Post by kevin on May 7, 2004 9:14:45 GMT -5
What Don Rumsfeld also needs to do is clamp down and hand down severe discipline and fire reckless, irresponsible and stupid contractors such as ad agencies and media support contracts granted to civilian companies who recklessly abuse and misuse the force and powers of the United States military for their own reckless personal use and to harm citizens on many levels and overstep their bounds making a total mockery of himself, the President and other chiefs of staff.
This type of reckless empowerment without any regard to proper military or governmental protocols is totally unacceptable and those who have used the power of the military for their own personal use and making of mockery of the presidency and allowing civilians to take and use the power of the military without proper license needs to be halted immediately and all those who have made a mockery of the presidency need to be fired and disciplined immediately.
Ad agency executives should NOT be allowed to get contracts that help support the military then recklessly abuse that power for personal uses without proper account or consequences for abusing that granting of access to military force.
www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/05/07/iraq.abuse.main/index.html
Aide: Rumsfeld to apologize on Hill
Defense chief faces grilling amid calls for resignation
Friday, May 7, 2004 Posted: 10:23 AM EDT (1423 GMT)
U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld is to appear Friday before the armed services committees of both the Senate and House of Representatives.
ON CNN TV
CNN plans live coverage of the Senate Armed Services Committee hearings with U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld starting at 11:30 a.m. ET (15:30 GMT) and the House of Representatives' Armed Services Committee at 3 p.m. ET (19:00 GMT). For a live video stream, look for the link on our home page.
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld is expected to apologize directly to Congress and the American people for not keeping lawmakers informed about the unfolding Iraqi prisoner abuse scandal, a senior Republican aide Friday told CNN.
But this congressional source said some Republicans are privately saying such an apology may be too little, too late.
The aide, speaking before Rumsfeld's scheduled two-hour testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee, summed up the comments of some GOP lawmakers as saying an apology -- and the creation of an independent panel Rumsfeld is also slated to announce -- should have been offered long before Rumsfeld's job was on the line.
CNN plans live coverage of Friday's sessions beginning at 11:30 ET (15:30 GMT) for Rumsfeld's Senate Armed Services Committee appearance and at 3 p.m. ET (19:00 GMT) for his appearance before the House of Representatives' Armed Services Committee.
It's anticipated that Rumsfeld will tell congressional committees Friday that he plans to form that independent panel to review how the Pentagon handled investigations into allegations of abuses of Iraqi prisoners, a senior administration official said.
He also is to bring a poster-size blowup of a Pentagon news release to counter accusations that he tried to keep lawmakers in the dark about the case.
Rumsfeld's testimony comes at a time when some Democratic lawmakers and editorials have called for him to resign. Even many Republican lawmakers have expressed anger with the Pentagon leadership.
President Bush dismissed such calls Thursday but also has made clear he believes he was kept in the dark by the Pentagon about the scope of the problem.
"He is an important part of my Cabinet and he will stay in my Cabinet," Bush said of Rumsfeld at a White House news conference with Jordan's King Abdullah II.
The White House said the president learned from media accounts that there were pictures of the prisoner abuse and a classified Pentagon report on the problem.
Senior officials said Rumsfeld also admitted he was unaware of certain information about the investigations -- an issue certain to come up in his congressional appearances. (Full story)
Rumsfeld starts his day on Capitol Hill at 11:45 a.m. before a two-hour open hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee. Afterward comes a closed session before the full Senate, followed by a hearing of the House Armed Services Committee at 3 p.m.
Rumsfeld will be accompanied at each session by Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and several top officials of the Army. (Full story)
Earlier in the day, Bush said he told Abdullah that he is "sorry for the humiliation suffered" by Iraqi prisoners at the hands of U.S. troops.
Bush said he told Abdullah the photos made him and others "sick to our stomachs." He said he made it clear that "wrongdoers will be brought to justice."
Among those calling Thursday for Rumsfeld to leave office was Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa.
