Rumsfeld apologises for abuse, says worse to come

3.00pm

WASHINGTON - Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld took responsibility on Friday for the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by US troops and offered his "deepest apology" to the victims, but said he would not resign just to satisfy his political enemies.

"These events occurred on my watch as secretary of defence. I am accountable for them. I take full responsibility," Rumsfeld told the Senate Armed Services Committee. He pledged not to hunt for "scapegoats."

Warning that he had seen new photographs and a videotape not yet made public that were hard to believe, Rumsfeld said more damaging revelations might be coming that could inflict even more damage on the US reputation.

"I feel terrible about what happened to these detainees. They are human beings, they were in US custody, our country had an obligation to treat them right. We didn't. That was wrong," Rumsfeld said, adding that the United States would seek to compensate victims of abuse.

"To those Iraqis who were mistreated by members of the US armed forces, I offer my deepest apology," he said.

The tense hearings, broadcast live in the Arab world as well as the United States, carried major implications for Rumsfeld's future but also for Americans' support for President Bush and the war in Iraq.

Foreign policy experts said the scandal would make it harder to achieve the US goal of "democratisation" in Iraq.

A new Gallup Poll of US adults showed support for Bush's handling of the Iraq war at just 42 per cent, a record low and down 19 points from a January poll.

At the end of the Senate hearing, Rumsfeld appeared to have retained the support of most Republicans on the committee, although some said there were still serious questions he had not answered. But the defence secretary seemed to have done enough to keep his job -- at least in the short term.

Bush, campaigning in the US heartland, promised to repair America's beleaguered human rights record. "We will find out the truth and everybody will see the truth," he said.

Rumsfeld said Bush was caught off guard by the scandal. "I failed. The president was blindsided. The Congress was blindsided. Everyone at this table was blindsided," he said.

Rumsfeld, lacking his trademark bravado, told the Senate and later the House Armed Services Committee that he had created a special commission to investigate the actions. But Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain said Americans needed all the available information at once, adding he was concerned that images of abuse would erode domestic support for the war.

Reaction in the Arab world was skeptical at best. "The Americans are playing God and they don't want to be answerable to anybody," said Jassem Ali Hussein, watching from a restaurant in the Bahraini capital Manama.

The hearing "is not going to stop torture completely but the Americans are going to be more careful," he said.

The Vatican called the abuse an offense against God.

KERRY ACCUSES BUSH

Several Democrats, including presidential candidate John Kerry, have called for Rumsfeld's resignation because of the physical and sexual abuse of Iraqis held at the Abu Ghraib prison west of Baghdad, which had previously served as a torture center under deposed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

Kerry called on Bush to take full responsibility for the scandal because "the chain of command goes all the way to the Oval Office."

The president said he retained confidence in Rumsfeld.

Asked by South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsay Graham whether he could still perform his duties effectively, Rumsfeld said: "Needless to say, if I felt I could not be effective, I would resign in a minute. I would not resign simply because people are trying to make a political issue out of it."

He also said it would be "not a bad idea" to tear down the Abu Ghraib prison.

Rumsfeld said he erred by failing to grasp the significance of the scandal and informing the president. "I failed to recognize how important it was to elevate a matter of such gravity to the highest levels, including the president and the members of Congress," he said.

And he assured Congress he would not duck his responsibilities. "I don't believe it would be right for me to run around looking for scapegoats so you can toss someone over the side."

So far, six people have been criminally charged and six military personnel have been reprimanded. The Army said on Friday it was investigating possible abuse by US soldiers of 42 Iraqi civilians in addition to the prison probe.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said on Friday there had been widespread abuse and human rights violations, tantamount to torture, in U.S.-controlled Iraqi detention centers, which appeared to go beyond the revelations that have emerged from Abu Ghraib.

Rumsfeld repeatedly said he had not realized the extent of the abuse until he saw the photographs. He said he had seen more horrific images on Thursday evening that he feared would further damage the United States.

The scandal exploded last week with the release of photographs showing grinning uniformed personnel posing in front of naked detainees. One photograph that appeared on Thursday depicted a naked Iraqi on his knees with a leash around his neck that was held by an American servicewoman.

The New York Times, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, New York Newsday, Boston Globe, Minneapolis Star Tribune and Detroit Free Press all called for Rumsfeld to step down in editorials on Thursday or Friday.

The US military also said on Friday it had punished two Army Reserve soldiers who assaulted prisoners while working as guards at the Guantanamo Bay prison for terrorism suspects.

- REUTERS

Herald Feature: Iraq