US/IRAQ: The US Defence Secretary, Mr Donald Rumsfeld, faced renewed calls for his resignation last night after a bruising session before Congress at which he admitted there was much worse to come in the prisoner abuse scandal, including videos of "sadistic, cruel and inhuman treatment" of Iraqi prisoners. Conor O'Clery, North America Editor reports
Mr Rumsfeld admitted that he considered resigning since the "firestorm" over abuse at Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad and that if he felt he could not remain effective in his post "I'd resign in a minute".
Asked if he would go if he thought this would demonstrate the seriousness of the US in tackling the crisis, he replied: "That's possible", but he said he would not resign "simply because people try to make a political issue out of it."
After his appearance before the Senate Armed Services Committee, televised live throughout the US and the Middle East, Democratic Senator Edward Kennedy called for Mr Rumsfeld's resignation and for his replacement by the Secretary of State, Mr Colin Powell, who he said had international respect.
In a day of rapid new disclosures in the scandal that has rocked the Bush administration, the Wall Street Journal revealed that the International Red Cross had submitted to the Bush administration in February a report of abuse "tantamount to torture" at Abu Ghraib.
The 24-page report contradicted the Pentagon's claims that abuse was not condoned by military command and disclosed that six unarmed prisoners were killed by guards firing on them from watchtowers.
Mr Rumsfeld startled Congress members by putting them on notice of worse to come. "There are a lot more photographs and videos that exist," he said.
"If these are released to the public, obviously it's going to make matters worse.
"I mean I looked at them last night and they're hard to believe," he said, "and if they're sent to some news organisation and taken out of the criminal prosecution channels that they're in, that's where we'll be. And it's not a pretty picture."
The Pentagon is separately reported to be investigating a claim by an Iraqi journalist held at Abu Ghraib that a girl as young as 12 was stripped and beaten by military personnel so her screams could be heard by her brother in another cell.
With his political future hanging by a thread, Mr Rumsfeld began his sworn testimony yesterday by offering his "deepest apology" to Iraqis abused in US military prisons and said he favoured paying compensation.
"These events occurred on my watch. As Secretary of Defence, I am accountable for them. I take full responsibility for them," Mr Rumsfeld said.
He also claimed he and the President were "blindsided" by the leak of the "radioactive" army report on abuse to the press before he saw it.
At one point a number of protesters in the Senate committee room chanted "Rumsfeld resign!" and "Rumsfeld war criminal" before being ushered out.
Mr Rumsfeld, who gave similar testimony later to a House committee, announced the creation of a panel of retired officials to examine "the pace, the breadth and the thoroughness" of investigations with orders to report in 45 days.
Acknowledging Senate anger at not being informed of the abuse before TV pictures appeared, he said: "I failed to recognise how important it was to elevate a matter of such gravity to the highest levels, including to the President and members of Congress."
Mr Rumsfeld was accompanied by Gen Richard Myers, Chief of the General Staff, and other generals, who individually claimed that the abuse was the work of individuals and was not systemic.
Republican Senator John McCain, a Vietnam POW, told Mr Rumsfeld angrily: "We risk losing support for the conflict, as Americans turned away from the Vietnam War."
After a testy exchange Mr Rumsfeld told him that guards at the prison were instructed to adhere to the Geneva Conventions, contradicting the testimony of the soldiers since charged with the abuse.
Mr Rumsfeld deflected questions about who gave the military police instructions to carry out the abuses at Abu Ghraib, saying that this was the task of a criminal investigation that would be completed in a couple of weeks.
Asked if anyone in command would be indicted, he said: "There's no way I can anticipate that" and he also disclosed that two civilian contractors who worked at the Abu Ghraib prison were under investigation.
Senator Jack Reed, who said that for 50 years the image of the US in the Islamic world would be of an American woman dragging a prostrate Iraqi on a leash, also failed to get an answer to who ordered the military police to act as they did.
There was no policy of softening up prisoners to enable interrogation, Mr Rumsfeld insisted.
He agreed, however, that not only the guards but commanders further up the military chain would be held accountable and that he was at the head of the chain of command.
Mr Rumsfeld was taken to task by Republican Senator Susan Collins for not disclosing the abuse when it became known in January, prompting an indignant outburst from the Defence Secretary who said he wished he had done that but he could not "reach down" into a military investigation and extract details and photographs.
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton linked the abuses to Mr Rumsfeld's statement in January 2002 that hundreds of detainees in Afghanistan would have no rights under the Geneva Conventions, which she said was "taken as a signal" by interrogators.
Gen Myers hotly defended his action in asking CBS to hold back the pictures last month, saying: "I thought it would kill our troops". He denied that he had consulted Mr Rumsfeld about the CBS request.
In a poll by ABC News and the Washington Post in midweek, 69 per cent said Mr Rumsfeld should not resign over the scandal.