Rumsfeld calls abuse ‘body blow for all of us’

ABU GHRAIB, Iraq — Hoping to contain a spreading scandal, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld went to the Abu Ghraib prison camp on Thursday and insisted the Pentagon did not try to cover up abuses there. A top general with him said he had given clear guidelines months ago on the humane way to question Iraqi prisoners.

Rumsfeld arrived at Abu Ghraib by helicopter in a dust storm on a trip that provided respite from a storm of a different sort back in Washington. There, the No. 2 general and civilian at the Pentagon both indicated Thursday that interrogation techniques used in Iraq had violated the Geneva Conventions and said they did not know who, if anyone, had approved the use of those techniques.

The two, Marine Gen. Peter Pace and Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, said they were unaware of any U.S. military rules for interrogating prisoners that would allow them to be put in stressful positions, deprived of sleep for up to 72 hours, threatened with dogs or kept in isolation for more than 30 days.

Images of abuse have appeared in photos of Iraqi prisoners that were taken by American military guards at the prison near Baghdad. Pentagon officials have said the abuses reflected in the photos went beyond approved interrogation techniques.

In Karbala, heavy gunfire and huge explosions rumbled Thursday through this Shiite holy city as fighters loyal to radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr refused to end their standoff with American forces, despite losing one of their main bases at a mosque.

Big blasts were heard late Thursday in another holy city, Najaf, where al-Sadr’s Shiite militiamen also face American troops. U.S. troops are trying to disband the cleric’s army and sideline its radical leadership before handing power to a new Iraqi government June 30.

In central Iraq, roadside bombs killed a Marine in the Fallujah area. U.S. authorities also said a soldier and a Marine died Wednesday of wounds in Sunni Muslim-dominated areas.

The continued violence there persists despite a deal last month to end the deadly, three-week siege of Fallujah. Under the agreement, U.S. Marines withdrew and an Iraqi force led by a former commander in Saddam Hussein’s army took responsibility for the city’s security.

Al-Sadr’s al-Mahdi Army became a major problem for the United States in April, when his fighters swept across the Shiite heartland south of Baghdad, capturing police stations and government buildings after U.S. authorities announced a warrant for his arrest in the April 2003 killing of a rival cleric.

Al-Mahdi militiamen, whose base in Karbala’s Mukhaiyam mosque was partly destroyed by U.S. forces on Wednesday, regrouped Thursday in alleys north of the city’s premier Imam Hussein shrine, one of the most sacred sites for Shiite Muslims. Thick smoke drifted over its golden dome.

Fighting also raged near the city’s Imam Abbas shrine. American forces are concerned that any damage to the two shrines could enrage Iraq’s majority Shiite population as the United States tries to stabilize the country.

Rumsfeld called the controversy surrounding the Abu Ghraib prison a “body blow for all of us” and said the people who did wrong will be punished.

“You can be absolutely certain that the abuses of a few are not going to change how we manage this force,” Rumsfeld told troops. “We need all of you to make this thing work for our country.”

Rumsfeld also held out hope to his war-weary audience that international troops may soon arrive to augment their ranks, saying U.S. officials were engaged in talks with nations “that have capabilities to bring forces in” and those discussions were going well.

“I’m encouraged. I think we’ll find that we will get additional forces,” Rumsfeld said. He did not specify which or how many countries are involved, saying only “we’re probably talking to a couple of handfuls, maybe three handfuls of nations.”

The commander of Abu Ghraib gave Rumsfeld a tour that took him past dozens of Iraqi detainees lined up along the boundary of their outdoor camp, marked by rolls of concertina wire. Some detainees waved, some did not, and some stood expressionless as Rumsfeld’s armored bus rolled by.

All 3,800 Iraqis at Abu Ghraib are “security detainees,” said the commander, Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller, or people suspected of roles in insurgent attacks on coalition forces. No one is a prisoner of war, Miller said.

All prisoners under U.S. control will have been moved out of the old prison building by the end of the month, and a new complex of outdoor camps will be built to provide better living conditions.

Rumsfeld encouraged Miller to thin out the prisoner population as quickly as possible. Miller said 300 to 400 detainees per week are either released outright or transferred to the Iraqi justice system.

Speaking to reporters, Miller defended his role in advising U.S. authorities last fall on how to set up a detention and interrogation system in Iraq that could yield useful intelligence on the insurgency.

“I’m absolutely convinced we laid down the foundations for how you detain people humanely,” said Miller, former commander of the U.S. prison compound at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where hundreds of suspected terrorists are still being held from the Afghanistan war.

The Defense Department is investigating the abuse depicted in snapshots apparently taken by American military police guards at Abu Ghraib, and courts-martial have been ordered for three guards.

A central question is whether military intelligence officials encouraged the abuse at Abu Ghraib in order to “soften up” prisoners for interrogations.

The Army said Thursday that two soldiers — Staff Sgt. Ivan L. “Chip” Frederick II, of Buckingham, Va., and Sgt. Javal S. Davis, of Maryland — will be arraigned May 20 on criminal charges in connection with the prisoner abuse scandal. The men will enter pleas at their appearances.

Another soldier, Spc. Jeremy C. Sivits, of Hyndman, Pa., goes on trial May 19 before a special court-martial. That court cannot levy as severe a sentence as the general court-martial faced by Frederick and Davis.

The three soldiers were members of the 320th Military Police Battalion stationed at Abu Ghraib.

During the flight to Baghdad, Rumsfeld fiercely defended the Pentagon’s response to the Abu Ghraib allegations.

“The garbage that you keep reading — about cover-up and the Pentagon doing something to keep some information from people — is unfair, inaccurate and wrong,” Rumsfeld said. He also said “more bad things will come out, unquestionably,” but did not elaborate.

Among his first responses to the international outcry over the abuse photos, Rumsfeld sent Vice Adm. Albert T. Church, the Navy’s top investigative officer, to the prison camp at Guantanamo last week.

Church told reporters he found no major current problems at that prison. But the State Department said Thursday the International Red Cross had raised some concerns with the administration about prisoners held at the U.S. naval base.