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Politics : Stockman Scott's Political Debate Porch -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Skywatcher who wrote (44917)	5/5/2004 8:34:27 AM
From: one_less	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 89467

Bush to Discuss Prison Abuses on Arab TV Murder of Prisoner Under Investigation By JOHN J. LUMPKIN, AP WASHINGTON (May 5) - Trying to contain an increasingly damaging controversy, President Bush planned two interviews with Arab television to underscore his aversion to photographs of naked detainees and gloating U.S. soldiers at a prison in Iraq. ''This is an opportunity for the president to speak directly to the people in Arab nations and let them know that the images that we all have seen are shameless and unacceptable,'' White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Tuesday night. McClellan said the two 10-minute interviews were scheduled for Wednesday. Other administration officials tried to assure the American public and the world that the abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad was an aberration, and that guilty parties would be dealt with swiftly and firmly. They listed a host of investigations that were under way, as members of Congress called for their own probe. Secretary of State Colin Powell said he was shocked by the revelations but that a ''fairly small number of soldiers'' was involved. ''I was in a unit that was responsible for My Lai,'' Powell, a former Army general, said on CNN's ''Larry King Live'' program, referring to the notorious 1968 incident when U.S. soldiers gunned down hundreds of Vietnamese villagers in what was thought to be a Viet Cong stronghold. ''I got there after My Lai happened. So in war these sorts of horrible things happen every now and again, but they're still to be deplored.'' In the face of worldwide condemnation, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld called the images of physical and sexual abuses at Abu Ghraib ''totally unacceptable and un-American,'' adding that no one should believe the behavior captured in the photographs was tolerated. Inside Abu Ghraib Prison ''The actions by U.S. military personnel in those photos do not in any way represent the values of our country or of the armed forces,'' Rumsfeld said. Condoleezza Rice, Bush's national security adviser, told the Arab television network Al Arabiya that Bush was ''determined to find out if there is any wider problem than just what happened at Abu Ghraib. And so he has told Secretary Rumsfeld that he expects an investigation, a full accounting.'' In a sign the probe of prisoner treatment was widening, U.S. military officials acknowledged Tuesday that a CIA contract interrogator was under investigation in connection with the death of an Iraqi prisoner. Army investigators determined the death of the prisoner in November was a homicide, and turned the case over to the Justice Department, which was investigating, Army officials said Tuesday. An additional 20 deaths and assaults of prisoners were still under investigation, they said. So far, six military police face charges that may lead to courts-martial; seven more have been disciplined administratively. Rumsfeld offered few new details of what had taken place at Abu Ghraib, a notorious prison during Saddam Hussein's regime that was taken over by U.S. troops. It was Maj. Gen. Donald Ryder, the Army provost marshal, who acknowledged the homicide finding. Other Army officials provided some details, including that it involved a CIA contractor. The circumstances of the death and the identity of both the interrogator and prisoner were uncertain.