U.S. & World

WASHINGTON (CBS) ― The brutal treatment of terror detainees and prisoners by members of the military followed directly from the CIA's use of harsh interrogation techniques, according to a Senate report that is likely to add fuel to the debate over the United States' use of torture.

The report documents the Bush administration's growing reliance on harsh interrogations that began just two months after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. It also ties those unyielding interrogation policies to the abuses of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. military authorities at the Abu Ghraib prison as well as to interrogations at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and in Afghanistan.

Janis Karpinski, the retired former brigadier general who ran Abu Ghraib and was later demoted to colonel, told CBS' The Early Show the report offered vindication for soldiers she felt were unfairly made scapegoats for the abuse.

"Scapegoated is the perfect word," she told Early Show co-anchor Harry Smith, "and it's an understatement." Karpinski said the Senate report is "black and white proof" that uniformed servicemen and women were not alone responsible for the abuses.

"From the beginning, I've been saying these soldiers didn't design these techniques on their own," she said. "And the soldiers routinely said, as much as they could in their own court-martials, 'We were following orders. We were bringing this to our chain of command.' And they were saying whatever the military intelligence tells you to do out there you are authorized to do."

"The line is very clear. … It went from Washington, D.C., from the very top of the administration with the legal opinions through Bagram to Guantanamo Bay and then to Iraq."

Eleven U.S. soldiers were convicted and five officers, including Karpinski, wre disciplined in the Abu Ghraib scandal. Karpinski was demoted to colonel for alleged dereliction of duty - a charge she has vehemently denied. The only soldier still imprisoned for Abu Ghraib is former Cpl. Charles Graner Jr., who received a 10-year sentence for assault, battery, conspiracy, maltreatment, indecent acts and dereliction of duty.

Army documents released in May 2005 substantiated Karpinski's assertions that she was innocent of two principal allegations lodged against her by officer who initially investigated abuses at Abu Ghraib.

The 232-page report released Tuesday by the Senate Armed Services Committee came less than a week after President Barack Obama released Bush-era memos that justified the use of harsh tactics by the CIA.

Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., the chairman of the Armed Services Committee, said the report shows that abuse of terror detainees and combat prisoners was systematic.

"Authorizations of aggressive interrogation techniques by senior officials resulted in abuse and conveyed the message that physical pressures and degradation were appropriate treatment for detainees in U.S. military custody," Levin said.

The Senate investigation has been in a Pentagon security review since Nov. 21, 2008. Its findings were drawn from more than 70 interviews and 200,000 pages of classified and unclassified documents.

"In my judgment," Levin said, "the report represents a condemnation of both the Bush administration's interrogation policies and of senior administration officials who attempted to shift the blame for abuse such as that seen at Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo Bay and Afghanistan to low-ranking soldiers."

President Obama said Tuesday he's not ruling out the prosecution of Bush administration officials who authorized harsh interrogations terror suspects, reports CBS News correspondent Bill Plante.

(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)