Bush to denounce abuse on Arab TV

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President Bush will give interviews to two Arab TV networks today to denounce the abuse of Iraqi detainees, a furor that worsened yesterday as the Pentagon revealed it was investigating the deaths of 25 prisoners in U.S. custody, including two slain by Americans.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan said last night on Air Force One that Mr. Bush will conduct 10-minute interviews, one with the U.S.-sponsored Al Hurra television and the other with the network Al Arabiya.

"This is an opportunity for the president to speak directly to the people in Arab nations and let them know that the images that we all have seen are shameless and unacceptable," Mr. McClellan said.

Meanwhile yesterday, an Army official told the Associated Press on the condition of anonymity that a soldier had been court-martialed for using excessive force in the fatal shooting of an Iraqi prisoner in September. The soldier was demoted to private and dismissed from the Army but served no jail time, the official said.

The Army also disclosed that it had referred to the Justice Department a homicide case involving a CIA contract interrogator accused in the death of an Iraqi prisoner in November.

In addition to those two cases, 23 other deaths are under investigation or have been investigated by the U.S. military.

Maj. Gen. Donald Ryder, the Army's provost marshal, told reporters there were 10 investigations under way of prisoner deaths -- mostly in Iraq -- and 10 pending cases involving possible assault of prisoners, including one sexual assault. Also, one prisoner's death was ruled to have been a justified homicide.

Investigations into 12 other detainee deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan since December 2002 had concluded that the causes were natural or undetermined, Gen. Ryder said.

The investigations and the release of pictures of U.S. soldiers humiliating and abusing Iraqi prisoners yesterday spurred bipartisan calls for open congressional hearings on the incidents.

Sen. Pat Roberts, Kansas Republican and chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said yesterday that he will hold a closed hearing today about the abuse of prisoners.