http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20040603/wl_mideast_afp/iraq_abuse_australia&cid=1514&ncid=1473SYDNEY, (AFP) - Australian defense officials have launched an investigation into why reports last year about the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by US troops in Baghdad were not passed on to government leaders.
The inquiry was announced by military chief of staff General Peter Cosgrove and top defence department official Ric Smith after the pair admitted in parliament this week that Australia received reports on the prisoner abuse months earlier than the government had previously acknowledged.
A senior officer was appointed to lead the inquiry into what and when the Australian Defence Force knew about the mistreatment of Iraqi detainees and why Prime Minister John Howard and his top aides were not informed.
The probe was ordered after a Senate inquiry learned this week that officials in several departments, including the defense and foreign ministries, learned of the abuse last year from an Australian army legal officer stationed at US headquarters in Baghdad.
This contradicted previous claims by Howard and other ministers that no one in Australia knew about the abuse scandal until earlier this year.
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