Worse may come in abuse scandal - Rumsfeld

US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, making a surprise visit to the Iraqi prison at the centre of the abuse scandal, said today lawyers were advising the Pentagon not to publicly release any more photographs of Iraqi prisoners being treated badly by US soldiers.

He dismissed as “garbage” any suggestion the Pentagon tried to cover up the prison abuse.

After meetings in Baghdad, Rumsfeld travelled to the Abu Ghraib prison where American military police sexually humiliated and abused Iraqi prisoners last autumn, according to photos of the abuse that have stunned the world.

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

Rumsfeld, speaking en route to Baghdad, said government lawyers argued that releasing more photographs would violate a Geneva Convention stricture against presenting images of prisoners that could be construed as degrading.

Rumsfeld fiercely defended the Pentagon’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.

Major General Geoffrey Miller, who runs the prison system in Iraq, today defended his role in advising US authorities on how to set up a detention and interrogation system that would produce useful intelligence on people involved in the insurgency.

“I’m absolutely convinced we laid down the foundations for how you detain people humanely,” he said. Miller had commanded the US prison compound at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where hundreds of suspected terrorists are still detained from the war in Afghanistan.

Miller said he plans to reduce the prisoner population at Abu Ghraib from the 3,800 who are there now to as few as 1,500 by June 15. In January, there were about 7,000 prisoners there.

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 had not weakened public support for their mission and to get firsthand reports from the most senior commanders.

The Pentagon officials arranged meetings with the top US commander in Iraq, Lieut General Ricardo Sanchez, and other senior commanders.

Rumsfeld’s trip followed US President George Bush’s visit on Monday to the Pentagon, where he declared his unwavering support for the defence chief amid the abuse scandal. Some Democrats have called for Rumsfeld’s resignation, but Rumsfeld gave no indication today 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.