Senator calls for Congressional Probe into US Torture - Republicans Against it

A senior US senator called for a congressional probe into the role played by US intelligence operatives in the prisoner abuse scandals in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Democratic Senator John Rockefeller said that while there have so far been at least 10 separate internal inquiries into prison abuse scandals involving US forces overseas, the probes have been limited in scope and have paid only cursory attention to intelligence matters. "There has been no review of the fundamental legal and operational issues that apply to the entire intelligence community," he said on the Senate floor, during debate on the nomination of career diplomat John Negroponte to become US director of national intelligence. "Congress should play the role of creating a set of consistent standards on how to treat foreign soldiers in US custody," he said. "Intelligence officers in the field are not provided with clear guidelines for effective and legal interrogation," said Rockefeller, the senior Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee. He continued: "I'm gravely concerned that this lack of clear and cohesive policies has led not only to numerous cases of prisoner abuse and death but also ineffective interrogations of prisoners in US custody." US military members have been accused -- and some lower-ranking service members court-marshaled -- for abusing and humiliating detainees overseas, including at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. Rockefeller made his call for Senate support for a new investigation as an amendment to emergency legislation being debated in the US Senate this week on funding US military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. In response, the Republican chairman of the Intelligence Committee, Pat Roberts, strongly rejected the notion that the abuse scandals had not already been exhaustively probed. [more]