www.nytimes.com/2004/05/06/politics/06CABI.html?hp
President Bush on Wednesday chastised his defense secretary, Donald H Rumsfeld, for Mr Rumsfeld's handling of a scandal over the American abuse of Iraqis held at a notorious prison in Baghdad, White House officials said. The disclosures by the White House officials, under authorization from Mr Bush, were an extraordinary display of finger-pointing in an administration led by a man who puts a high premium on order and loyalty. The officials said the president had expressed his displeasure to Mr Rumsfeld in an Oval Office meeting because of Mr Rumsfeld's failure to tell Mr Bush about photographs of the abuse, which have enraged the Arab world. In his interviews on Wednesday with Arab television networks, Mr Bush said that he learned the graphic details of the abuse case only when they were broadcast last Wednesday on the CBS program "60 Minutes II." It was then, one White House official said, that Mr Bush also saw the photographs documenting the abuse. "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 the combative Mr Rumsfeld was the first time that Mr Bush has allowed his displeasure with a senior member of his administration to be made public. It also exposed the fault lines in Mr Bush's inner circle that have deepened with the violence and political chaos in American-occupied Iraq. Secretary of State Colin L Powell, who has often been at odds with Mr Rumsfeld, went so far on Tuesday night as to talk about the prison abuse scandal in the context of the My Lai massacre of hundreds of unarmed Vietnamese men, women and children by American troops, a historical reference that was not in the White House talking points that sought to stem the damage from the scandal. Mr Powell, in an interview on CNN's "Larry King Live," brought up My Lai without prompting, saying 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."
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. Despite the behind-the-scenes criticism of Mr Rumsfeld, Mr Bush insisted that the defense secretary still had his full support. "Of course I've got confidence in the secretary of defense," Mr Bush said in an interview with Al Hurra, an Arab television network. Republicans noted a strong public relations aspect to the disclosures about the Oval Office scolding, which made Mr Rumsfeld the scapegoat in the scandal. On Monday, Mr Bush is scheduled to make a rare visit to the Pentagon, where he will meet with Mr 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 Mr Bush to make a public show of support for Mr Rumsfeld after the messy events of Wednesday. Still, Mr Rumsfeld faced increasingly restive Republicans on Capitol Hill, who were angry that the defense secretary told them nothing about the photographs, which showed Iraqis stripped of their clothes, piled on top of one another and in positions that appeared to simulate sexual acts, when he briefed them last Wednesday, the same day that "60 Minutes II" broadcast its story. "No member of the Senate had any clue," said Senator Richard G Lugar, the Indiana Republican who is chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee. I think it's a total washout as far as communications, and it has to be rectified." "This is a disaster of significant proportions," Mr Biden said. It was unclear Wednesday from interviews with Pentagon officials exactly how much Mr Rumsfeld knew about the scandal and when. Pentagon officials said that Mr 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 Mr Rumsfeld was told of the allegations of abuse and given a general description of the photographs. Within weeks, the Pentagon official said, Mr Rumsfeld told the president about the case. But it is not clear, the official said, whether Mr Rumsfeld mentioned the photographs or their basic content to Mr Bush at that point. Mr Bush first mentioned the abuse scandal publicly last Friday in the Rose Garden, when he said he shared "deep disgust" about the photographs. That evening, he went to a party at Mr Rumsfeld's house in the Kalorama section of Washington, where it is not known whether he and his defense secretary talked about the pictures.
|
http://csua.com/feed/