Secrecy on POW abuses gets Rumsfeld in trouble

The president said he scolded the defense secretary but stands by him.
COMBINED DISPATCHES
WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration's secretive ways have landed a key player in political peril.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is in hot water not because U.S. troops abused Iraqi prisoners but because Congress learned about it the same way the rest of the world did -- from news reports.
"The Congress should have been notified of this situation a long time ago," said Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., echoing past congressional complaints about the administration's penchant for secrecy.
President Bush said Thursday that Rumsfeld should have alerted the White House months ago about gruesome photographs depicting abuse of Iraqi prisoners, but he expressed confidence in his Pentagon chief and said he would not ask him to leave the Cabinet.
Resignation called for
As leading Democrats called for Rumsfeld's resignation, Bush issued his first direct apology to an Arab world that is infuriated by the conduct of American soldiers inside U.S.-run prisons in Iraq. The president, who has previously stopped short of outright contrition, said he "was sorry for the humiliation suffered by the Iraqi prisoners and the humiliation suffered by their families."
"The acts were abhorrent. They sickened my stomach," Bush said, standing alongside Jordan's King Abdullah II in the Rose Garden. "Any decent soul doesn't want a human being treated in that way. It's a stain on our country's honor and our country's reputation. I fully understand that."
Hoping to contain a worldwide outcry and a growing political furor at home, the president stood behind Rumsfeld even as he made it known he was displeased with his administration's handling of the Iraqi abuse investigation. Bush said that in the Oval Office late Wednesday, he chastised the defense secretary, telling him: "I should have known about the pictures and the report."
Armed services appearance
Rumsfeld is sure to be peppered with criticism today when he goes before the Senate and House Armed Services Committees, where lawmakers are eager to hear about Defense Department investigations initiated earlier this year into prisoner abuse complaints.
A rising chorus of Democrats called for the defense chief's resignation or dismissal Thursday, and one suggested impeaching him.
In Congress, lawmakers from both parties said they resented being caught by surprise about military investigations that began in January.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat who is among those calling for the defense secretary's ouster, said it is unacceptable that members of Congress learned about the prison abuse by watching CBS's "60 Minutes II."
Many former American POWs are dismayed at the alleged abuse, saying they can't understand why guards responsible for prisoner safety would humiliate and abuse their charges.
Howard Lowenberg, 78, of the Pittsburgh suburb of Penn Hills, was captured at the Battle of the Bulge and spent five months as a German POW.
"To do something like that, it's not American," he said.
"It sounds silly, but it seems there are rules in a war and rules are to be respected."
Alfred Flowers, who was captured in Italy after running into Germans while on patrol, said, "We got treated lousy at times, but they [had] never done anything like that, what I see on television now."
Allegations against British
Meanwhile, a tabloid newspaper reported today that British soldiers punched and kicked Iraqi prisoners and one corporal poked a detainee's eyes until the man screamed.
The Daily Mirror quoted an unidentified British soldier as saying he saw four brutal beatings of prisoners during his deployment in southern Iraq. The man reportedly said British troops regularly placed sandbags over captives' heads and hit their faces, and that officers sanctioned such actions.