Release photos! Pentagon urged
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-05-11 19:49

Senior U.S. lawmakers from both parties are calling for the immediate public release of all photos and videos depicting abuse and torture at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison.

If the United States is to move beyond the prison scandal and assure the world it will not happen again, it cannot sit on evidence or allow select congressional decision-makers see them first to try to desensitize the American public before their release, many said yesterday.

The fate of the unreleased photos came during a weekend when fresh questions were raised about U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's ability to continue to lead American troops and senior Pentagon officials began questioning whether the U.S. can win the war in Iraq.

"One thing I know about scandals - they go on and on and on until the American people feel they have a full and complete picture of what happened," influential Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona said on Fox News Sunday.

"All the information concerning this situation should be brought out, aired, ventilated, and the American people and perhaps people in the Arab world need to be convinced that we are never going to allow such a thing to happen again."

The Pentagon will allow Congress to see the unreleased photos, described by Rumsfeld as "sadistic and inhuman," today, said Virginia Senator John Warner, chair of the Senate armed services committee.

Warner, a Republican, would not say when the photos would be released to the public and there was Democratic criticism of an apparent administration strategy to allow congressional leaders to speak of their horror and disgust of the photos for the better part of a week before releasing the pictures, in a bid to lessen their impact.

The New Yorker magazine yesterday posted a new photo on its Web site showing a naked Iraqi prisoner cowering in fear, his hands behind his head, as military guards approach with at least two snarling dogs.

A subsequent picture shows the man bleeding profusely from the aftermath of the dog attack, the magazine said.

McCain said to hold back pictures or to hold back the videos and only show them to members of the U.S. Congress " is foolish because they'll leak out but, second of all, it is sending the wrong signal."

His views were echoed by another senior Republican, South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham.

"If there are more photos, if there's a video, for God's sake, lets talk about it; let's get it all out on the table.

"This is not about command influence, this is about rape and murder. This isn't just humiliation, this is a systematic failure and criminal offences,'' Graham said on NBC's Meet the Press.

Rumsfeld, during six hours of gruelling testimony to Senate and House committees last Friday revealed there were unreleased photos and videos that, if shown to the American people, will only worsen the situation.

Meanwhile, Spc. Jeremy Sivits, 24, a member of the 372nd Military Police Company, will become the first of seven soldiers to face a public court martial on May 19 in Baghdad for his role in the mistreatment, Brig.-Gen. Mark Kimmitt said yesterday.

Republican Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, a senior member of the foreign relations committee, told the CBS' Face the Nation: "You can't dribble these out, and play cute little technical games, by saying, well, `if we let it go for about a week, and then it will prepare the American people for the worst.'"

Published accounts and interviews have painted a picture of a reserve unit, poorly trained and not made aware of any of the provisions of the Geneva Convention, succumbing to pressure from superiors to do what was necessary to extract valuable intelligence from detainees.

The pressure came from commanders who were concerned that insurgents' attacks were escalating and U.S. casualties were mounting, but the 372nd Military Police Company out of Cresaptown, Md., inherited a situation already careening out of control with 7,000 prisoners in Abu Ghraib, almost double the earlier count of detainees.

New speculation about Rumsfeld's future came after The Washington Post published a front-page article quoting military brass questioning the overall war strategy in Iraq.

U.S. Army Maj.-Gen. Charles Swannack, commander of the 82nd Airborne Division, said the United States is winning militarily, but he thought it was losing "strategically."

Hagel delivered a warning to Rumsfeld and Gen. Richard Myers, chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, using the type of language that could give the White House pause. "I think it's still in question whether Secretary of Defence Rumsfeld and, quite frankly, Gen. Myers, can command the respect and the trust and the confidence of the military and the American people to lead this country," Hagel said.

The White House had been watching to see whether senior Republicans turned on Rumsfeld, although they gave him a strong vote of confidence during the weekend.

"Over the next couple of weeks then the president is going to have to make some hard choices here," Hagel said. "The president is the commander-in-chief. The secretary of defence, the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, they serve at his pleasure, they serve to implement the president's policies.

"This is as serious a problem that we've had since Vietnam."

U.S. Vice-President Dick Cheney rushed to Rumsfeld's aid, saying people should "get off his case."

"Don Rumsfeld is the best secretary of defence the United States has ever had," Cheney said in a statement from his office late Saturday.

Graham took an unusual swing at Cheney for his remarks.

He said it is the job of Congress to get to the bottom of the scandal and the Cheney comments are just as "inappropriate" as comments from those who tried to politicize the situation by calling for Rumsfeld's resignation before he even testified last Friday.

Bush meets with Rumsfeld at the Pentagon today and is expected to make a show of support for his defence secretary.

In Britain, pressure mounted on Prime Minister Tony Blair yesterday with politicians demanding to know what action the government took over reports of mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners by British troops.

Hounded by members of all parties, British Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon agreed to make a statement to parliament today.

Blair yesterday apologized for any abuses committed by British soldiers in Iraq, and said those responsible would be punished.

"We apologize deeply to anyone who has been mistreated by any of our soldiers," Blair told French television during a visit to Paris. "That is absolutely and totally unacceptable. Those who are responsible for this, if they have behaved in this appalling way, they will be punished."

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