Rumsfeld warns of worse prison-abuse images

By Craig Gordon
Newsday

MARK WILSON / GETTY IMAGES Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld testifies yesterday before the Senate Armed Services Committee on the abuse of Iraqi prisoners.

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WASHINGTON — Not-yet-revealed photos of Iraqi prison abuse show "blatantly sadistic" acts of violence that go beyond images that shocked the world, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said yesterday.

"The worst is yet to come," said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who warned that the new images include the first-known videos.

The disclosures came as Rumsfeld apologized for the abuses.

He said bluntly, "These events occurred on my watch. As secretary of defense, I am accountable for them. I take full responsibility."

But he said he would not resign simply to satisfy political foes calling for his ouster. He acknowledged, though, that it was "possible" his resignation could help undo severe damage to America's reputation abroad.

"Certainly since this firestorm has been raging, it's a question that I've given a lot of thought to," Rumsfeld told the Senate Armed Services Committee. "Needless to say, if I felt I could not be effective, I'd resign in a minute. I would not resign simply because people try to make a political issue out of it."

On a day of extraordinary admissions of personal mistakes by the normally combative Rumsfeld, he defended the Pentagon's investigation of the scandal and insisted the abuses were "perpetrated by a small number of the U.S. military." Six soldiers face criminal charges.

But several senators from both parties made clear they expect investigations to go as far up the chain of command as warranted to find those ultimately responsible, "whether they've got a stripe on their sleeve or four stars on their shoulder," as Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., said.

The Pentagon now has six investigations of prisoner abuse, and Rumsfeld announced that a panel of retired senior officers would have 45 days to see if any further investigations are warranted.

Rumsfeld also said he supported compensating Iraqis abused at the hands of American captors — but didn't say how.

Still, the comments about more photos signaled that top Republicans expect the abuse scandal to widen, not diminish, in the days ahead. President Bush so far has stood by Rumsfeld — and did so again yesterday, along with several Senate Republicans — as Democrats have stepped up calls for Rumsfeld's ouster.

Rumsfeld confirmed in his testimony that video images of Iraqi abuse exist, as well as potentially "hundreds" of still images like those first revealed last week. Those pictures showed naked Iraqi prisoners being abused.

"Be on notice," Rumsfeld said. "There are a lot more photographs and videos that exist.... If these are released to the public, obviously it's going to make matters worse."

Pentagon spokesman Lawrence Di Rita said at least one of the photo images involved oral sex between two people, at least one a detainee.

A video image on the second CD involved what one defense official familiar with the contents described as "an assault."

NBC News reported the new photos show U.S. soldiers beating one Iraqi almost to death, the rape of boys by Iraqi guards who worked at the prison, a U.S. soldier apparently raping an Iraqi woman, and the inappropriate handling of a dead body. Those accounts could not be confirmed last night.

Neither Rumsfeld nor Sen. Graham has seen the video, they said, but Graham said there was new information related to "rape and murder. We're not just talking about giving people a humiliating experience." Senate sources said later, however, that the videotape does not show those acts, and that account was corroborated by one senior Army official.

Yesterday's criticism was pointed at times. Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., noted with "deep dismay" that Rumsfeld and Gen. Richard Myers, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had briefed legislators about Iraq in a classified session last week but did not mention the major story the government knew was about to break in the news media.

Rumsfeld acknowledged that he had dramatically underestimated just how powerful those images would be, saying he had allowed the president to be "blindsided" by not briefing him about their graphic nature before they were aired by a television news program.

"The problem at that stage was one-dimensional. It wasn't three-dimensional. It wasn't video. It wasn't color. It was quite a different thing," Rumsfeld said. "Words don't do it."

One of Rumsfeld's testiest exchanges occurred when Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., pressed him to describe who was in charge at Abu Ghraib prison. When Rumsfeld suggested that the answer be given by Lt. Gen. Lance Smith, the deputy commander of Central Command, McCain interrupted:

"No, Secretary Rumsfeld, in all due respect, you've got to answer this question," McCain said. "This is a pretty simple, straightforward question. Who was in charge of the interrogations? What agencies and what — or private contractors were in charge of the interrogations? Did they have authority over the guards? And what were the instructions to the guards?"

When Smith tried to answer, McCain interrupted again: "Mr. Secretary, you can't answer these questions?"

Rumsfeld said the responsibility rested with officers who oversaw detentions and with military intelligence officers in charge of interrogations. "And the responsibility, as I have reviewed the matter, shifted over a period of time," he said.

Several senators also pressed Rumsfeld to explain how far up the chain of command the approval to "soften up" prisoners for questioning was known or approved, though the answer remained unclear. An Army investigation said military interrogators enlisted military police from the 800th Military Police Brigade to set "physical and mental conditions for favorable interrogation" of prisoners.

At one point, Rumsfeld brought his undersecretary of intelligence, Stephen Cambone, to the table, and Cambone indicated that he was aware of recommendations by one senior officer to improve efforts to get more information out of interrogations but didn't say whether he had signed off on them.

Those recommendations were made by Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller after an inquiry on interrogation and detention procedures in Iraq in August 2003, just two months before the abuse at Abu Ghraib began. Miller, former head of the military prison at Guantánamo Bay, took charge of Iraqi prisons last week.

Material from The Associated Press, Los Angeles Times and Knight Ridder News Service is included in this report.

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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