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Rumsfeld Gets Timely, Public, Unequivocal Salute From Bush
Aired May 10, 2004 - 14:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Up first this hour, closing ranks. Under fire like never before, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld got a timely, public and unequivocal salute from his commander in chief. President Bush in a long scheduled visit to the Pentagon says that Rumsfeld is doing a superb job leading our nation in the war against terror.
But Mr. Bush couldn't ignore the prisoner abuse debacle that many lay at Rumsfeld's doorstep.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Because America is committed to the equality and dignity of all people, there will be a full accounting for the cruel and disgraceful abuse of Iraqi detainees.
Conduct that has come to light is an insult to the Iraqi people, and an affront to the most basic standards of morality and decency.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: While the top brass ponders what do with hundreds, if not thousands of more photos of U.S. soldiers apparently mistreating Iraqi prisoners, the U.S. general who investigated a whistle blower's claims prepares to testify on Capitol Hill. CNN's Barbara Starr tells us all about it -- Barbara.
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, the Pentagon got the photo opportunity it wanted earlier today. The president here praising Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. But as you say, the matter far from over.
Now Major General Antonio Taguba will testify tomorrow morning on Capitol Hill before the Senate Armed Services Committee. He's the general who wrote the initial report critical of operations at Abu Ghraib Prison. The first very public airing hearing here in Washington of his findings.
Now a senior defense official delicately, shall we say, briefed reporters after the president's visit here at the Pentagon. He said that Secretary Rumsfeld showed the president a number of photographs, still photographs of the alleged abuse at the prison. But there are also, we now know, not just hundreds of photographs, dozens of video clips. This senior official said he himself had viewed some of these video clips, that they were disturbing, that they showed inappropriate behavior, some of a sexual nature. And that this is a clear indicator of a lot more to come on all of this.
But in Baghdad, what they are trying to do now is move ahead with the military justice side of the process. It has been announced that the first court-martial proceeding will begin May 19 in Baghdad against Specialist Jeremy Sivits. This man is charged with maltreatment of prisoners, dereliction of duty for failing to protect prisoners and conspiracy to maltreat prisoners.
Earlier today Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt in Baghdad talked a little bit about how open that proceeding, that court-martial is going to be.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRIG. GEN. MARK KIMMITT, U.S. ARMY: People of Iraq will certainly have the same access that the international audience will have. It is a practice of U.S. military that in an open hearing we allow family, we allow observers, we allow print reporters. It has not been our practice in the past to allow cameras inside. I think there is a concern that this is not a show trial.
But I'm absolutely confident that the gentlemen and the ladies of the Iraqi press will adequately record what happens inside that courtroom so the readers can observe it through the written word.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
STARR: So this court-martial, which will begin in Baghdad, the first court-martial beginning in the next several days will be very open in an effort to show the U.S. military justice system to the Arab world -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Barbara Starr live from the Pentagon. Thank you.
And the White House briefing has begun. As soon as Scott McClellan starts talking about the prison scandal, we'll take it live -- Miles.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Indifference combined with disregard. That's the claim from the former Iraqi minister of human rights who says his attempts to draw attention to detainee mistreatment fell on willfully deaf ears. Others in Iraq tell similar stories. And CNN's Ben Wedeman is listening.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Soon after U.S. forces reopened Abu Ghraib Prison last summer, Iraqis began to claim abuse of detainees was common. The Red Cross, Amnesty International, local Iraqi human rights groups and activists urged the coalition to investigate those claims. Last month, Abdel Buset al Torqui (ph) resigned in frustration from his post as Iraq's human rights minister. He tells of meetings with senior coalition officials, including chief administrator Paul Bremer, during which he raised concerns over torture and abuse in American-run prisons in Iraq.
The response? "I believe it was indifference combined with disregard," he told me. "Coalition officials were much more interested in documenting human rights violations under Saddam than in what has happened since," he says.
A confidential report from the Red Cross, leaked to "The Wall Street Journal," indicate the group's concerns over mistreatment go back more than a year, and aren't limited to Abu Ghraib.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The abuses in Abu Ghraib were not individual cases. Unfortunately, this looks more like it was a pattern and it has been recurrent in other places too.
WEDEMAN: Coalition spokesmen insist they were listening all along.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I can tell you when these complaints were raised and we looked closely at them, we pursued improvement of the situation, correction of any problems. This is something that's been going on, that everyone has been involved with, for a number of months.
WEDEMAN: Scant satisfaction for those who wait every day outside Abu Ghraib in the heat and dust for news of those inside, or for detainees pictured in those now infamous photos.
