"Missing Papers Have Reference to Rumsfeld"

Greg Jaffe and David Cloud, Wall Street Journal

WASHINGTON — U.S. officials said that among documents regarding the
Iraq-prison scandal that the Pentagon failed to give Congress is one
described as a "draft update for the Secretary of Defense" on
interrogation rules.

The date and contents of the document referring to Defense Secretary
Donald Rumsfeld are unknown. But Col. Thomas Pappas, the senior
intelligence officer at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison, has suggested in
testimony to Army investigators that it discusses a set of rules to
guide interrogations in Iraq and suggests that military police should
"support interrogations," said a U.S. official.It isn't clear if the draft document ever reached the defense
secretary. Congressional investigators want to review it to see if
Mr. Rumsfeld was involved in crafting or at least approving tough
interrogation rules for prisoners in Iraq.

Congressional staffers raised concerns last week that they hadn't
received 2,000 pages of the 6,000-page Army investigation into the
prison-abuse scandal, conducted by Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba.
Wednesday, the Pentagon acknowledged it inadvertently failed to give
the Senate Armed Services Committee a full copy of the report.

Several members of the Senate Armed Services Committee are focusing
on whether senior Pentagon officials played a role in putting in
place coercive interrogation practices that later figured in the
abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib. Pentagon spokesman Larry DiRita
said neither Mr. Rumsfeld nor any of his senior Pentagon staff played
such a role.

"I think we've exhaustively concluded that they were done in theater
and improved in theater," he said. "There was no oversight or
approval of any procedures and techniques being used in Iraq here in
the Pentagon."

Also missing are three documents relating to a visit in late summer
by Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller's to Iraq to provide suggestions on
improving interrogations, officials said. They include Gen. Miller's
written report about a visit to Abu Ghraib, and briefings he
delivered upon entering and leaving Iraq, officials said. At the
time, Gen. Miller was overseeing the U.S. detention facility at
Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and is currently in charge of all U.S.
detention facilities in Iraq.

Senior U.S. officials have testified that neither Mr. Rumsfeld nor
his senior staff members were formally briefed on the results of Gen.
Miller's visit. In a press conference Wednesday, Mr. DiRita also said
no documents were purposely withheld. "The perception that was left
was unfortunate, which is that we were somehow trying to withhold
something from the committee," he said. "That was certainly not the
case."

The Pentagon has asked Gen. Taguba, who is in Kuwait, to send a
complete copy of his report, including all attachments, to Congress.
Armed Services Committee Chairman John Warner (R., Va.) said in a
memo to committee members, "I continue to believe that the department
is working in good faith with the committee to provide a complete
copy of the Taguba Report."

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WSJ.com - May 27, 2004 9:18 a.m.

UPDATE: US Senate Got Incomplete Prison Report -Pentagon
DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

WASHINGTON (AP)--The Pentagon said it inadvertently failed to give
the Senate Armed Services Committee a full copy of the 6,000-page
Army investigation into the prison abuse scandal.

Pentagon spokesman Lawrence Di Rita said Wednesday no critical
information was withheld and that the Defense Department would submit
the missing documents to the panel.

Chairman John Warner, R-Va., sent a memo to committee members
Wednesday saying that he continues "to believe that the department is
working in good faith with the committee to provide a complete copy
of the Taguba report."

The report by Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba found "numerous incidents of
sadistic, blatant and wanton criminal abuses" inflicted on Iraqis
held at Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad between last October through
December. The committee has held three hearings about the abuses and
is planning more.

Committee staff raised concerns last week that they hadn't received
2,000 pages of the report and its annexes.

Di Rita said the committee was provided with a CD-ROM of the report
and "there was a disconnect between the CD-ROM and the printed
submission."

"The perception that was left was unfortunate, which is that we were
somehow trying to withhold something from the committee. That was
certainly not the case," he said.

In some cases, Di Rita said, the material was improperly labeled. In
others, it was material that "wasn't unique to the investigation,"
such as a field manual, he added.

Senate staff last week released a list of missing documents directly
related to the investigation, including a report by Gen. Geoffrey
Miller, who, while commander of the Guantanamo Bay prison camp for
terrorism suspects, toured U.S. prisons in Iraq and recommended
changes in interrogation tactics. Another document was described as a
draft update of Miller's visit, prepared for Defense Secretary Donald
H. Rumsfeld.

Assistant Secretary of Defense Powell A. Moore sent a letter to
Warner on Tuesday, saying the Pentagon has contacted Taguba in Kuwait
and asked him to provide the missing material. The Pentagon was also
copying "as many of the relevant documents as are available in the
Pentagon" and would send them to the committee, he said.