Pentagon questions charges in abuse report

WASHINGTON, June 19 (UPI) -- A report charging terrorist suspects in U.S. military prisons were tortured by their captors is based on questionable information, a Pentagon spokesman says.

The U.S. Defense Department spokesman said the report by Physicians for Human Rights drew "sweeping conclusions based on dubious allegations" of former detainees who hadn't been in U.S. custody for years, The Washington Post reported Thursday.

Assessments of 11 men once held in U.S. detention facilities in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, detailed scars and other injuries consistent with the detainees' reports of beatings, electric shocks, shackling and sexual humiliation, among other things, the group said. Examinations also indicated most had symptoms of psychological damage, including post-traumatic stress disorder.

"The quality of medical care we provide detainees is similar to that which our troops serving in the same locations receive," Pentagon spokesman Navy Cmdr. J.D. Gordon told the Post. "We have robust psychological and mental healthcare available to detainees."

In a statement prefacing the report, retired Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba, who led the U.S. Army's investigation into the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, said evidence suggested a "systematic regime of torture" in U.S.-run detention facilities. The report was released Wednesday.