Rumsfeld has directed Vice Adm. Albert "Tom" Church to broaden his earlier review of the treatment of terrorism suspects at U.S. Naval installations at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and in Charleston, S.C., according to Pentagon officials.

The new order puts a high-ranking Navy officer in the unusual position of investigating the practices of Army officers and soldiers.

Church began assembling a team of Navy intelligence officers to travel to Baghdad 10 days ago. Church and several three-man teams of intelligence and legal advisers were expected to begin work this week in Iraq, according to sources.

Bryan Whitman, a spokesman for Rumsfeld, said the investigation does not conflict with the Army's own ongoing examination of abuse of prisoners at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison.

Army Gen. George Fay, the second in charge of Army intelligence in Washington, has been ordered to investigate how detainees at Abu Ghraib and other U.S. prisons in Iraq were interrogated.

Whitman said Fay's investigation is tightly focused on the incidents and intelligence activities at Abu Ghraib and that Church's effort will be broader.

"The purpose of the [Navy] investigation is to look at the authorized interrogation practices and to ensure that all the appropriate guidance is being followed," Whitman said. "I don't think there's any question that all the lines of inquiry are being conducted in a very thorough, comprehensive manner. There obviously is some overlap."

But another Pentagon source said that Navy intelligence officers have been tasked to essentially "investigate the investigation" of abuse at Abu Ghraib, reflecting Rumsfeld's concern that the Army's investigation may not be thorough.

Rumsfeld's directive is "based on a concern that the Army might be covering up," within its own investigation, said one source familiar with the Navy's role.

Rumsfeld's request came amid concerns about how the Army is conducting its own investigation into allegations of systematic and widespread abuses at U.S.-run prisons.

Criticism has increased as the number of alleged abuse cases has grown since the scandal --based on reports, photographs and video showing U.S. soldiers beating, humiliating and mistreating Iraqi prisoners -- erupted in late April.

In early May, Rumsfeld asked Church to conduct a review of detainee treatment at Guantanamo and Charleston. Church said at a May 12 briefing that his quick, "snapshot" review found "no evidence of current abuse," but stressed his was not a thorough examination.

Fay's inquiry began April 23. Church's expanded review into operations in Iraq and Afghanistan began May 25, Whitman said, and will likely be concluded by next month. An initial report is due July 2 to Rumsfeld. The Navy Inspector General's office is expected to have 90 days to complete its report.

The Navy investigation will take a two-pronged approach, and will tread over some of the same ground covered by Fay's inquiry, which was ordered by Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, commanding officer of coalition forces in Iraq.

Church is expected to head the investigative teams in Iraq. Those investigative teams, all-male groups made up of a legal adviser and intelligence and counterintelligence personnel, will visit all detention centers in Iraq and question Army military intelligence personnel, according to military sources.

The investigation is focused on assessing who told Army military intelligence how to conduct their operations and what did intelligence personnel think they were going to achieve--and what did they achieve--by using those methods.

In Washington, a second team of Navy investigators, headed by Adm. William Moore, the former commander of the Fifth Fleet, will review the current Army investigation and then review it in context with what Navy investigators in Iraq find.

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