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"I was out of the loop."
You've got it wrong, Rummy Old Bean. The only one who can claim to be out of touch, out of the loop, and not responsible for anything is The Chimp. And he's the master, having had a lifetime of practice and the support of a wealthy, morally corrupt family.
Way to go, Donny. The buck stops....
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Rumsfeld pressed over jail abuse
The furore over the photos has shaken the Bush administration (AP/Courtesy The New Yorker)
US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is facing mounting pressure, as a new set of photographs showing Iraqi prisoner abuse is published. President George W Bush is reportedly annoyed with the way Mr Rumsfeld handled the crisis over the photos.
The newly-published photographs include one of a naked prisoner being led on a leash by a woman soldier.
BBC Washington correspondent Justin Webb says it is possible that Mr Rumsfeld could be forced to resign.
Another photograph, released in the US press, shows a soldier giving a thumbs-up sign next to what appears to be a corpse.
Their release came just hours after President Bush appeared on Arabic television networks in an effort to quell anger over the mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners in American custody.
I've got some confidence in the secretary of defence President George W Bush
The Washington Post says it cannot eliminate the possibility that some of the latest images were staged, but reporter Christian Davenport says he believes the pictures are authentic. He said they were taken in mid-2003 and were scattered among about 1,000 images that also include photos of soldiers posing on camels and general life in the American military in Iraq.
In his television interviews, Mr Bush deplored the mistreatment of prisoners and vowed to punish any US troops responsible. His comments came as many Arab commentators pointed to what they saw as the gap between the wartime US rhetoric of liberating Iraq and the subsequent abuse of Iraqi prisoners.
Meanwhile, the International Committee of the Red Cross has said that it repeatedly urged the US to take "corrective action" at the Baghdad jail at the centre of the scandal, Abu Ghraib.
The ICRC, which visits prisoners held by coalition authorities in Iraq, had previously refused to comment publicly on conditions at the prison.
'Dressing down'
Our correspondent says that White House aides have let it be known that Mr Rumsfeld, one of the chief architects of US policy in Iraq, received a dressing-down from President Bush over his handling of the abuse scandal.
The president is said to have been particularly annoyed that no-one told him there were photos of US soldiers posing with hooded or naked Iraqi prisoners until the images aired on national television.
COALITION-RUN JAILS
8,000 prisoners held in 14 separate jails
Three main prisons - Abu Ghraib and Camp Cropper in west
Baghdad; Camp Bucca, near Umm Qasr - hold inmates for
extended periods
Almost all inmates are "security internees"- suspected of
posing a threat to the coalition
Mr Rumsfeld has been summoned to appear before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Friday, to explain his apparent failure to keep Congress properly informed. The problems at Abu Ghraib first came to light in January. Several investigations were launched by the Pentagon and a US army report concluded two months ago that US soldiers were blatantly cruel to the prisoners under their guard.
The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Richard Myers, has admitted that neither he nor Mr Rumsfeld immediately read the report.
Mr Rumsfeld has said that he read the report's executive summary, but did not see the photographs immediately because they were not available at the Pentagon.
Publicly, Mr Bush has defended Mr Rumsfeld.
"I've got some confidence in the secretary of defence, and I've got confidence in the commanders on the ground in Iraq," the president said during an interview with the US- sponsored al-Hurra network.
HAVE YOUR SAY
The entire sordid saga is an embarrassment
Will Martin, Seattle, USA
Mr Rumsfeld has declined to answer questions about whether he should resign.
"The task for me, as the responsible person in the Department of Defense, is to see that, if it's an isolated instance, that it's punished under the uniform code of military justice," he told American network NBC.
In a separate development, one of the closest aides of US Secretary of State Colin Powell has made an outspoken attack on other members of the Bush administration.
Larry Wilkerson said Mr Powell had spent much of his time doing damage control around the world for the actions of his colleagues, and attacked those he said were making "cavalier decisions" about sending American men and women out to die.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-
/1/hi/world/americas/3689267.stm
Published: 2004/05/06 14:54:14 GMT
© BBC MMIV
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