President Bush on Wednesday told the Arab public that abuse of Iraqis in U.S. custody was “abhorrent” and “terrible” even as the CIA disclosed two more deaths of Iraqi prisoners.
“This is a serious matter. It’s a matter that reflects badly on my country,” Bush told the Arabic television channel Al-Arabiya, which is based in the United Arab Emirates. “Our citizens in America are appalled by what they saw, just like people in the Middle East are appalled.”
In a recognition of the damage the scandal has caused to the United States’ image in Iraq and the Middle East, Bush granted rare one-on-one interviews to Al-Arabiya and Al-Hurra, a U.S.-government funded Arabic-language channel.
“There will be a full investigation, and justice will be served,” the president said.
But Bush’s comments fell short of an apology.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan later said, “The president is sorry for what occurred and the pain it has caused.” Asked why Bush himself did not apologize, McClellan said, “I’m saying it now for him.”
In Iraq, Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller, the new head of Abu Ghraib and other U.S.-run prisons in Iraq, apologized for the abuses, “for our nation and for our military for the small number of soldiers who committed illegal or unauthorized acts here at Abu Ghraib.” He made his comments while reporters toured the prison, which is about 20 miles west of Baghdad.
Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, the top military spokesman in Iraq, said: “My Army has been embarrassed by this. My Army has been shamed by this. And on behalf of my Army, I apologize for what those soldiers did to your citizens.”
The president’s unusual bid to reach out directly to Arab viewers signifies just how deeply the disclosures of prison abuses may have damaged U.S. prospects for establishing order in Iraq, and perhaps the administration’s plan to turn power over to an Iraqi interim government on June 30.
Notably, Bush excluded Al Jazeera television, a widely watched Arabic channel that administration officials view as hostile to the U.S.
Barrage of bad news
Much of the Arab world has been deeply unsettled by the images, first broadcast by CBS’ “60 Minutes II” a week ago, of U.S. soldiers forcing hooded Iraqi prisoners to pose in sexually suggestive and demeaning positions. One picture shows a hooded and cloaked Iraqi prisoner standing on a box, wires attached to his body. Soldiers allegedly threatened to electrocute him.
Next came news reports of an Army study of abuse claims at Abu Ghraib prison, including beatings and sodomy. The report suggests that inmates were abused to make the work of military interrogators easier.
So far the military has reprimanded seven soldiers in connection to the abuses and recommended charges for six more. Those serving inside the isolated Abu Ghraib cellblock where the abuses occurred have said more soldiers could be involved.
The Pentagon also has launched six investigations into the way detainees are treated and interrogated at the prison and 15 other detention facilities in Iraq, Afghanistan, Cuba and elsewhere.
Bush, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and military leaders have all roundly condemned the behavior inside Abu Ghraib. But the Pentagon announced Tuesday that it had 20 active cases of possible prisoner abuse under investigation, including 10 involving prisoner deaths, and that it had investigated 15 others, including three homicides.
3 deaths investigated
One case involved an Abu Ghraib detainee who died in November during interrogation by a CIA officer and a linguist working for a government contractor, according to a CIA official. The military had brought the detainee to the prison the day he died, the official said.
The CIA disclosed Wednesday that its inspector general also was examining two other cases in which detainees had died during or after CIA interrogations.
One Iraqi died in November, several days after meeting with CIA and Army interrogators in western Iraq, the agency official said Wednesday. A second detainee in Afghanistan died last June during an interrogation involving a retired CIA officer rehired by the agency on contract, the official said.
In all three cases, the official said, the agency notified the Justice Department and Senate and House Intelligence Committee leaders.
The White House hopes that the television appearances and explanation by Bush will counter growing skepticism in the Middle East about U.S. explanations of the prison abuses in particular and U.S. intentions in Iraq and the region in general.
The president said that those responsible for the abuses would be punished.
“We have a presumption of innocent until you’re guilty in our system,” Bush told Al-Arabiya, “but the system will be transparent, it will be open, and people will see the results.”
Members of Congress continued to seethe about the prisoner mistreatment–and the fact that they were not told of it for so long.
Some lawmakers, including Sen. Joseph Biden (D-Del.), the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, raised the possibility that Rumsfeld should resign, but Bush dismissed the idea.
“Of course I’ve got confidence in the secretary of defense,” the president said.
Nonetheless, Bush upbraided Rumsfeld on Wednesday for his handling of the developing scandal, The New York Times reported.
Unnamed White House officials, speaking “under authorization from Bush,” said the president expressed his displeasure over the defense secretary’s failure to bring up the abuse photographs, the newspaper said.
The Senate Intelligence Committee met behind closed doors Wednesday to explore the role of the intelligence community in the abuses.
Members of Congress have launched at least two investigations into the allegations and have demanded immediate briefings on the prisoner abuse from administration officials and military leaders.
Rumsfeld may appear Friday before the Senate Armed Services Committee to discuss the cases. He said Tuesday that he was “stunned” by the photographs showing the abuse and shrugged off suggestions that the Pentagon should have notified Congress earlier.
He noted that the military command in Iraq announced an investigation into possible abuses more than three months ago.
Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) said Wednesday that Bush should offer a full explanation. But the Democratic presidential hopeful was reluctant to state flatly that Bush owed the Iraqi people an apology.
“The person who speaks on behalf of it, the president of the United States, needs to offer the world an explanation and needs to take appropriate responsibility,” Kerry said. “And if that includes apologizing for the behavior of those soldiers and what happened, we ought to do that.”
Kerry noted that he called for Rumsfeld’s resignation “months ago” but said more information was needed to judge whether the prison abuses should bring about the defense secretary’s departure.
“We’ve got to have the facts,” the senator said. “I want to know, as I think Americans do, is this isolated? Does it go up the chain of command? Who knew what when? All of those questions have to be answered.”
Another photo inquiry
Meanwhile, U.S. authorities said they were investigating a separate incident at the Abu Ghraib prison in which the commander of a military police company was accused of taking nude photos of female soldiers while they were in the shower, The Baltimore Sun reported.
Capt. Leo Merck, 32, was referred for court martial for allegedly taking the nude photos and downloading them onto his government-issued laptop computer last fall. He was relieved as commander of the 870th Military Police Company, an Army National Guard unit based in Pittsburg, Calif.
