Human Rights Watch

NEW YORK, Apr 25 (IPS) - A leading human rights group demands that the U.S. government launch a sweeping inquiry into the torture of Iraqi and other prisoners by U.S. troops, and that it name a special prosecutor to probe high-ranking officials' possible role in alleged abuses.

Human Rights Watch, in a new report assailing some conclusions of previous investigations, said 'a wall of impunity surrounds the architects of the policies responsible for the larger pattern of abuses.'

'Evidence is mounting that high-ranking US civilian and military leaders -- including Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, former CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) Director George Tenet, Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, formerly the top U.S. commander in Iraq, and Major General Geoffrey Miller, the former commander of the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba -- made decisions and issued policies that facilitated serious and widespread violations of the law,' it added.

Watchdog Demands U.S. Torture Inquiry
William Fisher
IPS NEWS