Author of prison abuse report to testify
Lawmakers discuss how to handle photos
From Joe Johns and Steve Turnham
CNN Washington Bureau
 |  Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba is the author of the Army report looking at how Iraqi detainees were treated at the Abu Ghraib prison. |
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 White House, Pentagon debating whether to release all photos to public.
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 Profiles of the seven U.S. soldiers accused of abusing Iraqi prisoners.
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 President Bush praises Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
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 Gallery: Abuse at Abu Ghraib prison (Contains graphic content. Viewer discretion advised.)
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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The author of a 53-page Army report critical of the "sadistic, blatant and wanton criminal abuse" of some Iraqi prisoners is scheduled to testify before a Senate committee Tuesday.
Meanwhile, top Democrats and Republicans are trying to establish whether and how to release to Congress digital video clips and about 100 additional pictures of the abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad.
Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba will be the first witness when the Senate Armed Services Committee convenes at 9:30 a.m. An afternoon session is to include testimony from other military officers and will focus on intelligence issues, according to a press release.
The committee, along with its House counterpart, heard testimony last week from Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Richard Myers and others.
Taguba concluded that U.S. military police in Iraq inflicted "sadistic, blatant and wanton criminal abuse" on prisoners in their custody numerous times. Seven soldiers face criminal charges in the case and six others, all officers or noncommissioned officers, have been reprimanded.
Some of those implicated in the case have said they were told to prepare the prisoners for questioning by military intelligence officers at the Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad.
A Red Cross report delivered to U.S. and British officials in February warned that prisoners considered likely sources of intelligence faced coercion that in some cases was "tantamount to torture."
Photographs of naked, hooded Iraqi prisoners being sexually humiliated stirred anger at home and abroad, prompting President Bush to publicly declare he was sorry for their treatment. But Bush has spurned calls for Rumsfeld's resignation, praising his performance as "superb" during a visit to the Pentagon on Monday.
On Capitol Hill, the focus was on the possible release of more photos as well as digital video.
While there is broad bipartisan agreement that the additional photos and video of the prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib should be made available to members of the Senate, leaders said Monday evening that they do not want to take possession of that material until the rules under which senators will view them are properly established.
"Once the question of these pictures coming up here was raised, I decided this is an institutional problem," said Armed Services Committee Chairman John Warner, who said he has asked the Pentagon not to send the pictures up until the Senate is ready.
Lawyers for Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, Minority Leader Tom Daschle, Warner and ranking committee Democrat Carl Levin are now examining the legal issues around the release of the pictures and videos, a process that could take all of Tuesday at least.
"We're not starting this game until we know how it ends," said a senior Frist aide.
Senate leaders are adamant that however strongly members feel that the material should also be released to the general public -- and most senators believe that should happen -- that decision is the Pentagon's alone. The Senate leaders also are insistent that when the Senate is done looking at the photos and video, they will promptly be returned to the Pentagon.
"If and when this is going to be released to the public, the Senate is not going to have a role in it," said the aide.
The senators' concerns are two-fold: first that the release of the material might compromise ongoing prosecutions of those involved in the abuse; and secondly to avoid any repercussions from the devastating effect the new material is expected to have on world opinion.
Off the Senate chamber, leading senators braced for the worst but said that it is better to get the material out and take the hit, than endure the slow drip of new photos emerging every day in the media.
"They're going to get out, obviously," said Armed Services member Wayne Allard, R-Colorado. "They're out there, people know they're out there, and there's no reason to hold them back."
"Sooner or later they're going to have to be released," said Sen. Pat Roberts, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, which also plans hearings into the abuse. "They'll come out piecemeal or you can have full transparency and get it over with."
