A new U.S. military report concludes that top Pentagon officials did not direct or encourage the abuse of prisoners in U.S. custody.
Government officials who have read the report say it blames the abuse on low-level leadership and confusion over interrogation rules that were changed multiple times.
Vice Admiral Albert Church conducted a review of U.S. prisoner interrogation techniques that led to the report. He will present his findings at a hearing of the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee Thursday.
The Washington Post newspaper says the report largely summarizes previous military probes, and sheds little new light on the ongoing prisoner abuse controversy.
Two civil rights groups recently sued Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, saying he approved a list of rough interrogation techniques and did nothing to stop the abuse of prisoners once he learned about it.
Some information for this report provided by AP.