ABU GHRAIB, Iraq — He was on the other side of the globe at the U.S. detention camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, when the now-infamous abuses at Abu Ghraib took place last fall and winter.
At the time, he had no authority in Iraq and was in charge of a different group of prisoners -- suspected terrorists and Taliban militants detained by U.S. authorities after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
But Maj. Gen. Geoffrey D. Miller, who only recently took command of U.S.-run detention facilities in Iraq, now finds himself deeply embroiled in the prison abuse scandal that has rocked the Pentagon and the Bush administration. Critics have suggested that Miller's recommendations for overhauling detention and interrogation procedures in Iraq after an inspection tour here last summer created a climate for the abuses to occur. Others said he declared it was time to "Gitmo-ize" Abu Ghraib by introducing the kind of aggressive techniques used to grill suspects in Guantanamo.
But Miller, who denies making such a declaration, casts himself as a reformer who sought to impose discipline and order on a fledgling prison system.
The Senate Armed Services Committee today will question Miller; Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, head of U.S. forces in Iraq; and Gen. John Abizaid, head of the U.S. Central Command, in its quest to determine who was responsible for the abuse.
"I'm going to want to find out chain of command, who gave the orders -- the questions are obvious," committee member Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said Tuesday.
Committee Chairman John W. Warner (R-Va.) has asked for a "discussion and legal review" by the Pentagon of interrogation techniques lawful under the Geneva Convention. Warner has requested all documentation of such interrogation techniques in Iraq and at the military detention facility at Guantanamo Bay.
Warner said he would call other witnesses in coming weeks, including L. Paul Bremer III, head of the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority; Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas J. Feith; and Maj. Gen. Barbara Fast, director of intelligence for U.S. operations in Iraq.
On Tuesday, the House Armed Services Committee held a closed session with Army Maj. Gen. Antonio M. Taguba, author of a critical report on prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib. Republicans said Taguba concluded that problems were confined to Abu Ghraib, but Democrats complained he would not testify beyond the scope of his investigation.
