IRAQ POW abuse photos held

The defense secretary paid a surprise visit to Iraq today.
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Bush administration lawyers are advising the Pentagon not to publicly release any more photographs of Iraqi prisoners being abused by U.S. soldiers, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said today at the outset of a hastily arranged visit to Iraq aimed at containing the abuse scandal.
"As far as I'm concerned, I'd be happy to release them all to the public and to get it behind us," Rumsfeld told reporters traveling with him from Washington. "But at the present time I don't know anyone in the legal shop in any element of the government that is recommending that."
The government lawyers argue that releasing such materials would violate a Geneva Convention stricture against presenting images of prisoners that could be construed as degrading, Rumsfeld said en route to the Iraqi capital on a trip that was not announced in advance because of security concerns.
Reassuring troops
Rumsfeld was accompanied by Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and several lawyers on a trip designed to reassure U.S. troops that the prisoner abuse scandal has not weakened public support for their mission and to get firsthand reports from the most senior commanders.
The trip followed President Bush's visit Monday to the Pentagon, where he got an update from commanders in Iraq and declared his unwavering support for Rumsfeld, who has taken a lot of criticism from members of Congress for his handling of the scandal. Some Democrats have called for his resignation, but Rumsfeld gave no indication Wednesday that he was considering quitting.
The 71-year-old defense chief did appear weary, however. He has weathered three lengthy rounds of questioning from congressional committees over the past several days. After taking questions aboard his plane for nearly an hour he called a sudden halt, saying his voice was giving out.
Defends Pentagon
He fiercely defended the Pentagon's response to the revelations of U.S. guards at the Abu Ghraib prison having subjected Iraqi prisoners to sexually humiliating treatment and photographing it.
"The garbage that you keep reading about cover-up and the Pentagon doing something to keep some information from people is unfair, inaccurate and wrong," he said. "And if I find any evidence that it's true, I'll stop it."
Rumsfeld also predicted that the abuse scandal would get worse in the days ahead.
"More bad things will come out, unquestionably," he said without being specific. "And time will settle this, and we'll be able to make an assessment of what the effect has been" on the effort to stabilize Iraq. "It clearly has not been helpful. It has been unhelpful."
He went on to complain bitterly about the Arab media's coverage of U.S. operations in Iraq.
"We have been lied about, day after day, week after week, month after month for the last 12 months in the Arab press." He specifically mentioned the al-Jazeera and al-Arabiya satellite TV networks.
Trip to Guantanamo
Among his first responses to the international outcry over the abuse photos, Rumsfeld sent Vice Adm. Albert T. Church, the Navy's top investigative officer, to the U.S.-run prison camp for terrorist suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, last week. Church, who accompanied Rumsfeld on his trip to Iraq, told reporters en route from Washington that he found no major problems at that prison in Cuba.
"The directions of the secretary of defense with respect to the humane treatment of detainees and the interrogation techniques were being carried out, as best we could determine," Church said. "We found minor infractions involving contact with detainees, and we documented eight of those."
Of the eight, four were violations by military police soldiers who guard the detainees at Guantanamo Bay, three were violations by interrogators and one was a barber who gave a detainee an "unauthorized haircut" -- a Mohawk-style cut that Church said amounted to humiliating the prisoner.
Battles in Karbala
Meanwhile, American forces battled Iraqi militiamen today in Karbala near a shrine that is one of the most sacred sites of Shia Islam. Thick smoke rose over the city center.
Fighters loyal to radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr pulled back and regrouped in alleys north of Imam Hussein shrine, and U.S. soldiers were positioned west and south of the site. Smoke wafted over the golden dome of the shrine, apparently from a nearby a power generator that had been set afire.
Fighting also raged near the city's Imam Abbas shrine. American forces are concerned that any damage to the two shrines could enrage Iraq's majority Shiite population as the United States tries to stabilize Iraq ahead of a transition to sovereignty June 30.
Imam Hussein was the son of the Shiites' most revered saint, Imam Ali Ibn Abu Talib, the prophet Mohammed's cousin and son-in-law. Hussein was killed in a 7th century battle with the army of a Muslim Sunni leader, and Shiites view his death as the defining moment of their history.
Abbas, the namesake of Karbala's other prominent shrine, was a half brother of Hussein's.
Baghdad violence
Insurgents fired two mortar rounds in central Baghdad today. The first fell near the office of the International Committee of the Red Cross, breaking glass in an adjacent building. The ICRC withdrew most foreign staff from Iraq after a deadly blast at its Baghdad headquarters last year.
The second mortar shell fell on top of a building in the crowded Karrada district, injuring one person and breaking windows in nearby shops.
Also today, a rocket landed in a gas plant at the Dora oil refinery in Baghdad, injuring a worker and triggering a blaze that firefighters quickly extinguished. Dora is the biggest oil refinery in the capital.
On Wednesday, a bomb exploded beside a U.S. military convoy in Baghdad, killing one U.S. soldier and injuring another, the U.S. military said.
A total of 774 U.S. service members have died in Iraq since the beginning of military operations last year. Of those, 564 died as a result of hostile action and 210 died of nonhostile causes.