President condemns abuse of prisoners

President Bush yesterday expressed “deep disgust” at the mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. troops, vowing the participants, captured in photographs broadcast and published around the world, will be “taken care of.”

“Their treatment does not reflect the nature of the American people. That’s not the way we do things in America. I didn’t like it one bit,” the president said in the Rose Garden after meeting in the Oval Office with Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin.

Arab television stations led their newscasts yesterday with the photographs, with one prominent network, Qatar-based Al Jazerra, asserting that the pictures were evidence of the “immoral practices” of U.S. forces. Dubai-based Al Arabiya also broadcast the images.

“This will increase the sense of dissatisfaction among Iraqis toward the Americans,” said U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council member Mahmoud Othman. “The resistance people will try to make use of such painful incidents. … The Saddam [Hussein] era was full of executions and torture, and we want the new Iraq to be clean of such images.”

The pictures, first broadcast Wednesday night on CBS’s “60 Minutes II,” show U.S. troops humiliating naked Iraqi inmates at the Abu Ghraib prison west of Baghdad. One picture shows a female soldier smiling and pointing at a naked Iraqi with a hood over his head; another shows Iraqi prisoners stacked in a pyramid or positioned to simulate sex acts with one another.

One of the disturbing pictures shows a hooded prisoner standing on a box with wires attached to his hands. The prisoner was reportedly told that if he stepped off the box, he would be electrocuted, although the wires were not attached to anything.

“I can’t make excuses for this. We’re appalled. These photos are dismaying. … These pictures may reflect the actions of individuals. But, by God, it doesn’t reflect my army,” Army spokesman Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt said.

“If we can’t hold ourselves up as an example of how to treat people with dignity and respect, we can’t ask that other nations do that to our soldiers.”

An Army official said the prisoners were photographed in January at the Abu Ghraib jail, once Saddam’s torture headquarters, where the United States is holding 4,400 detainees.

In March, the U.S. commander in charge of the Iraqi prison system, Brig. Gen. Janice Karpinski, the commander of the 800th Brigade, was suspended and six military police, members of the 800th Military Police Brigade, were charged and face court-martial.

The soldiers of the New York-based Reserve unit face charges that include dereliction of duty, cruelty, maltreatment, assault and indecent acts with another person. Gen. Karpinski faces a possible reprimand and the military also has recommended disciplinary action against seven U.S. officers who helped run the prison.

The White House rejected charges yesterday that it was slow to act.

“I think that if you look at the actions that are being taken, it shows how seriously the military takes this matter,” White House spokesman Scott McClellan said. “They have taken strong steps to change the situation, and they have taken strong steps to pursue individuals that may have been involved in this.”

In the Rose Garden, Mr. Bush said the few participants do not reflect the character of the U.S. military.

“That’s not the way the people are, that’s not their character, that are serving our nation in the cause of freedom,” Mr. Bush said.

Prime Minister Tony Blair’s office yesterday condemned the abuse of Iraqi prisoners, but stressed it did not reflect the conduct of the vast majority of coalition troops.

“This is not representative of the 150,000 soldiers that are in Iraq,” Mr. Blair’s official spokesman said. The spokesman also confirmed that eight cases of reputed mistreatment of Iraqis by British personnel were being investigated by the army’s Special Investigations Branch.

The British personnel were arrested after the photographs were e-mailed to a friend, who turned them over to authorities, according to the Mirror, a London newspaper.

The friend told investigators: “There are some things going on at Abu Ghraib that I can’t live with,” the newspaper reported.

Sen. John Kerry, Mr. Bush’s opponent in the presidential election, issued a statement yesterday on the photos, which also are on numerous Web sites.

“I am disturbed and troubled by the evidence of shameful mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners. We must learn the facts and take the appropriate action. As Americans, we must stand tall for the rule of law and freedom everywhere. But we cannot let the actions of a few overshadow the tremendous good work that thousands of soldiers are doing every day in Iraq and all over the world,” Mr. Kerry said.

Gen. Karpinski has been replaced as head of the prison by Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller, deputy commander for detainment operations. Gen. Miller formerly commanded the U.S. prison for terrorists and enemy combatants at the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

In the past, Gen. Karpinski has defended the prison against claims from freed prisoners and human rights groups that prisoners were abused, saying Iraqis were treated “humanely and fairly.”

Last September, during a visit by Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, she displayed torture devices used there by Saddam’s interrogators. The prison was one of the most notorious in Iraq under Saddam’s regime.

The six U.S. soldiers facing court-martial did not receive in-depth training on the Geneva Conventions, which govern the handling of captives, a military spokeswoman said yesterday.

Some military officials privately said that regardless of the soldiers’ training, they should have known better.

• This article is based in part on wire-service reports.