WASHINGTON — President Bush appeared on two Arabic-language TV channels Wednesday to condemn the abuse of Iraqi prisoners, while U.S. officials from Washington to Baghdad issued apologies in an effort to stem the mounting political and public relations damage in the Middle East and around the world.
As congressional anger at the White House also escalated, Bush called the abuses "abhorrent" and promised "justice will be delivered."
"This is a serious matter. It's a matter that reflects badly on my country," Bush told Dubai-based Al Arabiya television. "Our citizens in America are appalled by what they saw, just like people in the Middle East are appalled."
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Sunday May 16, 2004 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 1 inches; 54 words Type of Material: Correction
Abuse reactions -- A May 6 article in Section A about reactions to the Iraqi prison scandal said that James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute, has conducted polls in the Middle East. He is a polling analyst, not a pollster, for Zogby International, the polling organization run by his brother, John Zogby.
The president's comments stopped short of an apology, but his spokesman went further. "The president is deeply sorry for what occurred and the pain that it has caused," said White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan.
Bush would have said so himself, McClellan said, if he had been asked the question directly.
The White House statements were part of a broad effort by the United States to contain the international outrage over abuse of Iraqi prisoners under American control. The furor was touched off last week when photographs surfaced of soldiers humiliating naked detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad.
In Iraq, U.S. military officers said they were shamed by the incidents. At checkpoints, usually brusque soldiers became pointedly courteous to Iraqis. At a briefing in Baghdad, military spokesman Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt's usual taciturn and tough military style gave way to words reflecting disgust.
"My Army's been embarrassed by this," Kimmitt said. "My Army's been shamed by this. And on behalf of my Army, I apologize for what those soldiers did to your citizens. It was reprehensible, and it was unacceptable. And it is more than just words.... We have to take those words into action and ensure that never happens again."
With the failure to turn up weapons of mass destruction, the Bush administration has increasingly justified the invasion and occupation of Iraq as a campaign to rid the country of human rights abuses perpetrated by the regime of Saddam Hussein. The abuses by U.S. soldiers, which took place in the same prison known as a site of torture and the disappearance of thousands under Hussein, threaten to undermine that rationale.
In his interviews with Arabic-language TV channels, which came on the same day he asked Congress for an additional $25 billion for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, Bush appeared to be trying to reverse the damage by turning the prison incidents into a lesson in democracy.
"It's also important for the people of Iraq to know that in a democracy, everything is not perfect, that mistakes are made," Bush told the U.S.-sponsored Al Hurra channel. "But in a democracy, as well, those mistakes will be investigated and people will be brought to justice."
"A dictator wouldn't be answering questions about this," Bush told Al Arabiya. "A dictator wouldn't be saying that the system will be investigated and the world will see the results of the investigation."
At the site of the abuse, the Army's new detention chief, Maj. Gen. Geoffrey D. Miller, offered contrite words.
"I would like to apologize for our nation, for our military," Miller told reporters at the Abu Ghraib complex, west of Baghdad.
"It has brought a cloud over the enormous efforts of hundreds of thousands of our soldiers. And we will work our hardest to reestablish the trust that Iraqis feel [for] the coalition, and the confidence that the people of America have in their military," he said.
Kimmitt said U.S. commanders throughout the country were encouraging their troops to reach out to Iraqis and show them that the Americans there were not all like the handful facing criminal charges or letters of reprimand in connection with the abuses. One senior military official said troops were being told to be honest with Iraqis and say, "We screwed up."
"Listen to those ... soldiers on the street, who are out there every day alongside your soldiers, your police," Kimmitt said. "They will tell you that those pictures you saw are not them. They will tell you that those pictures violated every value that they believe in."
The Washington Post reported today that it had obtained additional photos of prisoners as part of a collection of more than 1,000 pictures taken by military police in Iraq. Some are routine scenes, the Post said. But others show naked men, apparently prisoners, including one photo of "a soldier holding a leash tied around a man's neck in an Iraqi prison. He is naked, grimacing and lying on the floor."
The new photos, the newspaper said, were taken from last summer through the winter with several digital cameras. It said it could not eliminate the possibility that some of the photos were staged.
