US tries to stem Iraq abuse row

By Nick Childs BBC Pentagon correspondent

The US administration is struggling to limit the damage from what is a growing controversy.

President George W Bush is granting interviews to two Arabic language television stations in an effort to reach out to Arab audiences.

Rumsfeld: Did he not take the abuse scandal seriously enough?

A White House spokesman said it would be an opportunity for the president "to speak directly to people in Arab nations and let them know that these images we all have seen are shameful and unacceptable".

This comes after the US army revealed that it has investigated some 35 cases of abuse and deaths in custody in Iraq and Afghanistan since December 2002.

Of 25 deaths, 10 are still being investigated, a dozen have been put down to natural or other undetermined causes, one was during an attempted escape - but the army says two were murder.

On the Abu Ghraib prison abuses, the army's second most senior general, the Vice-Chief of Staff, General George Casey, has acknowledged what he describes as a complete breakdown in discipline.

'Unacceptable, un-American'

All these revelations have made it increasingly difficult for the Pentagon to argue that the alleged incidents are definitely limited in nature.

ABU GHRAIB REPORT FINDINGS Detainees threatened with loaded pistol Inmates beaten and sexually abused Prisoners photographed in sexual positions Detainees threatened with dogs Abu Ghraib abuse report

The Pentagon has also defended itself by saying it acted quickly when the Abu Ghraib incidents first came to light in January.

The US Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, has listed six investigations which were set up since then.

He condemned the incident as deeply disturbing, unacceptable, and un-American, and vowed to do whatever it takes to bring those responsible to account.

But he has also had to answer questions about why he has only just read a summary of the one of the investigations long after it was completed.

Outrage

Both the civilian and military leaders in the Pentagon are facing criticism that they did not take the affair seriously enough.

And the suspicion is growing that few details of some of the investigations would have come to light but for the publication of the photographs of the alleged abuses.

There is growing outrage in Congress, with lawmakers complaining that the Pentagon essentially has not come clean on the issue.

There is no hiding the dismay in the Bush administration and the Pentagon over the political fallout from this controversy.

And it is puzzling why, when it knew some weeks ago that these photographs were going to be published, that it did not do more to try to pre-empt the furore.