Cheney tells Rumsfeld critics to ‘get off his case’

US VICE PRESIDENT Dick Cheney rushed to the aid of Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld — under fire over Iraqi prison abuses — by saying people should “get off his case” and let Mr Rumsfeld do his job.

“Don Rumsfeld is the best secretary of defence the United States has ever had,” Mr Cheney said in a statement from his office late on Saturday.

The statement appeared to signal a White House push to rally Republicans behind the embattled Mr Rumsfeld.

“People ought to get off his case and let him do his job,” said Mr Cheney.

Democrats, including presidential candidate Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, have demanded Mr Rumsfeld’s resignation following disclosures that Iraqi soldiers were mistreated in Iraqi prisons run by US soldiers.

The Washington Post newspaper said in its Sunday edition the Bush administration was reviewing hundreds of additional photographs of abuse of prisoners in Iraq, which a Pentagon official was quoted as calling “horrible”.

The controversy over treatment of Iraqi prisoners erupted after CBS television showed photographs of the abuse.

President Bush said he had admonished Mr Rumsfeld last week over his initial handling of the controversy, a rare public White House reference to a rebuke. But he said later Mr Rumsfeld would stay in the cabinet.

National security adviser Condoleezza Rice was quoted in the Post as saying, shortly after speaking to Mr Bush, that Mr Rumsfeld will continue to have the president’s support.

“He has the strongest possible support here in the White House,” Ms Rice said.