Philadelphia ? Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry said Wednesday that civilian leaders in the White House and the Pentagon should be held accountable for abuse at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison.

“Harry Truman had that sign on the desk, and it said, ‘The buck stops here,”‘ Kerry said. “The buck doesn’t stop at the Pentagon.”

Responding to an independent report that faulted all levels of the military for prisoner abuse, Kerry repeated his call for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to resign and for President Bush to appoint an independent commission. He said the commission should investigate “all of the chain of abuses that took place, and why they took place, including the civilian side.”

“We are a country that runs on civilian leadership,” Kerry said at the top of a town hall meeting at Steamfitters Local 420 Union. “What is also normal is that you have accountability that runs through the civilian command, and it is absolutely left out of those reports. It’s absent.”

Bush campaign spokesman Steve Schmidt responded: “Today’s political attack is just the latest example of John Kerry’s willingness to say whatever he believes will benefit him politically.”

A report released Tuesday by an independent panel led by former Defense Secretary James Schlesinger concluded that senior U.S. military leaders in Iraq and the Pentagon could be faulted for inattention to prisoner abuses, but it did not recommend that Rumsfeld step down.

Kerry said both Rumsfeld and Bush should take responsibility. Minutes after he spoke at the town hall meeting, his campaign issued a statement from Kerry that said, “The time has come for our commander in chief to take charge.”

Months before prisoner abuse in Iraq became known, Kerry called for Rumsfeld’s resignation because of what he said were numerous mistakes in the prosecution of the war. In May, Kerry rejected concerns that replacing Rumsfeld could hurt the war effort and suggested any number of people could step in, including Republican Sens. John McCain of Arizona and John Warner of Virginia.