Several alert readers have pointed me to a very interesting article in today’s Baltimore Sun (which Atrios also linked to) that suggests Bush knew about the systematic prison abuses before the White House had previously admitted.
Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said yesterday that he and other top officials kept President Bush “fully informed … in general terms” about complaints made by the Red Cross and others over ill-treatment of detainees in U.S. custody.
Powell’s statement suggests Bush may have known earlier than the White House has acknowledged about complaints raised by the International Committee of the Red Cross and human rights groups regarding abuse of detainees in Iraq.
“We kept the president informed of the concerns that were raised by the ICRC and other international organizations as part of my regular briefings of the president, and advised him that we had to follow these issues, and when we got notes sent to us or reports sent to us … we had to respond to them, and the president certainly made it clear that that’s what he expected us to do,” Powell said.
I know the White House likes to keep Powell out of the loop on pretty much everything, but this suggests he was not only aware of the systematic abuses but that he helped keep the president informed about the problem.
This may be yet another problem for an administration that has no real credibility left.
As the Sun article explained, Powell’s account about Bush’s knowledge of the crisis differs dramatically from the White House’s account.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan said last week that the president was first informed about the abuse of detainees in Iraq by Rumsfeld, who “let the president know that there were allegations of prisoner abuse in Iraq and that the military was taking action to address it.”
McClellan did not give a precise date, but Rumsfeld, testifying before Congress, said he told the president in late January or early February about an investigation being conducted by Maj. Gen. Antonio M. Taguba into alleged abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison, the main U.S. detention facility in Iraq.
It was odd enough for Bush to seem surprised about the scandal after he had been told about it months in advance, but Powell’s explanation suggests an even broader deception.
The ICRC concerns came to the Bush administration more than a year ago and about Abu Ghraib in particular almost seven months ago. Powell is now saying that Bush was “fully informed” about Red Cross complains as they were made, though Bush has said he was in the dark until fairly recently.
Well, which is it? They certainly can’t both be true.
A Powell aide said he couldn’t pinpoint when the secretary first spoke with Bush about detainees in Iraq but said Powell told the president of receiving complaints about detainees generally – in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, “at various times throughout this period – the last year or more.”
So many questions, so few answers.