Rumsfeld knew about the torture of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib. So did the US governor in Iraq, Paul Bremer. Even the British Ministry of Defence knew. Can we really believe that Bush and Blair didn’t?
By Diplomatic Editor Trevor Royle and Westminster Editor James Cusick
It was a desperate attempt to shield his boss from the devastating fallout from the abuses at the Abu Ghraib prison. “Let me be clear,” defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Friday. “I failed to recognise how important it was to elevate a matter of such gravity to the highest levels, including the President and the members of Congress.“I wish we had known more sooner and been able to tell you more sooner, but we didn’t.”
But the question of who knew what – and when – is far more complicated and potentially far more damaging than Rumsfeld’s version of events suggests.
Even before the war against Iraq, the US had been told by Amnesty International of the abuse of prisoners in Afghanistan. Reports have been delivered from the Red Cross to coalition leaders almost every month since the official end of hostilities detailing similar abuses. Another Amnesty report making those same points was handed to Paul Bremer, the US ambassador heading the coalition provisional authority in Iraq, back in June 2003.
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