"For the good of our country, the safety of our troops, and our image around the globe, Secretary Rumsfeld should resign," Harkin said in a statement. "If he does not resign forthwith, the president should fire him."
"He has to go. Nothing, I think, less will suffice," Harkin told CNN. "It's not enough just for Secretary Rumsfeld to say that some people in the lower ranks are responsible for this -- this goes all the way up."
A visual aid
"I think ultimately you have to go right up the chain to the secretary of defense or to the civilian leadership of the military," said Republican Sen. Pat Roberts of Kansas, a member of the Armed Services Committee.
"We don't know where this is going to lead."
Roberts said he wants to know "why on Earth" Bush and members of the Senate Armed Services and Senate Intelligence committees didn't learn of the extent of the abuse until the news media aired photographs showing naked Iraqis in humiliating positions as American soldiers smiled.
Rumsfeld plans to address such questions by bringing with him to Capitol Hill a poster-sized blowup of a news release issued January 16 on an investigation of prisoner abuse in Iraq, a Pentagon official told CNN.
Rumsfeld has asserted that U.S. Central Command "issued a press release to the world" the day after the investigation was launched and that the military was not trying to hide anything. The release did not name the prison or indicate the nature or scale of the abuse. (See release)
The investigation actually was one of several launched after allegations of abuse were sent up the chain of command in January, Rumsfeld said Tuesday.
One of the investigations, led by Army Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba, confirmed that Iraqi prisoners were being abused by soldiers and military contractors, according to a report of the probe.
Investigators interviewed dozens of witnesses and looked at "numerous photos and videos portraying in graphic detail actual detainee abuse" that were taken by personnel at Abu Ghraib prison on the outskirts of Baghdad.
The report said the abuse included threatening detainees with a pistol and with military dogs, sodomizing a prisoner with a chemical light and perhaps a broomstick, forcing naked prisoners into compromising positions and accusing them of being homosexuals. (Full story)
Sen. Tom Harkin, a Democrat from Iowa, is among lawmakers calling for Rumsfeld's resignation.
Six soldiers have been criminally charged in the case and six others have been reprimanded, with two of those relieved of duty, Rumsfeld has said.
Members of Congress also want to know why they weren't briefed last week when Rumsfeld testified just hours before CBS aired photos of the abuse.
Thursday morning, Rumsfeld canceled a planned speech in Philadelphia to focus on his Friday testimony. He met Thursday morning with four Republican members of the Senate Armed Service Committee.
One of those members, Jeff Sessions of Alabama, told CNN that Rumsfeld was upbeat and confident. He said Rumsfeld believes there's a "rational" explanation for everything that happened in the prison.
The Economist magazine Thursday called for Rumsfeld to resign, as did an editorial in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman called on Bush to fire Rumsfeld "today, not tomorrow or next month."
An editorial in the Washington Post blames Rumsfeld for developing the system that enabled the abuse to occur. The paper said Rumsfeld overturned decades of military practice handling detainees in foreign countries, including ruling that the U.S. military would no longer be bound by the Geneva Conventions.
Other developments
The Red Cross said Thursday it had "repeatedly requested U.S. authorities to take corrective action." Antonella Notari, chief spokeswoman for the International Committee of the Red Cross, said "some measures have already been taken," without revealing the ICRC's recommendations. (Full story)
The Washington Post published more photos Thursday apparently depicting U.S. soldiers mistreating prisoners at Abu Ghraib. One shows a female soldier, the same one shown in previous photos released by CBS, holding a leash tethered to the neck of a naked Iraqi prisoner lying on the ground. Another photo shows an Iraqi prisoner chained to a bed frame with women's underwear covering his face.
An Iraqi prisoner who died in November while being interrogated by a CIA officer and contract translator arrived at Abu Ghraib prison with "broken ribs and breathing difficulties" after being arrested by Navy SEALs, U.S. officials said Thursday. Unnamed Pentagon officials were quoted Wednesday saying the man had been delivered to the prison in "good health." (Full story)
CNN's John King, Jamie McIntyre, Ed Henry and Dana Bash contributed to this report.