Bush reaches out to quell Arab rage at inmate abuse

WASHINGTON -- President Bush condemned the abuse of Iraqi prisoners yesterday during a pair of interviews with Arabic-language television networks, seeking to convey his disgust with the inmates' treatment directly to an outraged Arab world.

But during the interviews with the Al Hurra and Al Arabiya television networks -- held 15 minutes apart in the Map Room of the White House -- Bush did not apologize for the abuse, which has inflamed anti-American sentiment across the Arab world. In response to a question, Bush also offered support for Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld, who has come under fire for the US military's handling of the abuse allegations.

But privately yesterday morning, Bush reportedly rebuked Rumsfeld and said he should have been told sooner of the evidence of the abuse, including photographs of Iraqi prisoners who had been forced to strip naked and assume humiliating poses. [Story, Page A28.]

''First, the people in Iraq must understand that I view those practices as abhorrent," Bush told Al Hurra. ''They must also understand that what took place in that prison does not represent the America that I know."

The president's interviews were part of a concentrated effort by the administration to gain favor in Iraq and other infuriated Arab nations. In Baghdad, the new commander of the Abu Ghraib prison, where the abuse occurred, issued a public apology and said he had imposed new rules to prevent future mistreatment of prisoners.

But Iraqis saw the American statements largely as attempts at damage control. .

''These sound like false lies, like a justification to people," said Safar al-Jaff, a 30-year-old professor of electronics at a Baghdad technical college, after listening to Bush's interview last night with Al Arabiya, based in Dubai and funded by Saudi Arabia. Playing backgammon with a friend in the garden of a riverside cafe, Jaff said, ''Iraqis like honesty."

Senator John F. Kerry, while stopping short of explicitly criticizing the president's unwillingness to apologize, said Bush's remarks on the topic have fallen short.

''The president of the United States needs to offer the world an explanation and needs to take appropriate responsibility," Kerry, the Democrats' presumptive nominee for the presidency, said at a news conference in Los Angeles. ''And if that includes apologizing for the behavior of those soldiers and what happened, we ought to do that."

Bush in recent days had denounced the abuse, but his previous remarks did not stem surging Arab anger caused by the pictures taken at the Abu Ghraib prison, outside Baghdad.

The images have severely damaged US efforts to build trust among Iraqis as the administration prepares to hand over sovereignty to Iraq on June 30.

Bush told Al Hurra, which is financed by the US government and based in Washington, that ''those mistakes will be investigated, and people will be brought to justice." When asked whether he would allow the International Red Cross and other human rights organizations to visit prisoners under US control, he said the United States would ''cooperate with" the Red Cross.

The Bush administration has been reluctant to allow international human rights officials to visit with detainees who have been captured in various military campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan. White House press secretary Scott McClellan said Red Cross officials already have access to prisoners under US control, but he did not directly answer questions about whether other human rights officials will be able to visit those being held by the US military.

Appearing rigid and somber for much of the interviews, Bush said he did not see the pictures of the prison abuse until they were aired April 28 on the CBS television program ''60 Minutes II." The Pentagon has said that it knew of the allegations and the pictures for months. A CBS producer said Tuesday the network delayed airing its report for two weeks after a personal request from General Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. While Bush himself did not apologize for the abuse, McClellan did so on his behalf during his news briefing after the president's interviews.

''We've already said we're deeply sorry for what occurred," McClellan said. ''The White House has already said that on behalf of the president."

Two top US military officials in Iraq offered their own forceful apologies yesterday.

Major General Geoffrey Miller, commander of US-run prisons in Iraq, gave reporters a tour of Abu Ghraib, where inmates were tortured during Saddam Hussein's reign. ''I would like to apologize for our nation and for our military for the small number of soldiers who committed illegal or unauthorized acts here at Abu Ghraib," Miller said.

Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, spokesman for US command in Iraq, also apologized.

''My army has been embarrassed by this," Kimmitt said as he was grilled by Arab journalists during a news conference in Baghdad. ''My army has 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."

The apologies from military officials in Iraq went much further than anything offered from Bush administration officials in Washington. Rumsfeld has angered even some of the administration's Republican supporters in Congress because of what they view as the Pentagon's slow response to the abuse allegations.

Bush told Al Hurra that ''of course I've got confidence in the secretary of defense, and I've got confidence in the commanders on the ground in Iraq because they and our troops are doing great work on behalf of the Iraqi people."

But key figures in Congress have asked, in light of the disclosures of the treatment at Abu Ghraib, how widespread the abuse of Iraqi prisoners has become, and they vented their anger at not being told by Rumsfeld what his department knew about the abuse allegations before they came to light.

Representative Edward J. Markey, a Malden Democrat who is a member of the House Homeland Security Committee, called for the Defense Department's inspector general to investigate the abuse allegations.

''I also believe we need congressional hearings to examine how such abuses could have occurred, whether there was a breakdown in the military and civilian chain of command at the Pentagon and the intelligence community that resulted in these abuses not being more promptly detected, halted, and reported to the Congress," a statement from Markey said.

Senator John Warner, a Virginia Republican who chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee, called on Rumsfeld to appear before his committee, and the defense secretary is scheduled to appear tomorrow.

Senator Joseph R. Biden of Delaware, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told NBC's ''Today Show" that someone should be held responsible for the abuse. ''If it goes all the way to Rumsfeld, then he should resign," Biden said.

Rumsfeld testified before a closed Senate Intelligence Committee hearing yesterday, and members said before that meeting that they would ask the defense secretary detailed questions about the abuses.

Bush said he has demanded that Rumsfeld give him a full accounting of what happened at the prison.

''I have told our secretary of defense, and I have instructed him to tell everybody else in the military, I want to know the full extent of the operations in Iraq, the prison operations," Bush told Al Arabiya.

Kerry said he has long felt that Rumsfeld should resign because of poor planning for the Iraq war and its aftermath: ''I called for Secretary Rumsfeld's resignation months ago, based on his miscalculations with respect to Iraq. . . I want to know . . . is this isolated" Glen Johnson of the Globe staff contributed to this report from Los Angeles, and Globe correspondent Vivienne Walt contributed from Baghdad. Material from wire services also was included.