http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/05/20/iraq.abuse/index.html
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The CIA is investigating three cases of prisoner deaths during interrogations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
In one of the cases, two pictures surfaced Wednesday that appear to show U.S. soldiers gloating over a corpse.
Spc. Charles Graner of the 372nd Military Police is seen smiling, giving the thumbs up in one picture. In the other, Spc. Sabrina Harmon, a member of the same unit, is in a similar pose.
The soldiers who appear in them are among those already facing charges in the abuse scandal. The pictures came out following the first court-martial in connection with the abuse.
U.S. officials identified the corpse, which was packed in ice, as Manadel al-Jamadi.
He had suffered head wounds during a struggle with Navy SEALs at the time of his arrest, sources said, and died after CIA interrogations.
Both the Defense Department and the CIA's inspector general are investigating whether there was wrongdoing and if so by whom, U.S. officials said.
The agency's inspector general is investigating two other cases.
One case involves an independent contractor for the CIA who was interrogating a prisoner in Afghanistan when the man died, knowledgeable sources have said.
The other involves an Iraqi major general arrested in western Iraq who died several days after being interrogated by CIA personnel. Sources have said they do not expect any agency involvement in the death to be found.
Meanwhile, the chief of U.S. forces in the Middle East told a Senate panel Wednesday there was no pattern of prisoner abuse by American troops. But Gen. John Abizaid said preliminary findings by the Army's inspector general cite problems in training and organization and recommend "very specific changes."
"I specifically asked the [inspector general] of the Army, did he believe that there was a pattern of abuse of prisoners in the Central Command area of operation?" Abizaid testified. "And he looked at both Afghanistan and Iraq, and he said no."
Pentagon investigators have found a new disc of images documenting the abuse of inmates at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison, Sen. John Warner, chairman of the Armed Services Committee, announced during the hearing. He said he would advise later when the images could be viewed.
Abizaid and Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the commander of American and coalition troops in Iraq, were the main witnesses at the hearing. Also testifying was Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller, the officer in charge of prison operations there.
Sanchez said he put the prison under the command of a military intelligence brigade in November to improve the facility's defenses after a series of mortar attacks in late 2003.
But he said responsibility for running the prison remained under a military police brigade. He warned senators that "this awful episode at Abu Ghraib must not allow us to get distracted" from the war against insurgents in Iraq.
"The honor and value systems of our armed forces are solid and the bedrock of what makes us the best in the world," Sanchez said. "There has been no catastrophic failure, and America's armed forces will never compromise their honor."
He denied a published report that he approved the use of sleep deprivation, excessive noise and intimidation in one case, saying, "I never approved the use of any of those measures ... in the 12 and a half months that I've been in Iraq."
Photographs of U.S. troops mistreating naked, hooded prisoners at Abu Ghraib, near Baghdad, surfaced in April.
The Army has been investigating the abuses since January. Seven soldiers -- all members of an Army reserve military police company -- have been charged in the case, and six officers have received career-ending reprimands.
One soldier, Spc. Jeremy Sivits, pleaded guilty in a court-martial held Wednesday in Baghdad and was sentenced to a year's confinement.
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