Bush vows to bring abusers ‘to justice’

President Bush yesterday pledged to the Arab world that U.S. soldiers who abused Iraqi prisoners “will be brought to justice” and declared that “the people in the Middle East must understand that this was horrible.”

In interviews with two Arabic-language TV stations, the president said the mistreatment of prisoners, captured in photographs that show grinning soldiers abusing naked Iraqis at a prison once used by Saddam Hussein’s torturers, is “abhorrent.”

“It’s a matter that reflects badly on my country. Our citizens in America are appalled by what they saw, just like people in the Middle East are appalled,” Mr. Bush told the United Arab Emirates-based Al Arabiya network.

Meanwhile yesterday, the accusations of abuse against U.S. forces in the Middle East continued, with the number of prisoner deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan under U.S. investigation or already blamed on Americans rising to 14.

An intelligence official told reporters that the CIA inspector general is investigating two other deaths involving the agency’s interrogators.

One took place at an Afghan prison near the Pakistan border in June 2003 and involved an independent contractor working for the CIA. The other death occurred at an unspecified location in Iraq and involved a CIA interrogator, the official said on the condition of anonymity.

The deaths come on top of the 10 deaths, in which the military said it is conducting criminal investigations, plus two others already ruled as homicides.

Also yesterday, U.S. officials said the head of a U.S. military police unit at Baghdad’s Abu Ghraib prison is under investigation on charges in November that he secretly had photographed naked female American soldiers while they showered.

Capt. Leo Merck, 32, a member of the California National Guard who commanded the 124-member 870th Military Police Company, is under U.S. Army investigation and has been relieved of duty, they told Reuters news agency.

“He was their commander, and he led them into Iraq. While he was there, this alleged incident happened,” California National Guard spokesman Andrew Hughan said. “The U.S. Army justice system is working its wheels.”

The White House sent conflicting messages yesterday as to whether the president was apologizing for the clear abuses depicted in the photographs, which have caused a firestorm of condemnation in the Arab world.

In his interviews with Al Arabiya and the U.S.-established Al Hurra network, Mr. Bush never used the words “sorry” or “apologize.”

“We’ve already said that we’re sorry for what occurred, and we’re deeply sorry to the families and what they must be feeling and going through as well,” White House spokesman Scott McClellan said. “The president is sorry for what occurred and the pain it has caused.”

Asked why Mr. Bush had not used those words in the two interviews, Mr. McClellan said: “I’m saying it now for him.”

The two interviews in the White House Map Room — the one with Al Hurra running 13 minutes, and the Al Arabiya meeting lasting 11 minutes — illustrated the Arab anger at the United States over the mistreatment of prisoners.

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