Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld extended his “deepest apology” Friday to Iraqi prisoners abused by U.S. military personnel, telling Congress that he accepted full responsibility for the shocking events. But he warned that worse was yet to come.
The apology did not keep lawmakers from harshly questioning Rumsfeld, who was criticized by Republican John McCain of Arizona for not having answers about “who was in charge of the interrogations” at Abu Ghraib, the prison on the outskirts of Baghdad where the abuse took place.
Rumsfeld said in his opening statement before the Senate Armed Services Committee that “these events occurred on my watch. As secretary of defense, I am accountable for them. I take full responsibility.” Insisting that the abuses were at the hands of very few soldiers, Rumsfeld also vowed to bring those guilty to justice and to ensure that such abuses did not happen again.
But Rumsfeld warned the committee that the worst was yet to come. He said he had looked at the full array of unedited photographs of the situation at Abu Ghraib for the first time Thursday night and found them “hard to believe.”
“There are other photos that depict incidents of physical violence towards prisoners, acts that can only be described as blatantly sadistic, cruel and inhumane," he said. “... It’s going to get a good deal more terrible, I’m afraid.”
Rumsfeld did not describe the photos, but U.S. military officials told NBC News that the unreleased images showed U.S. soldiers severely beating an Iraqi prisoner nearly to death, having sex with a female Iraqi female prisoner and “acting inappropriately with a dead body.” The officials said there was also a videotape, apparently shot by U.S. personnel, showing Iraqi guards raping young boys.<...>
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4855930/DTH
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