.. AP – President Barack Obama speaks at a Get Out the Vote Rally for Minnesota's Democratic gubernatorial candidate, …
. Play Video Iraq Video:Prosecutions From Document Dump? FOX News .
Iraq Video:WikiLeaks investigation backed Australia 7 News .
By RAPHAEL G. SATTER and PAISLEY DODDS, Associated Press Writers Raphael G. Satter And Paisley Dodds, Associated Press Writers – Mon Oct 25, 7:05 pm ET
LONDON – President Barack Obama stepped into the White House pledging to end George W. Bush's gloves-off approach to interrogations and detention — but a flood of leaked documents suggests that some old habits were hard to break.
Field reports from the Iraq war published by WikiLeaks show that, despite Obama's public commitment to eschew torture, U.S. forces turned detainees over to Iraqi forces even after signs of abuse.
Documents also show that U.S. interrogators continued to question Iraqi detainees, some of whom were still recovering from injuries or whose wounds were still visible after being held by Iraqi security forces.
"We have not turned a blind eye," U.S. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said Monday, noting that one of the reasons why U.S. troops were still in Iraq was to carry out human rights training with Iraqi security forces. "Our troops were obligated to report abuses to appropriate authorities and to follow up, and they did so in Iraq."
Crowley added, "If there needs to be an accounting, first and foremost there needs to be an accounting by the Iraqi government itself, and how it has treated its own citizens."
Obama signed three executive orders shortly after taking office, vowing to return America to the "moral high ground" in the war on terrorism.
The implication was that the United States would do more to make sure terror suspects weren't tortured or abused — either at the hands of U.S. forces or by governing authorities to whom the detainees were handed over for detention or interrogation.
Should WikiLeaks be subject to U.S. state secrets enforcement?
WikiLeaks recently published almost 400,000 U.S. military logs, mainly written by soldiers on the ground, detailing daily carnage in Iraq since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion: detainees abused by Iraqi forces, insurgent bombings, sectarian executions and civilians shot at checkpoints by U.S. troops.
In one leaked document from a U.S. military intelligence report filed Feb. 9, 2009 — just weeks after Obama ordered U.S. personnel to comply with the Geneva Conventions — an Iraqi says he was detained by coalition forces at his Baghdad home and told he would be sent to the Iraqi army if he didn't cooperate. According to the document, the detainee was then handed over to Iraqis where he said he was beaten and given electric shocks.
U.S. interrogators also cleared detainees for questioning, despite signs that they had suffered abuse from Iraqi security forces, the documents show.
One report by a U.S. interrogation detention team based in Baghdad on April 2, 2009, summarizes claims made by a prisoner who said he was hog tied and beaten with a shovel as part of dayslong torture ordeal at the hands of the Iraqi army. The report noted he had a catalog of "minor injuries," including "rope burns on the back of his legs and a possible busted ear drum."
A second report from April 2009 describes an Iraqi detainee as being covered in bruises and a scar from being bludgeoned with a pickax.
In both cases, the men were still cleared for U.S. interrogations, which international lawyers say is a violation of the Geneva Conventions.
A fourth report in May of 2009 goes even farther. "There are indications of abuse. Detainee has been medically cleared for interrogation," the document reads.
The field reports also showed that there were signs of abuse upon regular inspections of Iraqi police stations and holding facilities, raising questions about whether detainees were still turned over to the same authorities.
A U.S. military police brigade filed a report in May last year saying they had discovered two wounded Iraqi prisoners, one of whom said he had been so badly beaten he was urinating blood. An American officer tried to get the men some medical attention, but the Iraqis allegedly refused.
One report, filed in September of 2009, described how American forces inspecting an Iraqi army facility found a detainee with two black eyes, scabs, bruises, and what the report described as a neck that had turned "red/yellow."
The report said the detainee was given electric shocks to elicit a confession. The Iraqis claimed he suffered the injuries while trying to escape.
