winterbadger | Rummy on the skids?

US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is facing mounting pressure, as a new set of photographs showing Iraqi prisoner abuse is published.

from the BBC

Intimates that the SecDef may be ont he way out, and at the least has made the president very angry.

Our correspondent says that White House aides have let it be known that Mr Rumsfeld, one of the chief architects of US policy in Iraq, received a dressing-down from President Bush over his handling of the abuse scandal.

The president is said to have been particularly annoyed that no-one told him there were photos of US soldiers posing with hooded or naked Iraqi prisoners until the images aired on national television.

This, IMO, typifies the president's response; it suggests he is more upset that he didn't know the pictures were out there than that the abuse took place. His interview with Arab news services yesterday (what I heard of it) suggested that he was more interested in explaining that, really, Americans aren't like this (clearly some of them are) and that we would investigate and maybe exonerate people (he kept stressing "innocent until proven guilty"--not in relation to the Iraqi prisoners but in relation to the American soldiers). By contrast, General Kimmitt's statement was the sort of thing that Iraqis, and the world in general, should be hearing from the Shrub in Chief: we're ashamed this happened, we apologize to those who were harmed, and the people responsible will be punished. Simple, straighforward, take responsibility and apologize. Why is the president incapable of that? and if he's not able to do that, how can he remain our president?

Also, what does it say that the first time Arab broadcasters get an interview with the president is under these conditions? Why hasn't the president given such interviews before? Or has he, and I've just missed it?