(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-05-02 18:21

"The Church Report is one of a dozen major reviews, assessments or investigations related to detention operations," he said. "None of them found that there was a governmental policy directing, encouraging or condoning abuse."

The report was largely disclosed in 2005, and a declassified version of the review was made public last year. Some of the documents were initially redacted because they were classified, Singh said. The government claimed that if the information were released it would cause serious damage to national security. The newly released documents are part of the Church Report not previously released.

Singh called the government's argument bogus, saying it furthered a pattern "of claiming national security as pretext for withholding information to cover up embarrassing information."

The ACLU has been highly critical of the report, saying the Pentagon didn't analyze all open abuse cases at the time. The ACLU says the report shows "enlisted medics witnessed obvious episodes of detainee abuse apparently without reporting them to superiors."

Singh said the documents make it clear that the psychologists were employed in the context of military operations. They were not there to serve as mental health providers, she said.

Ballesteros pointed to the executive summary of the report, which states that medical personnel "understood their responsibility to provide humane medical care to detainees, in accordance with US Military medical doctrine and the Geneva Conventions."

He said the report also discusses the role of behavioral science workers, who were not involved in detainee medical care or permitted access to detainees' medical records for purposes of developing interrogation strategies.

"More than 600 criminal investigations have been initiated into allegations of detainee mistreatment. More than 250 servicemembers have been held accountable for their roles in those cases," he said.

The ACLU submitted a freedom of information request in October 2003 and sued in June 2004 demanding immediate disclosure of records relating to prisoners held in facilities abroad. The litigation is ongoing.

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