Rumsfeld Takes Responsibility for Abuse

Based on Rumsfeld's testimony and the private warning delivered by the Pentagon earlier this week, lawmakers are bracing for the release of more devastating photographs and videotapes.

Classified annexes to the Army's internal investigation of conditions at Abu Ghraib, conducted by Maj. Gen. Antonio M. Taguba, make reference to the videos and photographs, according to the senior GOP Senate aide.

Rumsfeld yesterday displayed papers stacked more than two feet high next to the witness table that he identified as Taguba's report, but the annexes have not yet been shared with Congress despite repeated requests, another Senate aide said.

Pentagon officials have also told lawmakers that thousands of other damning photos, not yet publicized, may exist outside the Defense Department's control. Individual soldiers who took the photos have been "trading" them, and some may be negotiating to sell the videos to foreign television outlets, the officials said, according to the Senate aide.

One issue raised repeatedly with Rumsfeld yesterday, but left unresolved, involved the command structure at the Abu Ghraib prison. Lawmakers pressed him to explain the decision to place military guards under the command of military intelligence officers, who were reported to have encouraged the guards to help "set the conditions" for interrogations. Normally, the duties of military police serving as guards in detention centers are limited to caring for prisoners.

"I do not know whether it's against Army regulations or not, or doctrine or procedures, I just simply don't know the answer to that," Rumsfeld told the House Armed Services Committee.

Testifying with Rumsfeld yesterday, Les Brownlee, the Army's acting secretary, disclosed that investigations are underway into 42 potential cases of misconduct against civilians that occurred outside detention facilities in Iraq and Afghanistan. Previously, Army officials had reported that criminal probes were underway into 10 prisoner deaths and 10 allegations of assault against prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan.

At yesterday's hearings, several lawmakers endorsed the idea of demolishing the Abu Ghraib prison as a sign to the Iraqi people that the United States wants to do away with the torture and suffering there. Rumsfeld told the House committee that such a decision should be left to the Iraqi people. But Richard L. Armitage, the deputy secretary of state, backed the idea.

"That sounds like a reasonable thing to do to me," he said in an interview with Arab media. "But there are detainees that would have to be resettled and taken care of first."

No sooner had Rumsfeld offered his apologies at the start of his testimony than a group of nine protesters stood up in the Senate hearing room and began shouting "Fire Rumsfeld" and "End occupation now." They were hustled out by Senate guards. Rumsfeld sat calmly while the room was quieted.

After the hearings, Rumsfeld said he had selected three people for the independent commission and was speaking to a fourth person about joining the group. He said he had enlisted retired Air Force Gen. Charles A. Horner; James R. Schlesinger, a former defense secretary and head of the CIA; and former representative Tillie Fowler (R-Fla.).

Staff writers William Branigin, Glenn Kessler, R. Jeffrey Smith and Josh White contributed to this report.