"Abu Ghraib resulted from decisions made by the Bush administration to cast the rules aside," said Roth

CAIRO, June 10 (IslamOnline.net) – By deciding to circumvent international law and undermine the rules of torture, the U.S. administration’s policies predictably led to the torture and mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison, a new report by the New York-based Human Rights Watch revealed Wednesday, June 9.

Entitled "The Road to Abu Ghraib," the 38-page report examines how the Bush administration adopted a deliberate policy of permitting illegal interrogation techniques and then spent two years covering up or ignoring reports of torture and other abuse by U.S. troops, according to the HRW website.

"The horrors of Abu Ghraib were not simply the acts of individual soldiers," said Kenneth Roth, HRW executive director.

"Abu Ghraib resulted from decisions made by the Bush administration to cast the rules aside."

The abuse scandal exploded onto the world stage on April 29 after the CBS news network published several graphic photos  of Iraqi detainees tortured and sexually abused by  U.S. soldiers.

Circumventing Law

The international human rights watchdog maintained that administration policies created the climate for Abu Ghraib in three ways.

The new report found that "in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, the Bush administration decided that the war on terror permitted the United States to circumvent the restraints of international law. The Geneva Conventions were sidestepped as obsolete.

"Lawyers from the Pentagon, the Justice Department, and the White House Counsel’s office asserted that the president was not bound by   U.S.and international laws prohibiting torture."

Consequently, the U.S. began to create offshore, off-limits prisons such as Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and maintained other detainees in "undisclosed locations."

The Bush administration also sent terrorism suspects without legal process to countries where information was beaten out of them, according to the press release about the report on the organization’s website.

The Washington Post unveiled Tuesday, June 8, a newly obtained memo from the Justice Department's office of legal counsel advising the Pentagon that torturing detainees outside the U.S. "may be justified" and that anti-torture international laws "may be unconstitutional" in interrogations related to the so-called "war on terror."

Coercive Methods

The HRW report said the  U.S., secondly, "employed coercive methods to inflict pain and humiliation on detainees to 'soften them up' for interrogation.

"These methods included holding detainees in painful stress positions; depriving them of sleep and light for prolonged periods; exposing them to extremes of heat, cold, noise and light; hooding them; and holding them naked."

These techniques are forbidden by prohibitions against torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment contained in international human rights law, the laws of armed conflict, and the U.S. military's own long-standing regulations, said the HRW.

Denial Policy

Third, until the publication of the Abu Ghraib photographs, the administration officials took at best a "see no evil, hear no evil" approach to reports of detainee mistreatment, it added.

From the earliest days of the war in  Afghanistan and the occupation of Iraq, the  U.S. government has covered up or failed to act on repeated, serious allegations of torture and abuse.

The Bush administration has denied having a policy to torture or abuse detainees.

HRW called on President Bush to provide evidence for those denials by publicly releasing all relevant government documents.

The American New Yorker magazine dropped a bombshell Sunday, May 16, saying the torture was okayed by U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

Iraqi prisoners who were set free from Abu Ghraib prison had called for issuing an international arrest warrant for Rumsfeld and his trial over their abuse.

The international watchdog also urged the administration to detail the steps being taken to ensure that these abusive practices do not continue, and to prosecute vigorously all those responsible for ordering or condoning this abuse.

"Everyone has seen the Abu Ghraib pictures," said HRW chief.

"It’s time President Bush provides the full picture of  U.S. policy on torture."

In a damning report presented to the administration in February, U.S. Major General Antonio Taguba found numerous "sadistic, blatant and wanton criminal abuses"  at a U.S.-run prison complex near  Baghdad .

The Washington Post on Friday, May 21, a new photo gallery and a video clip of Iraqis being beaten and sexually humiliated and sworn testimonies by assaulted prisoners. (Click here to read the statements).