Iraq

Bush to Iraq: U.S. 'appalled'

The president assures the Arab people that prison abuses don't reflect America, but he stops short of apology.

A somber President Bush made a televised appeal to the Arab world on Wednesday as questions mounted over U.S. treatment of its prisoners.

Bush expressed deep sorrow over the abuse of Iraqi prisoners in American custody, vowing that those guilty would be punished and declaring that their actions do not represent "the America that I know."

The number of prisoner deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan known to be under U.S. criminal investigation or already blamed on Americans rose to as many as 14. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was called to testify before Congress on Friday on the prisoner abuse and its ramifications.

In an interview with Al-Hurra, Bush said: "The actions of these few people do not reflect the hearts of the American people. The American people are just as appalled at what they have seen on TV as Iraqi citizens have. The Iraqi citizens must understand that."

Al-Hurra is an Arabic-language satellite television channel financed by the U.S. government.

When asked in a second interview, with the Arab-owned Al-Arabiya satellite TV network, how he thought the incidents were being perceived in the Middle East, Bush replied: "Terrible. I think people who want to dislike America will use this as an excuse to remind people about their dislike."

Arabs reacted coolly to the president's gesture, according to a Reuters dispatch from Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.

"This is not going to wash with the Arab audience," said a former Jordanian foreign minister, Jawad al-Anani. "It's a good gesture, but he should have publicly apologized."

Although Bush told reporters last week, after the initial news reports, that he felt "deep disgust" at the abuse, the president did not mention the matter at all during his campaign swing through Ohio on Tuesday.

On Wednesday, while not issuing an apology for the actions committed by soldiers ultimately under his command, Bush voiced personal regrets, and he said he knew he was speaking for millions of Americans, including the great majority of the military.

"First, the people in Iraq must understand that I view those practices as abhorrent," Bush said in the Hurra interview as he acknowledged Arab outrage over the incidents in the Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad.

"They must also understand that what took place in that prison does not represent America that I know," the president went on. "The America I know is a compassionate country that believes in freedom. The America I know cares about every individual."

Bush said he hoped the people of Iraq would know "that in a democracy, everything is not perfect; that mistakes are made." But in contrast to the dark era of the Saddam Hussein regime, Bush said, the abuses will be brought to light and the guilty brought to the bar of justice.

At a White House news briefing Wednesday afternoon, Bush's chief spokesman, Scott McClellan, offered an apology.

"We've already said that we're sorry for what occurred, and we're deeply sorry to the families and what they must be feeling and going through as well," McClellan said. "The president is sorry for what occurred and the pain it has caused."

Asked why Bush himself had not apologized, McClellan said: "I'm saying it now for him."

Anger over the abuse and humiliation of prisoners - and the complaints of some leading lawmakers that they were kept in the dark about it for too long - continued to build on Capitol Hill, where the Senate Intelligence Committee was holding a closed hearing on the episode on Wednesday.

In response to a question from an interviewer, Bush said he stood behind Rumsfeld - "Oh, of course I've got confidence in the secretary of defense" - but Rumsfeld's fate remained a matter of discussion.

The Associated Press, quoting unnamed White House aides, reported that the president let the secretary know he was not satisfied with the way he was informed about the controversy. In particular, Bush was unhappy he was not told about incriminating pictures before they were shown on television or about a 2-month-old report before it turned up in the news.

Rumsfeld did not know about the images until CBS aired them April 28, the AP reported, quoting an unnamed senior White House official.

Sen. John McCain, an Arizona Republican and a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, did not rule out the possibility that Rumsfeld might have to go.

"I don't think you could reach that conclusion yet," McCain said on the ABC program Good Morning America. He went on, "Clearly, there has to be a full, complete, independent investigation."

In Los Angeles, Sen. John Kerry, Bush's Democratic rival, said the president's remarks were not enough.

"The president of the United States needs to offer the world an explanation and needs to take appropriate responsibility," he said. "And if that includes apologizing for the behavior of those soldiers and what happened, they ought to do that.

"I want to know, as I think Americans do, is this isolated? Does it go up the chain of command? Who knew what when?" he said. "All of those questions have to be answered, so I don't want to shoot from the hip."

The Army had disclosed Tuesday that its Criminal Investigation Division was investigating 10 prisoner deaths and that two other deaths already had been ruled homicides. On Wednesday, an intelligence official said the CIA inspector general was examining two additional deaths involving agency interrogators.

One took place at an Afghan prison near the Pakistan border in June 2003 and involved an independent contractor working for the CIA. The other death occurred at an unspecified location in Iraq and involved a CIA interrogator.

It was not clear if there was overlap between what the CIA and Army announced, and officials said they could not clarify the numbers.

It also was not clear Wednesday whether the June 6 death of an Iraqi prisoner at a U.S. military detention facility near the city of Nasiriyah, for which two Marines face a court-martial, is among the cases cited by the Army.

- Information from the Associated Press, New York Times and Washington Post was used in this report.

NOVEMBER 2003: Punishment for a fight at Abu Ghraib prison degenerates into torture. Iraqi prisoners are forced to strip, pile on top of each other and simulate sex acts. Report will later say some are beaten, threatened with weapons and sodomized.

FALL 2003: Army's chief law enforcement officer begins a review of prison system in Iraq. His Nov. 5 report cites potential human rights, training and manpower issues.

JAN. 13, 2004: Military authorities receive tip about misconduct at Abu Ghraib prison.

JAN. 31: Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba begins investigation of Abu Ghraib.

FEB. 23: Seventeen soldiers, including battalion commander and company commander, suspended pending outcome of investigation into allegations of abuse.

MARCH 3: Taguba presents his report to Lt. Gen. David McKiernan, commander of ground forces in Iraq.

MARCH 20: Six military police officers from 372nd Military Police Company charged with criminal violations. Investigation also targets seven in the brigade's chain of command, including Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, top prison official in Iraq.

APRIL 28: CBS' 60 Minutes II first broadcasts photographs of Iraqi prisoners being physically abused and sexually humiliated.

APRIL 30: New Yorker magazine discloses existence of Taguba's report on Abu Ghraib.

MAY 4: Army reveals that two Iraqi prisoners were killed by U.S. soldiers last year, and 20 other detainee deaths and assaults remain under criminal investigation in Iraq and Afghanistan, part of a total of 35 cases probed since December 2002.

MAY 5: Reports say CIA inspector general is investigating two other deaths, one at an Afghan prison and another in Iraq.

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