>>Source: Bush unhappy with defense chief
Bush 'not satisfied' with how he learned of prison abuse
Wednesday, May 5, 2004 Posted: 7:18 PM EDT (2318 GMT)
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush told Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld on Wednesday that he was "not satisfied" at the way he received information about charges that Iraqi prisoners had been abused by U.S. soldiers at Abu Ghraib prison, a senior administration official told CNN.
At a private Oval Office meeting, Bush complained about learning of the existence of photographs showing Iraqi prisoners being humiliated and degraded from media accounts, the official said.
"He was not happy, and he let Secretary Rumsfeld know about it," the official said.
Bush also voiced concern that he was not kept up to speed on important information about the scope of the problem -- and how the Pentagon was handling it, the official said.
Rumsfeld also made clear that he, too, felt "he didn't know some things he should have," according to the senior official, along with another official.
Despite the blunt exchange, however, both Bush and his press secretary, Scott McClellan voiced confidence in Rumsfeld, who has been under fire on Capitol Hill for the way the Pentagon has handled the burgeoning controversy.
Rumsfeld will testify Friday morning about the abuse reports in a two-hour open hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the panel's chairman, Republican Sen. John Warner of Virginia.
The open hearing will be followed by a closed hearing before the full Senate, Warner said Wednesday on the Senate floor.
Rumsfeld will be accompanied by Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and by a high-ranking official of the Department of the Army, Warner said.
Warner had been in daylong discussions with Rumsfeld and his staff to schedule the appearance for Thursday, but the secretary said he could not because of a previously scheduled speech in Philadelphia, sources told CNN.
Earlier in the day, Bush told two Arabic-language television networks that abuse of Iraqi prisoners was "abhorrent" and would reinforce anti-American sentiment in the region.
"I think people in the Middle East who want to dislike America will use this as an excuse to remind people about their dislike." Bush told the Al-Arabiya network. "I think the average citizen will say, 'This isn't the country I've been told about.'"
In a separate interview with U.S.-sponsored Alhurra network, Bush said: "People in Iraq must understand that I view those practices as abhorrent.
"They must also understand that what took place in that prison does not represent the America that I know."
An internal report by the Defense Department determined that Iraqi prisoners were being abused.
Investigators, led by Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba, interviewed dozens of witnesses and looked at "numerous photos and videos portraying in graphic detail actual detainee abuse" that were taken by personnel at Abu Ghraib prison on the outskirts of Baghdad.
Bush condemned the abuse as un-American.<<
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