Mr Rumsfeld told a Senate committee that Defense Department lawyers had approved methods such as sleep deprivation and dietary changes as well as rules permitting prisoners to be made to assume stress positions.
General Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, also noted that the rules require prisoners to be treated humanely at all times.
But Senator Richard Durbin said some of the approved techniques “go far beyond the Geneva Convention,” a reference to international rules governing the treatment of prisoners of war.
The Defense Department is conducting multiple investigations into the abuse, and congressional hearings are under way, as well.
