Kept in the dark on torture photos, Bush slams Rumsfeld

In his interviews Wednesday with Arab television networks, the President said that he learned the graphic details of the abuse case only when they were broadcast last Wednesday on the CBS programme 60 Minutes II. ‘‘When you see the pictures,’’ the official said, ‘‘it takes on a proportion of gravity that would require a much more extreme response than the way it was being handled.’’

Another White House official said: ‘‘The President was not satisfied or happy about the way he was informed about the pictures and he did talk to Secretary Rumsfeld about it.’’

The disclosure of the dressing-down of Rumsfeld was the first time that Bush has made public his anger with a senior member of his administration. It also exposed the fault lines in Bush’s inner circle.

Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, who is antagonistic to Rumsfeld, went so far on Tuesday night as to talk about the prison abuse scandal in the context of the My Lai massacre in the Vietnam War, a historical reference that was not in the White House talking points that sought to stem the damage from the scandal.

Powell, in an interview on CNN’s Larry King Live, said that he served in Vietnam ‘‘after My Lai happened’’ and that ‘‘in war, these sorts of horrible things happen every now and again, but they’re still to be deplored’’.

The scandal comes at a particularly difficult time for the White House, which is struggling for an orderly transfer of power to the Iraqis on June 30 and also engaged in a tight and expensive presidential re-election campaign against Senator John Kerry.

Karl Rove, the President’s chief political adviser, has told one Bush adviser that he believes that it will take a generation for the United States to live this scandal down in the Arab world, and that one of the dangers of basing a campaign on national security and foreign policy is that events can be beyond the President’s control.

Republicans noted a strong public relations aspect to the disclosures about the Oval Office scolding, which made Rumsfeld the scapegoat in the scandal. On Monday, Bush is scheduled to make a rare visit to the Pentagon, where he will meet with Rumsfeld on the Defense Secretary’s turf, receive a briefing on Iraq and make a public statement.

White House officials said that the visit had been planned before the abuse scandal erupted, but they acknowledged that its timing was opportune for Bush to make a public show of support for Rumsfeld.

It was unclear Wednesday from interviews with Pentagon officials exactly how much Rumsfeld knew about the scandal and when. Pentagon officials said that Rumsfeld was first notified about the pictures in mid-January, after a soldier turned them over to Army officials, prompting the opening of an investigation. A senior Pentagon official said that Rumsfeldwas told of the allegations of abuse and given a general description of the photographs.

Within weeks, the Pentagon official said, Rumsfeld told the President about the case. But it is not clear, the official said, whether Rumsfeld mentioned the photographs or their basic content to Bush at that point.

As recently as Monday, Pentagon officials said that Rumsfeld had not read a report that detailed the abuse. By Tuesday, Rumsfeld said in a briefing to reporters that he had only read parts of it.

Agencies add that Bush today apologised for the abuse and humiliation of Iraqi prisoners by US soldiers, saying the scenes of mistreatment had made Americans ‘‘sick to our stomachs’’.

A day after he stopped short of apologising, Bush told Jordan’s King Abdullah II: ‘‘I was sorry for the humiliation suffered by the Iraqi prisoners and the humiliation suffered by their families.’’ Standing in the Rose Garden alongside Abdullah, he added: ‘‘I told him I was as equally sorry that people seeing those pictures didn’t understand the true nature and heart of America.’’

However, the President rejected calls for the resignation of Rumsfeld, saying ‘‘he’s an important part of my cabinet and he’ll stay in my cabinet’’.

— (The New York Times)