Lawmakers Pursue Prisoner Abuse Issue

[maddezmom]

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Before Congress goes into recess at the end of the month, Senate Armed Services Committee (news - web sites) Chairman John Warner wants the Pentagon (news - web sites) to provide witnesses for another public hearing into the issue.


The Virginia Republican has held three public hearings since May — calling Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and other high-ranking civilian and uniformed officials. But he put the issue on the back burner for more than a month as he worked to shepherd defense spending legislation through the Senate


His committee got a closed-door, classified briefing Thursday on where several Defense Department investigations into abuse now stand some 2 1/2 months after the scandal exploded in the media with pictures of Iraqis naked, hooded and being mistreated by American soldiers.


The committee also was being briefed on previous International Committee of the Red Cross reports into mistreatment of Iraqis. The House Armed Services Committee had a similar briefing Wednesday and Rep. Ellen O. Tauscher, D-Calif., blasted the Defense Department afterward, saying the documents were so long in coming they were relatively useless.

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more:http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=536&ncid=536&e=8&u=/ap/20040715/ap_on_go_co/prisoner_abuse