Cuba base reports 2 new cases of abuse

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba - Two new cases of detainee abuse have surfaced at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp, including one in which a U.S. military commander failed to properly investigate a prison guard who threw cleaning solvent on a terror suspect.

The guard threw the solvent on the prisoner in January and was demoted and reassigned in June, a month after the Navy inspector general, Vice Adm. Albert T. Church, visited the base to investigate claims of abuse. The guard's commanding officer also was reprimanded, military officials said.

Another incident involved a guard who hit a detainee in October after the man allegedly spat on the guard and tried to bite him. The guard was demoted and reassigned the same month.

"We have a process in place to review all allegation reports. Each report that alleges mistreatment at Guantanamo is taken seriously," said Army Lt. Col. Leon Sumpter, a spokesman.

The commander who mishandled the solvent incident was an Army captain and the highest known ranking officer to be disciplined in an abuse case at the outpost in eastern Cuba, Sumpter said. The company commander generally is in charge of more than 130 soldiers.

After the scandal at the U.S.-run Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq - where American soldiers were photographed abusing detainees - military officials at the U.S. Southern Command in Miami told the Associated Press there were three substantiated abuse cases at Guantanamo.

The military last week provided details of eight substantiated cases of abuse by personnel from prison guards to a barber.

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