(on camera): The consensus among human rights activists is that the U.S.-led coalition was unwilling to take their concerns seriously until those photos emerged from behind these walls. Now with the abuse scandal snow snowballing, they can only say can we told you so.
Ben Wedeman, CNN, outside Abu Ghraib Prison.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: Live pictures now from the White House. Scott McClellan giving his briefing. let's listen for a bit.
(INTERRUPTED BY LIVE EVENT)
O'BRIEN: We have been listening to Scott McClellan live from the White House, the daily briefing. The briefing continues and so do we with some other stories. We'll keep monitoring for potential news.
An amazing journey one man credits to amazing grace. Former hostage Thomas Hamill thanks God and the hometown who prayed for him. That story is just ahead.
Later, politics at war in Iraq. The dilemma John Kerry finds himself in trying to get mileage out of troubles in the war on terror. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: News "Across America" now begins with the murder in Mississippi from 1955. The Justice Department is reopening the investigation into Emmett Till's death. The African-American boy was visiting his uncle when he was kidnapped and brutally murdered.
Two white men were acquitted of his murder. Both have since died. Till's murder was a catalyst for the civil rights movement.
In Utah they're remembering Olive Osmond, the mother of Donny and Marie and the Osmond Brothers who died yesterday. A family spokesperson says that Osmond died from complications from a stroke she had two years ago. She was 79.
Friends and fans pay tribute to comedian actor Alan King. He died of lung cancer in New York yesterday. King's multifaceted career spanned more than five decades. During an appearance on CNN's "LARRY KING LIVE" he reflected on his early career.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ALAN KING, COMEDIAN: When I started out as a kid I was once told a review at the Paramount Theater, "funny, but don't know how well he'll do west of the Hudson." They were calling me a Jew comic.
And even now, when the press and in reviews people say not only about me, when there's something that they don't like, they say, Borscht Belt. You know?
LARRY KING, CNN HOST: And we know what that means.
A. KING: That gives it the connotation. Oh, I see, a Jewish kind of thing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Services for King are scheduled for tomorrow morning.
O'BRIEN: Let's take a quick look at a new Gallup poll on the health of the economy. Asked to rate the current state of economic conditions, 29 percent responded excellent or good, 43 percent responded fair, 27 percent said poor, 43 percent of the people who were questioned said economic conditions are getting better. But a majority, 51 percent believe the economy is getting worse.
(MARKET UPDATE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired May 10, 2004 - 14:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Up first this hour, closing ranks. Under fire like never before, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld got a timely, public and unequivocal salute from his commander in chief. President Bush in a long scheduled visit to the Pentagon says that Rumsfeld is doing a superb job leading our nation in the war against terror.
But Mr. Bush couldn't ignore the prisoner abuse debacle that many lay at Rumsfeld's doorstep.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Because America is committed to the equality and dignity of all people, there will be a full accounting for the cruel and disgraceful abuse of Iraqi detainees.
Conduct that has come to light is an insult to the Iraqi people, and an affront to the most basic standards of morality and decency.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: While the top brass ponders what do with hundreds, if not thousands of more photos of U.S. soldiers apparently mistreating Iraqi prisoners, the U.S. general who investigated a whistle blower's claims prepares to testify on Capitol Hill. CNN's Barbara Starr tells us all about it -- Barbara.
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, the Pentagon got the photo opportunity it wanted earlier today. The president here praising Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. But as you say, the matter far from over.
Now Major General Antonio Taguba will testify tomorrow morning on Capitol Hill before the Senate Armed Services Committee. He's the general who wrote the initial report critical of operations at Abu Ghraib Prison. The first very public airing hearing here in Washington of his findings.
Now a senior defense official delicately, shall we say, briefed reporters after the president's visit here at the Pentagon. He said that Secretary Rumsfeld showed the president a number of photographs, still photographs of the alleged abuse at the prison. But there are also, we now know, not just hundreds of photographs, dozens of video clips. This senior official said he himself had viewed some of these video clips, that they were disturbing, that they showed inappropriate behavior, some of a sexual nature. And that this is a clear indicator of a lot more to come on all of this.
But in Baghdad, what they are trying to do now is move ahead with the military justice side of the process. It has been announced that the first court-martial proceeding will begin May 19 in Baghdad against Specialist Jeremy Sivits. This man is charged with maltreatment of prisoners, dereliction of duty for failing to protect prisoners and conspiracy to maltreat prisoners.
Earlier today Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt in Baghdad talked a little bit about how open that proceeding, that court-martial is going to be.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRIG. GEN. MARK KIMMITT, U.S. ARMY: People of Iraq will certainly have the same access that the international audience will have. It is a practice of U.S. military that in an open hearing we allow family, we allow observers, we allow print reporters. It has not been our practice in the past to allow cameras inside. I think there is a concern that this is not a show trial.
