said.
Mr Seymour Hersh, the investigative reporter who obtained some of the pictures, said yesterday that they were taken deliberately to show to prisoners during interrogation as a threat they would be shamed in front of relatives and friends to whom they would be shown.
An International Red Cross report provided to the US government in February and published on the Wall Street Journal Internet site yesterday showed that a "practice" of abuse was tolerated by the coalition forces throughout 2003, contradicting administration officials who said that only a small number of military personal were responsible. Mr McClellan declined to say yesterday if the White House knew about the Red Cross reports before the Taguba report was completed.
He told reporters however: "We were aware of some of the issues the Red Cross raised... these issues go back for a while."
He also acknowledged that the White House was aware of Red Cross concerns before the president first saw the pictures of abuse on television on May 9th. The photographs depicting torture and sexual humiliation of prisoners have led to worldwide condemnation and calls for the resignation of Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
As the courts-martial of the seven military police charged with offences relating to the photographs get under way with the trial of Specialist Jeremy Sivits in Baghdad on May 19th, their lawyers and families have protested in the US media that they were acting under orders.
This had led to calls for the prosecution of officials in military intelligence who were in control of the prison from last November.
A leading Republican, Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, suggested that Defence Secretary Mr Rumsfeld and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Richard Myers should go.
"I think it's still in question whether Secretary of Defence Rumsfeld and, quite frankly, Gen Myers can command the respect and the trust and the confidence of the military and the American people to lead this country," he said.