Exhibit 1243 · Independent panel report
Final Report of the Independent Panel to Review DoD Detention Operations (Schlesinger Panel)
Still, the abuses were not just the failure of some individuals to follow known standards, and they are more than the failure of a few leaders to enforce proper discipline. There is both institutional and personal responsibility at higher levels.
Panel appointed by the Secretary of Defense. Finds the Tier 1 abuses were acts of brutality by individuals and a failure of leadership and discipline, finds no evidence of a policy of abuse promulgated by senior officials, and finds institutional as well as personal responsibility at higher levels, with command failures contributing directly or indirectly.
- Source
- Independent Panel to Review DoD Detention Operations (chair James R. Schlesinger), for the Secretary of Defense
- Date
- August 2004 (released 24 August 2004)
- Quoted from
- Executive Summary, Overview, final paragraph of the first page of the Executive Summary (PDF p. 7 of the 126-page scan; text read by OCR of the scan)
- Grade
- Primary record
- Document
- https://web.archive.org/web/2005/http://www.defense.gov/news/aug2004/d20040824finalreport.pdf
- Accessed
- 2026-11-10
- Cited by
- Findings citing this exhibit
- Note
- Same page: 'There is no evidence of a policy of abuse promulgated by senior officials or military authorities.' Same report, 'Command Responsibilities': 'Although the most egregious instances of detainee abuse were caused by the aberrant behavior of a limited number of soldiers and the predilections of the non-commissioned officers on the night shift of Tier 1 at Abu Ghraib, the Independent Panel finds that commanding officers and their staffs at various levels failed in their duties and that such failures contributed directly or indirectly to detainee abuse.' (PDF p. 46, OCR). The scan has no printed page numbers visible in OCR; PDF page numbers are given. OCR wording of the quote should be eyeballed against the page image before publication. The dtic.mil copy (ADA428743) returned a bot-block page. Same page: “There is no evidence of a policy of abuse promulgated by senior officials or military authorities.”