Rueful Rumsfeld: `Cruel' truth hurts: Rape and murder feared in Iraq abuse
By Noelle Straub
Saturday, May 8, 2004
WASHINGTON - The Iraqi prisoner abuse scandal took an explosive turn yesterday with the revelation that photos and graphic videotapes not yet made public show abuses more horrific than those already seen.
Signaling the worst revelations are yet to come, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said the additional photos show ``acts that can only be described as blatantly sadistic, cruel and inhuman.''
``There are a lot more photographs and videos that exist,'' Rumsfeld testified before Congress.
``If these are released to the public, obviously it's going to make matters worse. That's just a fact.''
The unreleased images show American soldiers beating one prisoner almost to death, apparently raping a female prisoner, acting inappropriately with a dead body, and taping Iraqi guards raping young boys, according to NBC News.
Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said the scandal is ``going to get worse'' and warned that the most ``disturbing'' revelations haven't yet been made public.
``The American public needs to understand, we're talking about rape and murder here,'' he said. ``We're not just talking about giving people a humiliating experience; we're talking about rape and murder and some very serious charges.''
In daylong sworn testimony before the House and Senate Armed Services committees, Rumsfeld offered his ``deepest apologies'' for the prisoner abuses.
``These events occurred on my watch,'' Rumsfeld said. ``I take full responsibility.''
Under questioning, Rumsfeld admitted that ``it's possible'' his resignation would undo some of the damage inflicted by the scandal.
Some Democrats, including both Bay State senators, have called for Rumsfeld to step down.
``If I felt I could not be effective I would resign in a minute,'' Rumsfeld said. ``I would not resign simply because people try to make a political issue out of it.''
President Bush [related, bio] is so far standing by Rumsfeld.
In comments made public yesterday, Bush gave an interview to a third Arab television station in which he said six times that he was ``sorry'' about the prisoner abuse.
Testifying alongside Rumsfeld, Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, defended the military response to the abuses. He said officials acted quickly to investigate the incidents after a soldier reported them.
``Our commanders did exactly the right thing in a timely manner,'' Myers said.
Sen. Carl Levin, (D-Mich.), the top-ranking committee Democrat, said the incidents were not isolated but rather ``part of an organized and conscious process to extract information.''
Levin said military intelligence officers told the soldiers guarding Iraqis to treat them harshly to soften them up for interrogations.
But Rumsfeld denied that, insisted they were individual instances of misconduct.
Army Secretary Les Brownlee said military probes of 25 prisoner deaths found that a dozen were due to natural causes, one was justifiable homicide, two were homicides and the others were still under investigation.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) warned that the scandal, if not dealt with quickly, could turn Iraq into another Vietnam.
``We risk losing public support for this conflict,'' McCain said. ``As Americans turned away from the Vietnam War, they may turn away from this one.''
After the hearing, McCain said Rumsfeld's testimony failed to answer basic questions, such as how high up the chain of command the fault reaches.
Lawmakers promised to pursue a series of hearings into the matter.
Sen. Edward M. Kennedy [related, bio] (D-Mass.) called the scandal a ``catastrophic crisis of credibility for our nation.''
``In the Middle East and too often today, the symbol of America is not the Statue of Liberty. It's the prisoner standing on a box wearing a dark cape and a dark hood on his head, wires attached to his body, afraid that he's going to be electrocuted,'' he said.
