Bush tells Rumsfeld to punish abusers

1.00pm - By ADAM ENTOUS

WASHINGTON - US President George W Bush pressed his defence secretary to ensure "strong actions" are taken against those responsible for abusing Iraqi prisoners as finger-pointing broke out over who is to blame for the widening scandal.

The military said it reprimanded six senior officers in connection with abuses at the Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad after photographs were published and broadcast around the world showing naked Iraqi prisoners stacked in a pyramid or positioned to simulate sex acts with one another.

However, Army Reserve Brig Gen Janis Karpinski, who oversaw the prison, said responsibility for abuses there should be shared by Lt Gen Ricardo Sanchez, the commander of US forces in Iraq.

Gen Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, also came under fire for saying he had not yet read an Army report said to document "sadistic, blatant and wanton criminal abuses" of Iraqi prisoners, including beatings and sodomy.

"This is an unacceptable response. ... It's not the level of concern the American people would expect of their military commanders for this type of conduct," Sen. Jeff Bingaman, a New Mexico Democrat, said on the Senate floor.

Bush discussed the scandal by telephone on Monday with Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, and urged "strong actions," according to White House spokesman Scott McClellan.

"The president wanted to make sure appropriate action was being taken against those responsible for these shameful, appalling acts," McClellan said. "They should be held fully accountable for their actions."

He said Bush wants a full review of the treatment of prisoners "throughout the prison system in Iraq."

However, even Bush's Republican allies said damage to US standing was already done and would be difficult to repair.

"Unfortunately, in that part of the world, the fact that the president and the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff and other military people say 'this is unacceptable, we won't abide by it, the guilty will be punished' and so on, that kind of gets lost on them, and you can see why," said Sen Jon Kyl of Arizona, a member of the Senate Republican leadership.

Karpinski, who oversaw 26 facilities in Iraq before leaving earlier this year as part of a rotation of US forces, said she was not aware of the abuse at Abu Ghraib and was shocked by photographs aired last week by the US network CBS.

One of the most shocking shows a prisoner, standing on a box with wires attached to his hands and feet, who was told he would be electrocuted if he stepped off it.

The alleged abuses were said to have involved around 20 prisoners and took place in November and December last year at a prison notorious in the Saddam Hussein era for its torture chambers. Six other soldiers were already being criminally investigated for their involvement.

While the military investigated its own, a senior CIA official said the agency's inspector general was conducting an investigation of the death of one Iraqi prisoner while being held at Abu Ghraib.

However, the official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said he was not aware that any CIA officers involved in interrogating prisoners there participated in the abuses depicted in the recent photographs.

Karpinski said cell blocks where the abuse allegedly took place were under the control of military intelligence whose brigade commander had told her many times his MPs were doing a "great job and we're getting more information."

"I did not know anything about it. Had I known anything about it, I certainly would have reacted very quickly," she said on ABC's Good Morning America.

- REUTERS

Herald Feature: Iraq