Rumsfeld under fire in Iraqi prisoner abuse scandal

WASHINGTON – US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld came under fire Wednesday from members of Congress irate at his handling of the image-tarnishing Iraqi prisoner abuse scandal, raising questions about his standing with President George W. Bush.

In an interview with US-sponsored al-Hurra television network, Bush said only, “Of course, I’ve got some confidence in the secretary of defense.” White House spokesman Scott McClellan had earlier told reporters the president “absolutely” had confidence in Rumsfeld, but later in the day pointedly would not say whether Bush was satisfied with Rumsfeld’s handling of the matter.Bush has sought to repair the damage caused by the scandal by going before Arab television news cameras to denounce the abuses at the Abu Ghraib prison as “abhorrent.””First time I saw or heard about pictures was on TV,” Bush said in the TV interview.Rumsfeld, who met with Bush at the White House, also appeared on television talk shows to promise investigations and defend the Defense Department’s performance amid an international uproar that shows no sign of subsiding a week after CBS television aired shocking photographs of naked Iraqi prisoners in humiliating poses.Though the allegations of abuse were first made in January, setting in motion a criminal investigation, the secretary confronted the issue publicly for the first time only on Tuesday.Rumsfeld and General Richard Myers, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, have been called to testify today before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Senator John Warner, the committee chairman said.Members of Congress from both parties were incensed that they had been kept in the dark for months about the gravity of the situation.”Who is in charge? Who has made these decisions? Why have there not been any sound decisions made recently?” Senator Joe Biden, ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, asked Wednesday on NBC television.Biden, who charged that Bush had been “ill-served” by the Pentagon, was asked whether he was suggesting Rumsfeld should resign.”I sure am,” he said.”If it goes all the way to Rumsfeld, then he should resign.”Senator John McCain, an independent-minded Republican who sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said it was not yet time to seek Rumsfeld’s resignation.”But clearly there has to be a full, complete, independent investigation,” he told ABC television.McCain said no member of the armed services committee had been alerted to the scandals before the story broke on CBS.”Everything that I can tell is we were not communicated with at least to the degree of the severity of this situation,” he said.The Senate Armed Services Committee has asked Rumsfeld to testify on the situation, but the secretary has not settled on a date, a Pentagon spokesman said.Rumsfeld has clashed repeatedly with Congress over the past three years for keeping a close hold on information about everything from plans to transform the military to post-war planning to the cost of operations in Iraq.But the prison scandal has been particularly acute because it comes at a time of growing alarm in Congress over the state of the US-led occupation — with a mounting US death toll, deepening Iraqi hostility, and no clear political solution in sight.Top Pentagon leaders made matters worse by giving the impression they had wilfully ignored signs that the military-run detention system in Iraq had run amok.Myers told a television interviewer on Sunday that he had not read a damning report by an army major general that pointed to egregious violations at Abu Ghraib.As of Monday, a spokesman acknowledged that Rumsfeld also had not read the report by Major General Antonio Tabuga.”The report as I understand it is a stack — a report coupled with a whole series of annexes,” Rumsfeld said in an interview Wednesday with NBC television.”And so, when I am asked a question as to whether I have read the entire report, I answer honestly that I have not.It is a mountain of paper and investigative material,” he said.But Rumsfeld said investigations were launched immediately after the allegations of abuse were made, and an announcement was made in Baghdad that a criminal investigation had been opened.”The system worked, and it was announced publicly.There was no secret about it,” he said.- Nampa-AFPWhite House spokesman Scott McClellan had earlier told reporters the president “absolutely” had confidence in Rumsfeld, but later in the day pointedly would not say whether Bush was satisfied with Rumsfeld’s handling of the matter.Bush has sought to repair the damage caused by the scandal by going before Arab television news cameras to denounce the abuses at the Abu Ghraib prison as “abhorrent.””First time I saw or heard about pictures was on TV,” Bush said in the TV interview.Rumsfeld, who met with Bush at the White House, also appeared on television talk shows to promise investigations and defend the Defense Department’s performance amid an international uproar that shows no sign of subsiding a week after CBS television aired shocking photographs of naked Iraqi prisoners in humiliating poses.Though the allegations of abuse were first made in January, setting in motion a criminal investigation, the secretary confronted the issue publicly for the first time only on Tuesday.Rumsfeld and General Richard Myers, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, have been called to testify today before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Senator John Warner, the committee chairman said.Members of Congress from both parties were incensed that they had been kept in the dark for months about the gravity of the situation.”Who is in charge? Who has made these decisions? Why have there not been any sound decisions made recently?” Senator Joe Biden, ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, asked Wednesday on NBC television.Biden, who charged that Bush had been “ill-served” by the Pentagon, was asked whether he was suggesting Rumsfeld should resign.”I sure am,” he said.”If it goes all the way to Rumsfeld, then he should resign.”Senator John McCain, an independent-minded Republican who sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said it was not yet time to seek Rumsfeld’s resignation.”But clearly there has to be a full, complete, independent investigation,” he told ABC television.McCain said no member of the armed services committee had been alerted to the scandals before the story broke on CBS.”Everything that I can tell is we were not communicated with at least to the degree of the severity of this situation,” he said.The Senate Armed Services Committee has asked Rumsfeld to testify on the situation, but the secretary has not settled on a date, a Pentagon spokesman said.Rumsfeld has clashed repeatedly with Congress over the past three years for keeping a close hold on information about everything from plans to transform the military to post-war planning to the cost of operations in Iraq.But the prison scandal has been particularly acute because it comes at a time of growing alarm in Congress over the state of the US-led occupation — with a mounting US death toll, deepening Iraqi hostility, and no clear political solution in sight.Top Pentagon leaders made matters worse by giving the impression they had wilfully ignored signs that the military-run detention system in Iraq had run amok.Myers told a television interviewer on Sunday that he had not read a damning report by an army major general that pointed to egregious violations at Abu Ghraib.As of Monday, a spokesman acknowledged that Rumsfeld also had not read the report by Major General Antonio Tabuga.”The report as I understand it is a stack — a report coupled with a whole series of annexes,” Rumsfeld said in an interview Wednesday with NBC television.”And so, when I am asked a question as to whether I have read the entire report, I answer honestly that I have not.It is a mountain of paper and investigative material,” he said.But Rumsfeld said investigations were launched immediately after the allegations of abuse were made, and an announcement was made in Baghdad that a criminal investigation had
been opened.”The system worked, and it was announced publicly.There was no secret about it,” he said.- Nampa-AFP