Lawyers blocking release of more abuse photos: Rumsfeld

Lawyers are advising the Defence Department not to publicly release any more photographs of Iraqi prisoners being abused by US soldiers, Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said today at the outset of a hastily-arranged visit to Iraq aimed at containing the abuse scandal.

“As far as I’m concerned, I’d be happy to release them all to the public and to get it behind us,” Rumsfeld told reporters travelling with him from Washington.

“But at the present time I don’t know anyone in the legal shop in any element of the government that is recommending that.”

The government lawyers argue that releasing such materials would violate a Geneva Convention stricture against presenting images of prisoners that could be construed as degrading, Rumsfeld said en route to the Iraqi capital on a trip that was not announced in advance due to security concerns.

Rumsfeld was accompanied by General Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and several lawyers on a trip designed to reassure US troops that the prisoner abuse scandal has not weakened public support for their mission and to get firsthand reports from the most senior commanders.

The trip followed President George Bush’s visit on Monday to the Defence Department, where he declared his unwavering support for Rumsfeld. Some Democrats have called for his resignation, but Rumsfeld gave no indication that he was considering quitting.

The 71-year-old defence chief did appear weary, however. He has weathered three lengthy rounds of questioning from congressional committees over the past several days. After taking questions aboard his plane for nearly an hour he called a sudden halt, saying his voice was giving out.

He fiercely defended the Defence Department’s response to the revelations of US guards at the Abu Ghraib prison having subjected Iraqi prisoners to sexually humiliating treatment and photographing it.

“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,” he said. “And if I find any evidence that it’s true, I’ll stop it.”

Rumsfeld also predicted that the abuse scandal would get worse in the days ahead.

“More bad things will come out, unquestionably,” he said without being specific. “And time will settle over this and we’ll be able to make an assessment of what the effect has been” on the effort to stabilise Iraq. “It clearly has not been helpful. It has been unhelpful.”

He went on to complain bitterly about the Arab media’s coverage of US operations in Iraq.

“We have been lied about, day after day, week after week, month after month for the last 12 months in the Arab press.” He specifically mentioned the al-Jazeera and al-Arabiya satellite TV networks.

Among his first responses to the international outcry over the abuse photos, Rumsfeld sent Vice Admiral Albert Church, the Navy’s top investigative officer, to the US.-run prison camp for terrorist suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, last week.

Church, who accompanied Rumsfeld on his trip to Iraq, told reporters en route from Washington that he found no major problems at that prison in Cuba.