Whether the interrogation tactics used at Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib prisons are called "torture" or — as military investigators termed it — "creative" and "aggressive" techniques, these tactics are clearly disturbing and surely counterproductive.

Military officials announced last week that trials for four captives at Guantanamo would resume immediately, with eight more facing pending charges. But more details of America's own misdeeds at "Gitmo" have become clearer in recent weeks — most recently, the detainees have responded by conducting a hunger strike.

Even without this latest demonstration, the wise, humane course is plainly mapped out: Military commanders must take ownership of the problem, while prosecution of the prisoners proceeds.

Among the unsettling insights arising from a Senate committee briefing is that the same abusive practices reportedly used against prisoners in Iraq had been applied in 2002 at the Cuba facility as part of efforts to break down a suspect in the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

These include forcing a prisoner to wear women's underwear on his head, attaching a leash to his chains and intimidating him with snarling dogs.

Concurrence in these tactics surely suggests that staff at both facilities were following orders rather than merely behaving in unauthorized, unsupervised fashion, as some have asserted.

These methods, apparently officially sanctioned, cast a malignant pall over U.S. policy, and for what? The administration has laid claim to few gains made by abusing prisoners in this indiscriminate way.

Meanwhile, the military has yet to hold accountable Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller, who headed Guantanamo and later helped set up U.S. operations at Abu Ghraib.

Given the mounting evidence of a coordinated strategy by the prison command, this is a national disgrace.