Bush Lauds Rumsfeld for Doing 'Superb Job'

First lady Laura Bush called the situation "sad" and not a fair picture of the United States military. "To be perfectly frank, I can't bear to look at the ones that have been in the newspaper," she said on ABC's "Good Morning America."

In addition to wrestling with the questions of congressional and public access to the remaining photos, Pentagon officials focused yesterday on accelerating a range of inquiries that have grown out of the prison scandal. They include a number of criminal investigations, an assessment of the role of military intelligence personnel in abuses at the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad, and a broader look at the treatment of detainees at other military internment centers in Iraq and elsewhere.

Republican officials said they fear that public attention could remain focused on the scandal for weeks to come as more photos and videos dribble out. The Senate Armed Services Committee will continue hearings into the matter today, with testimony scheduled from Major Gen. Antonio M. Taguba, whose explosive report documented the mistreatment of Iraqi captives. The first court-martial is scheduled to begin in Iraq next week and will be public.

A report made public yesterday by the International Committee of the Red Cross said the administration had been warned for months that abuse of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. soldiers was widespread. McClellan said at his televised briefing that the White House was "aware of some of the issues that the Red Cross raised" before the report on Abu Ghraib by CBS's "60 Minutes II," which was broadcast April 28.

McClellan said the military had been working to address those issues. "These concerns have been brought to our attention previously," he said.

A CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll released yesterday showed that on the issue of which candidate would do a better job of handling Iraq, Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) had moved into a statistical tie with Bush. In March, Kerry was 15 points behind Bush. Bush's approval rating was at 46 percent, the lowest of his presidency.

But the scandal has produced no gain for Kerry in a head-to-head matchup, which remained a dead heat. Matthew Dowd, the Bush-Cheney campaign's senior strategist, said the data show what he has long predicted -- that the two sides will go up and down but will remain basically tied and "then battle it out in the last 60 days."

Also yesterday, the Army Times, a newspaper widely distributed in military ranks, published an editorial rebuking Rumsfeld and Air Force Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, for "a failure of leadership." It suggested they and other senior officials may need to be relieved to restore accountability. The paper is part of a set of publications that includes Navy Times, Air Force Times and Marine Corps Times -- all owned by Gannett Co. Inc. and with a joint circulation of more than 250,000.

"This was not just a failure of leadership at the local commander level," the editorial said. "This was a failure that ran straight to the top. Accountability here is essential -- even if that means relieving top leaders from duty in a time of war."

On Capitol Hill, the Senate voted 92 to 0 for a resolution condemning the abuses, apologizing for them, urging "appropriate measures" to prevent their repetition and calling for a "full investigation" by the administration and Senate committees. A separate resolution denouncing the abuses -- without an apology or reference to congressional probes -- passed overwhelmingly in the House last week.

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) said Bush shares blame, and accused him of presiding over "America's steepest and deepest fall from grace in the history of our country" and "a colossal failure of leadership."

Staff writer Helen Dewar contributed to this report.