Rights Group Says Bush Policies Created Iraq Abuse
Wed Jun 9, 2004 05:47 PM ET
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Human Rights Watch on Wednesday accused the Bush administration of creating the climate for the Iraqi prison torture scandal when it "cast the rules aside" on prisoner interrogation techniques.
The New York-based watchdog said Washington circumvented international law and spent two years covering up or ignoring reports of torture or abuse by U.S. troops in the war in Afghanistan and occupation of Iraq.
The U.S. government has denied it had a policy to mistreat detainees in its war on terrorism.
"The horrors of Abu Ghraib were not simply the acts of individual soldiers," Human Rights Watch executive director Kenneth Roth said in a statement with the 38-page "The Road to Abu Ghraib" report.
"Abu Ghraib resulted from decisions made by the Bush administration to cast the rules aside."