But I'm absolutely confident that the gentlemen and the ladies of the Iraqi press will adequately record what happens inside that courtroom so the readers can observe it through the written word.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
STARR: So this court-martial, which will begin in Baghdad, the first court-martial beginning in the next several days will be very open in an effort to show the U.S. military justice system to the Arab world -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Barbara Starr live from the Pentagon. Thank you.
And the White House briefing has begun. As soon as Scott McClellan starts talking about the prison scandal, we'll take it live -- Miles.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Indifference combined with disregard. That's the claim from the former Iraqi minister of human rights who says his attempts to draw attention to detainee mistreatment fell on willfully deaf ears. Others in Iraq tell similar stories. And CNN's Ben Wedeman is listening.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Soon after U.S. forces reopened Abu Ghraib Prison last summer, Iraqis began to claim abuse of detainees was common. The Red Cross, Amnesty International, local Iraqi human rights groups and activists urged the coalition to investigate those claims. Last month, Abdel Buset al Torqui (ph) resigned in frustration from his post as Iraq's human rights minister. He tells of meetings with senior coalition officials, including chief administrator Paul Bremer, during which he raised concerns over torture and abuse in American-run prisons in Iraq.
The response? "I believe it was indifference combined with disregard," he told me. "Coalition officials were much more interested in documenting human rights violations under Saddam than in what has happened since," he says.
A confidential report from the Red Cross, leaked to "The Wall Street Journal," indicate the group's concerns over mistreatment go back more than a year, and aren't limited to Abu Ghraib.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The abuses in Abu Ghraib were not individual cases. Unfortunately, this looks more like it was a pattern and it has been recurrent in other places too.
WEDEMAN: Coalition spokesmen insist they were listening all along.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I can tell you when these complaints were raised and we looked closely at them, we pursued improvement of the situation, correction of any problems. This is something that's been going on, that everyone has been involved with, for a number of months.
WEDEMAN: Scant satisfaction for those who wait every day outside Abu Ghraib in the heat and dust for news of those inside, or for detainees pictured in those now infamous photos.
(on camera): The consensus among human rights activists is that the U.S.-led coalition was unwilling to take their concerns seriously until those photos emerged from behind these walls. Now with the abuse scandal snow snowballing, they can only say can we told you so.
Ben Wedeman, CNN, outside Abu Ghraib Prison.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: Live pictures now from the White House. Scott McClellan giving his briefing. let's listen for a bit.
(INTERRUPTED BY LIVE EVENT)
O'BRIEN: We have been listening to Scott McClellan live from the White House, the daily briefing. The briefing continues and so do we with some other stories. We'll keep monitoring for potential news.
An amazing journey one man credits to amazing grace. Former hostage Thomas Hamill thanks God and the hometown who prayed for him. That story is just ahead.
Later, politics at war in Iraq. The dilemma John Kerry finds himself in trying to get mileage out of troubles in the war on terror. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: News "Across America" now begins with the murder in Mississippi from 1955. The Justice Department is reopening the investigation into Emmett Till's death. The African-American boy was visiting his uncle when he was kidnapped and brutally murdered.
Two white men were acquitted of his murder. Both have since died. Till's murder was a catalyst for the civil rights movement.
In Utah they're remembering Olive Osmond, the mother of Donny and Marie and the Osmond Brothers who died yesterday. A family spokesperson says that Osmond died from complications from a stroke she had two years ago. She was 79.
Friends and fans pay tribute to comedian actor Alan King. He died of lung cancer in New York yesterday. King's multifaceted career spanned more than five decades. During an appearance on CNN's "LARRY KING LIVE" he reflected on his early career.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ALAN KING, COMEDIAN: When I started out as a kid I was once told a review at the Paramount Theater, "funny, but don't know how well he'll do west of the Hudson." They were calling me a Jew comic.
And even now, when the press and in reviews people say not only about me, when there's something that they don't like, they say, Borscht Belt. You know?
LARRY KING, CNN HOST: And we know what that means.
A. KING: That gives it the connotation. Oh, I see, a Jewish kind of thing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Services for King are scheduled for tomorrow morning.
O'BRIEN: Let's take a quick look at a new Gallup poll on the health of the economy. Asked to rate the current state of economic conditions, 29 percent responded excellent or good, 43 percent responded fair, 27 percent said poor, 43 percent of the people who were questioned said economic conditions are getting better. But a majority, 51 percent believe the economy is getting worse.
(MARKET UPDATE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
