Pentagon overhauls prisoner policy

The Pentagon said on Friday it was overhauling how it deals with its detainees amid a scandal over the abuse of prisoners held by the US military.
Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld ordered the creation of an office to oversee military detainee operations, the Pentagon said. Rumsfeld also required that reports from the International Committee of the Red Cross on US military prisoner operations go directly to Pentagon leaders rather than staying with commanders in the field, the Pentagon said.
The moves follow revelations of abuse of Iraqi prisoners at the Abu Ghraib jail near Baghdad, investigations into deaths of prisoners held by the US military in Iraq and Afghanistan and questions over the treatment of prisoners at the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
The new Office of Detainee Affairs, whose leader has not been named, will come under the control of the Pentagon's third-ranking civilian official, Douglas Feith, under secretary of defence for policy.