Senators Fault Pentagon as New Photos Emerge

Graham said the remark "really bothers me. He [Cheney] says get off his back. Senator Warner's hearing is not 'being on Secretary Rumsfeld's back.' The hearing we're going to have on Tuesday is not 'being on Secretary Rumsfeld's back.' The Congress has an independent duty to find out what happened. It affects us all. . . . We're just doing our jobs."

Kevin Kellems, Cheney's spokesman, would not elaborate on the statement beyond saying: "It was a straightforward, supportive description of Secretary Rumsfeld's exceptional record of service."

Neither Graham nor any other Republican lawmaker called yesterday for Rumsfeld to resign, but their statements of support were guarded. Warner said: "I want to support our president. The president says he's going to stay." Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said on "Fox News Sunday" that he thinks "it would be terribly premature to call for his resignation at this time."

At the same time, McCain castigated those who wrongly, in his view, blurred the distinction between terrorists and detained Iraqis. "I think there was some blurring there that may have accounted" for the abusive actions by U.S. military personnel against Iraqis, he said.

House Armed Services Committee Chairman Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) expressed unalloyed support for Rumsfeld, saying on CNN's "Late Edition" that "you can't give a person who is managing a 2.5 million-member armed forces across the world the responsibility for what happens at 2:30 in the morning in a remote prison in Iraq."

Many Democrats, including Sen. John F. Kerry (Mass.), the presumptive presidential nominee, Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (Del.) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.), have said Rumsfeld should go. Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.), a member of the intelligence panel, said on CNN that Rumsfeld, "for the good of this nation, needs to step forward and say, 'As an important act to show we are changing courses . . . I am stepping down.' That would be an act of patriotism."

A similar statement was made by retired Army Gen. Wesley K. Clark, a former Democratic presidential aspirant who also said the Iraqi people are likely -- due to these abuses and other problems -- to force a "catastrophic early end to this mission." But two other Democrats who have criticized the administration's handling of the conflict -- Sens. Carl M. Levin (Mich.) and Evan Bayh (Ind.) -- said they worried that Rumsfeld's resignation, by itself, would make little difference because, they believe, the administration's policies are so flawed.

Staff writer Mike Allen contributed to this report.