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Red Cross says it urged U.S. action on prison


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U.S. soldiers patrol outside the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad.
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The Senate Intelligence Committee will meet behind closed doors to discuss Iraq prisoner abuse.

Iraqis protest outside Abu Ghraib, while the new commander of U.S. prisons apologizes for the abuse of detainees.
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(CNN) -- With new images surfacing in the media of possible U.S. abuse against Iraqi prisoners, the International Committee for the Red Cross said Thursday it had repeatedly asked American authorities to take "corrective action" at the Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad.

"Some measures have already been taken," said Red Cross spokeswoman Antonella Notari, without revealing any of her agency's recommendations.

"I do think that our recommendations were taken seriously, and I do think that now, yet even more, there are other measures that are being planned. And we do, of course, intend to continue our visits."

The Washington Post on Thursday published more photos that may be new evidence of U.S. soldiers mistreating Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib.

One shows a female soldier holding a leash tethered to the neck of a naked Iraqi prisoner lying on the ground. Another photo shows an Iraqi prisoner chained to a bed frame with women's underwear covering his face.

The initial photographs from Abu Ghraib first appeared last week on the CBS program "60 Minutes II." Those showed naked Iraqi prisoners being forced to simulate homosexual acts and form human pyramids as American troops watched. One also showed a cloaked prisoner standing on a box with wires attached to his hands.

The images have been shown around the world, casting a negative light on American soldiers at a time when Iraqis are expressing increasing frustration with the U.S. occupation.

Notari said she did not want to compare the pictures with her agency's findings because she said it would be misleading.

"The prisoners were able to speak with us in total privacy, and based on these discussions, we've been able to make very firm recommendations to the U.S. authorities in a repeated manner," she said.

Notari said the Red Cross has visited the prison since last summer when U.S. forces began using it to house Iraqi detainees. The organization, under a mandate from the Geneva Convention, visits all prisons housing Iraqi detainees across the country.

She said that the Red Cross was aware of the situation at Abu Ghraib but that it does not issue reports to the public.

"It certainly was preoccupying for us, extremely concerning, and we had to call for very serious corrective action, so I hope that indicates of course that we were aware of the situation and that we had acted on it," she said.

"We try and work and change the situation on the spot in the prison where it happens. It doesn't mean that we are always immediately effective. But what it does mean is that there is an independent, mutual humanitarian organization who continuously stays where it happens, who continuously follows up with prisoners."

Meanwhile, a bipartisan group of senators is urging the Pentagon to demolish the Abu Ghraib prison to exorcise what has become a symbol of Saddam Hussein's torture chambers and an embarrassing episode for the U.S. military. (Full story)


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