Bush acknowledges mistakes, offers no Iraq abuse apology

WASHINGTON -- Acknowledging mistakes but stopping short of an apology, President Bush told the Arab world on Wednesday that Americans are appalled by the abuse and deaths of Iraqi prisoners at the hands of U.S. soldiers. He promised that "justice will be delivered."

"The people in the Middle East must understand that this was horrible," Bush said, trying to calm international outrage. He went on two Arabic-language television networks to take charge of the administration's damage-control efforts.

Bush said he retained confidence in Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, but White House aides said the president let the secretary know he was not satisfied with the way he was informed about the unfolding controversy. In particular, Bush was unhappy he was not told about incriminating pictures before they were shown on television or about a 2-month-old Pentagon report before it turned up in the news.

Rumsfeld did not know about the images until CBS aired them April 28, a senior White House official said.

Bush also said he learned of the photographs of the alleged abuse when the rest of the world did. "First time I saw or heard about pictures was on TV," Bush told the Al-Hurra television network.

The difficulty of Bush's task became clear in the first question of a television interviewer who said the evidence of torture made many Arabs believe that the United States was no better than Saddam Hussein's government, notorious for torture and murder. The president murmured under his breath at the comparison.

Bush said the abuses were "terrible" for America's image abroad. "I think people in the Middle East who want to dislike America will use this as an excuse to remind people about their dislike," he told Al-Arabiya television, a satellite channel based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, that is popular around the Arab world.

President's problem

Six months before the U.S. election, the prisoner-abuse controversy poses a major problem for Bush, already on the defensive about rising American casualties and persistent violence. Portraying itself as the provider of freedom in Iraq, the administration finds itself rocked by condemnation over pictures of American soldiers gloating over naked prisoners and scenes of abuse at the U.S.-run Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad.

Angry lawmakers called Rumsfeld to Capitol Hill to testify on Friday while Senate leaders -- Republicans and Democrats alike -- discussed a Senate resolution to condemn the abuses. The number of prisoner deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan known to be under U.S. investigation or already blamed on Americans rose to as many as 14.

Sen. John Kerry, Bush's Democratic rival, said the president's remarks were not enough. "The president of the United States needs to offer the world an explanation and needs to take appropriate responsibility," he said. "And if that includes apologizing for the behavior of those soldiers and what happened, they ought to do that."

Bush said that what happened at Abu Ghraib was "more than an allegation, in this case, actual abuse -- we saw the pictures. There will be a full investigation."

Interviewed on the U.S.-sponsored Al-Hurra television network, Bush said that Iraqis "must understand that I view those practices as abhorrent. They must also understand that what took place in that prison does not represent the America that I know." Most U.S. soldiers are "good, honorable citizens that are helping the Iraqis every day," Bush said.

"It's also important for the people of Iraq to know that in a democracy, everything is not perfect, that mistakes are made," the president said.

Drawing a distinction with Saddam's government, he told Al-Arabiya, "A dictator wouldn't be answering questions about this."

While Bush did not offer an apology, Condoleezza Rice, his national security adviser, had said Tuesday that "we are deeply sorry for what has happened," and the commander of U.S.-run prisons in Iraq, Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller, apologized Wednesday for the "illegal or unauthorized acts" of U.S. soldiers.

"We've already said that we're sorry for what occurred and we're deeply sorry to the families and what they must be feeling and going through as well," White House press secretary Scott McClellan said. "The president is sorry for what occurred and the pain it has caused."

Asked why Bush himself had not apologized, McClellan said: "I'm saying it now for him."

There was mixed reaction in the region to Bush's remarks.

"Bush's statements today will not restore the dignity which the tortured detainees lost," said Sari Mouwaffaq, a Baghdad mechanic. "Bush's apology, or his attempt to find excuses, has no value to us."

Sami Ibrahim, a 24-year-old Egyptian real estate agent, said, "I won't believe what he says. I don't trust their intentions anyway."

But Raad Youssef, a 49-year-old teacher in Baghdad, said that during Saddam's rule, "there were many genocides that were committed and nobody dared to reveal them at that time and now officials of the former regime did not try to apologize. Bush's attempt to repair the damage is a good thing in my opinion."

In his interviews, Bush notably skipped the popular Qatar-based Al-Jazeera, which the United States has accused of lying about the situation in Iraq to inflame Arab viewers. At the end of his remarks, he told the Al-Hurra interviewer, "Good job."

Bush was vague about whether the International Red Cross and human rights organizations would be granted access to the U.S.-run prisons.

McClellan said the IRC already can enter American-run facilities, but sidestepped repeated questions about admission for human rights organizations. "What's important as we move forward on these series of investigations that are under way is that the process is open and transparent," McClellan said.