US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is coming under increasing pressure over the abuse of prisoners held by his forces in Iraq although it appears this evening that he retains the full backing of the Bush administration.
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| Army private Lynndie England holds a leash tied to a naked Iraqi man at Abu Ghraib prison Photo: Washington Post |
As new photographs emerged of abuse by US forces in the infamous Abu Ghraib prison, aides of US president Mr George W Bush said the he had dressed down Mr Rumsfeld for not having alerted him to the severity of the abuse at the jail.
But this evening President Bush appeared to be standing by his embattled defense secretary, despite calls by Democrats for the Pentagon chief to resign over a growing scandal concerning the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by US soldiers.
"Secretary (Donald) Rumsfeld is a really good secretary of defense." Mr Bush said during a Rose Garden appearance with Jordan's King Abdullah.
"Secretary Rumsfeld has served our nation well. Secretary Rumsfeld has been the secretary during two wars and he is an important part of my Cabinet and he'll stay in my Cabinet."
It came to light today that the jail was the focus an investigation by a US general, Major-General Antonio Taguba, covering the period October-December 2003 and completed on March 3rd last. It cited incidents of "sadistic, blatant and wanton criminal abuses".
The new batch of photographs obtained by the
Washington Post
newspaper includes more graphic images of apparent Iraqi prisoners at a US military jail in Iraq.
The photographs are similar to those broadcast on CBS's
60 Minutes II
and published by the
New Yorker
magazine showing Iraqi prisoners in various images of humiliation, the
Washington Post
reported.
In one, a woman identified as Pfc. Lynndie England of the 372nd Military Police Company, holds what appears to be a dog's leash around the neck of a naked man at Abu Ghraib prison. She is the same woman who appeared in the first batch of photographs to emerge from the prison.
Inside the newspaper, there are three photos: a group of naked men are bound together on the floor of the prison; a hooded, naked man is handcuffed to a cell door; and another man is bound naked and arched with his arms behind him over the top bunk in a cell with a pair of women's panties over his head.
The new collection included more than 1,000 digital images ranging from scenes of mundane military life to pictures showing crude simulations of sex among soldiers.
Some of the pictures also appear to show American soldiers abusing prisoners, many of whom wear ID bands. However, the
Post
said that it could not eliminate the possibility that some of those images were staged.
The article said the photographs, taken from the summer of 2003 through the winter, were passed around among military police who served at the Abu Ghraib prison west of Baghdad.
According to the
Post
, the photographs were taken by several digital cameras and loaded onto compact discs, which circulated among soldiers in the 372nd Military Police Company, an Army Reserve unit based in Maryland.
The pictures were among those seized by military investigators investigating conditions at Abu Ghraib, a source close to the unit was quoted as telling the newspaper.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said today it had repeatedly urged the United States to take "corrective action" at the Baghdad jail.
Another international rights group, Christian Peacemaker Teams, which has been operating in Iraq on and off since late 2002, estimated that around 80 per cent of former detainees it interviewed had suffered abuse of one form or another.
Agencies