"If the allegations are substantiated, the Marine Corps will pursue appropriate legal and administrative actions against those responsible," said Col. David Lapan, a spokesman at Marine Corps headquarters.

"The investigations are ongoing, therefore any comment at this time would be inappropriate and could undermine the investigatory and possible legal process," he said. "As soon as the facts are known and decisions on future actions are made, we will make that information available to the public to the fullest extent allowable." Murtha, an outspoken war critic and retired Marine colonel, has maintained for several weeks that the reality of the Hadithah incident was far more violent than the original reports suggested.

"They originally said a lot of things. I don't even know how they tried to cover that up," he said.

Two investigations into the incident are ongoing, according to the Pentagon - one by Multi-National Forces Iraq, expected before the end of the week, and a second by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, that is due in June.

The Marine Corps originally said a convoy from the Camp Pendleton, Calif.-based Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines, hit a roadside bomb Nov. 19 that killed Lance Cpl. Miguel Terrazas, 20, of El Paso, Texas.

Marine officials initially said 15 Iraqi civilians also were killed in the blast, but later reported that the civilians were killed in a firefight that took place after the explosion.

But a 10-week investigation by Time magazine resulted in a March 27 report that included claims by an Iraqi civil rights group that the Marines barged into houses near the bomb strike in retaliation, throwing grenades and shooting civilians who were cowering in fear.

Three officers from the 3/1, including battalion commander Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani, were relieved April 7 for "lack of confidence in their leadership abilities stemming from their performance during a recent deployment to Iraq."

The two other Marines who were relieved, Capts. Luke McConnell and James Kimber, were company commanders in the battalion.

Officials would not explicitly connect the firings to the Hadithah investigation.

While no charges have been filed yet, defense attorneys who handle military cases are bracing for what could fast become a busy summer season in the courtroom.

"It looks like it's coming," said one San Diego area-based civilian defense attorney who has handled other cases of assault and manslaughter and has gotten a sort of "warning order" about potential new cases.

"I think there's a lot of pressure to do something," the civilian attorney said.

"It's going to be extraordinarily difficult for them to find enough defense counsel," one Marine Corps attorney said.

Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, who was also briefed on the reports, said his committee will hold hearings on the incident after lawmakers return from their Memorial Day recess.

Hunter was matter-of-fact about the reports' contents.

"It is not good," he said. "Let the chips fall where they may."

Hagee was due to brief leaders of the Senate Armed Services Committee late Wednesday.

"These contractors are protected from being prosecuted under Iraqi law, but they're not part of the U.S. military command. So when they commit crimes, or when they abuse human rights, they're accountable to no one."

Few aspects of the multibillion-dollar U.S. contracting effort in Iraq have been disclosed.

A report by the U.S. Government Accounting Office last year said monitoring of civilian contractors in Iraq was so poor there was no way to determine how many contractors were working on U.S.-related security and reconstruction projects or how many have been killed.

Amnesty's annual report contended the counterterrorism campaign by the United States and other powerful nations had undermined human rights around the world, draining energy and attention from crises afflicting the poor and underprivileged.

Amnesty also called for a change of strategy in Iraq, a stronger push to end rights abuses in Sudan and for closure of the Guantanamo Bay prison camp.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack dismissed the report, saying: "Nobody is being tortured at Guantanamo Bay."

McCormack also said Amnesty had done nothing to put
Saddam Hussein on trial but credited the group with bringing to light human rights abuses that were perpetrated by his regime.

Rights groups have loudly criticized the policies of the United States and its allies since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, complaining that human rights and civil liberties are being sacrificed in the name of counterterrorism.

Amnesty said the use of private contractors, who acted as interrogators at Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad and have been implicated in prisoner abuse in Afghanistan, was of particular concern.

It urged the U.S. government to insist on training private security contractors in human rights law and clear, beefed-up procedures for investigating and prosecuting contractors suspected of abuses.

Amnesty identified "clear signs of hope" in response to disasters such as the Asian tsunami that drew an outpouring of support from ordinary people worldwide for the victims.

However, it accused the United States, China, Russia and other powerful nations of pursuing selfish national interests and diluting efforts to solve crises such as the conflict in Sudan's Darfur region and the troubles between
Israel and the Palestinians.

It had harsh words for Iraq, which was described as having sunk into "a vortex of sectarian violence."

The United States "has basically mortgaged its moral authority on the streets of Fallujah and Baghdad," Khan told the AP.

Amnesty said European countries were "partners in crime" with the U.S. by eroding civil liberties and allowing terrorism suspects to be taken to countries where they might risk torture - a practice known as extraordinary rendition.

That makes it harder for the West to lecture other governments, such as Egypt and China, on their rights record or to single out countries such as Colombia and Uzbekistan that have argued that counterterrorism justified the repression of opponents, the rights group said.

Amnesty devoted much of its news conference in London to chastising the Americans, whose superpower status gives it enormous influence around the globe. America - once the beacon of rights campaigning worldwide - has offered a smokescreen for rights violators with its war on terror, Khan said.

"There is no doubt that it (the war on terror) has given a new lease on life to old-fashioned repression," Khan told a news conference.

Amnesty called for the United Nations to address the conflict in Darfur, push for a treaty to restrict trade in small arms and urged the world body's new Human Rights Council to flex its muscles over rights issues in Chechnya and China.

Though the document does not mention the Lincoln Group, Van Buskirk concluded that the military should scrutinize contractors involved in the propaganda effort more closely "to ensure proper oversight is in place."

He also faulted the military for failing to examine whether paying for placement for articles would "undermine the concept of a free press" in Iraq, according to the summary.

It was not clear on Tuesday whether the report would have any immediate effect on the military's actions in Iraq. In interviews this week, several Pentagon officials said the Lincoln Group and other contractors were still involved in placing propaganda messages in Iraqi publications and on television.

Lieutenant Colonel Barry Johnson, a senior military spokesman in Iraq, said Tuesday that he could not comment on the report. William Dixon, a spokesman for the Lincoln Group, also declined to comment on Tuesday.