Pentagon details abuse of Iraq detainees

That's the headline, but there's really not too much detail. This is classic Friday night dump and about as sanitized as they could make it. (And notice "with many portions blacked out.")
(Check out the updates.)

WASHINGTON - U.S. special operations forces fed some Iraqi detainees only bread and water for up to 17 days, used unapproved interrogation practices such as sleep deprivation and loud music and stripped at least one prisoner, according to a Pentagon report on incidents dating to 2003 and 2004.

The report, with many portions blacked out, concludes that the detainees' treatment was wrong but not illegal and reflected inadequate resources and lack of oversight and proper guidance more than deliberate abuse. No military personnel were punished as a result of the investigation.

UPDATE: Take a look at the AP version of the story which begins not with details of abuse, but the reports' conclusions that they problems were systemic, stemming from poor policy. And poor policy means it isn't just a few bad apples. It points to the Pentagon's door.

Murky procedures, lack of oversight and inadequate resources led to mistakes in the way U.S. troops treated Iraq and Afghanistan detainees. But two Pentagon reports, made public Friday, found no widespread mistreatment or illegal actions by the military.

And, the WaPo report also points to policy, not bad apples. (Funny how the article that didn't point to the Pentagon was the first source, eh?)

A secretive military Special Operations group in Iraq used several unauthorized interrogation tactics on detainees in early 2004 after it erroneously received an outdated policy from commanders in Baghdad, according to a high-level military investigative report released yesterday at the Pentagon....

But Formica concluded that the soldiers using the tactics were not responsible for violating policy or the law from February to May 2004 because they believed what they were doing had been approved. That position in many ways echoes what Abu Ghraib defense lawyers have asserted in military courts over the past two years: That soldiers believed they were following commanders' rules when they used such tactics on detainees.