US Committee to hold hearing into prisoner abuse

The US Senate Armed Services Committee said today it would hold a public hearing into the allegations of abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib “at the first opportunity”.

Committee chairman John Warner said Donald Rumsfeld would be called to give evidence.

Speaking at a news briefing at the Pentagon, Mr Rumsfeld said he “hoped” the abuse was an isolated incident.

He said it was “premature” to know if there had been similar incidents in other prisons run by the US military, including those in Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay.

He said he did not know whether the abuse that had been documented amounted to torture.

“All of our rules, all of our procedures, all of our training, is against the abuse of people that are detained,” he said

The episode was “unhelpful - in a fundamental way, it’s harmful“, he said.

“It is, we hope, an isolated case.”

He added: “We’re taking and will continue to take whatever steps are necessary to hold accountable those that may have violated the code of military conduct and betrayed the trust placed in them by the American people.

“I have no doubt that we will take these charges and allegations most seriously,” he said.