WASHINGTON — U.S. lawmakers reacted with disgust Wednesday after viewing hundreds of new photographs made available by the Pentagon showing more violent and sexual mistreatment of inmates in U.S.-run prisons in Iraq.
"It's like looking at one of the rings of hell, and it's a ring of hell of our own creation," said Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., shortly after viewing several hundred of the pictures in a secure Senate room. "And when you see these accumulated photos of violence and brutality and perversity and depravity, you want to turn around in revulsion."
The latest revelations came as Congress continued to debate the Bush administration's actions in Iraq, as fighting erupted in Najaf and Karbala between U.S. forces and those supporting a rebel cleric and as more information emerged on Nicholas Berg, who was beheaded by captors who said they were retaliating for the prison abuses.
Sen. John Warner, R-Va., chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, which is leading the congressional inquiry into the scandal, said he believed the government should wait to release the photos until military trials of those accused are completed.
Some members of Congress, shaken by the videotaped beheading of Berg, said they feared that publicizing more photographs of abuse and degradation of Iraqi prisoners could further stoke anti-American sentiment and increase the danger faced by U.S. citizens and troops.
"You've got the potential inflammatory problem that you might put our troops more in danger. I don't know that the government can take that responsibility to do that," said Sen. Mike DeWine, R-Ohio, who called the photos he saw "absolutely disgusting."
But others, including Republican Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, said they thought releasing the pictures would be best in the long run.
Two more U.S. soldiers will face trials in the Abu Ghraib prison scandal for abuses ranging from punching and kicking detainees to ordering them to engage in sex acts, according to documents released Wednesday. Seven soldiers have been charged, with one court-martial set for May 19. Numerous investigations are under way, and officials have said at least two or three others are likely to be charged.
More than 1,000 images were brought by the Pentagon for lawmakers to view Wednesday. Several of those who saw them said there appeared to be hundreds of duplicates as they were displayed by military personnel on a screen.
Durbin said there were also many horrific images but no information about when or where they took place and who was involved.
"Many of them, you couldn't figure it out," he said. "One showed a victim of a gunshot wound with half of his head blown off, with all the blood and gore around it, and no identification as to who he was or where it took place ... Many others, you couldn't tell where they took place. The military officials there couldn't explain it. They didn't know."
Congress had been negotiating with the Pentagon to see the additional images since Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld revealed last week that there were many more pictures and some video and that they were worse than those already obtained and published by news organizations. The latest soldiers to face courts-martial in Baghdad in the coming weeks are Sgt. Javal S. Davis, 26, of Maryland, and Staff Sgt. Ivan L. "Chip" Frederick II, 37, of Buckingham, Va. Their trials will follow the court-martial of Spc. Jeremy C. Sivits, 24, of Hyndman, Pa.
The trials of the three reservists will be open, according to officials. Sivits faces a special court martial, while Davis and Frederick will be tried in general courts martial, which could result in stiffer sentences than the Sivits proceeding.
The formal language of charge sheets released by the military accused Davis of maltreatment of detainees, dereliction of duty for failing to protect detainees from abuse, conspiracy to maltreat detainees, assault and rendering false official statements. Frederick is charged with maltreatment of detainees, conspiracy to maltreat detainees, dereliction of duty for negligibly failing to protect detainees from abuse and wrongfully committing an indecent act by watching detainees commit a sexual act.
Frederick and Davis are members of the 372nd Military Police Company. Frederick worked as a corrections officer at the Buckingham Correctional Center in Dillwyn, Va., before his deployment to Iraq in early 2003.
According to media reports, Frederick wrote his family that he was encouraged by military intelligence officers, and praised by them, for getting detainees ready for interrogation. Davis told investigators he was "made to do various things that I would question morally," according to a military report cited by the Associated Press. Davis also claimed intelligence officers seemed to approve of the abuse, saying, "We were told they had different rules," the wire service reported.
In the Senate on Wednesday, Rumsfeld appeared at a hearing on the Defense Department's budget request but ended up answering several questions on interrogation methods and related issues.
Rumsfeld said that interrogation instructions had been carefully reviewed and fully complied with the Geneva Conventions, the rules governing international actions in wartime. He also said the department had responded to criticism of its detentions.
"The fact of the matter is that in Iraq there have been improvements made, and successive investigations have seen that improvements were made, and they were not brushed off," Rumsfeld said.
The Pew Research Center released results of a poll that it said showed the prison scandal "registered powerfully with the public — fully 76 percent say they have seen pictures depicting mistreatment of Iraqis by U.S. soldiers."
The poll results also found for the first time a majority of Americans, 51 percent, said the war in Iraq was not going well, the center reported.
Both the Republican and Democratic presidential campaigns attacked each other Wednesday over Iraq.
Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., his party's presumptive presidential nominee, told Associated Press Radio that the Bush administration had been guilty of "one miscalculation after another, frankly. And arrogance that has lost America respect and influence in the world."
Steve Schmidt, spokesman for Bush-Cheney '04, said in a statement that Kerry had "stooped to a new low" in his attacks. "John Kerry never misses an opportunity to play politics with the war on terror, and his appalling comments call into question his ability to lead America during these challenging times," Schmidt said.
In the case of Berg, whose death was videotaped and shown on the Internet, further details emerged but much remained unclear.
The 26-year-old Pennsylvania native traveled independently to Iraq and tried to drum up work repairing cellular telephone towers. He was detained in late March, and the FBI released a statement Wednesday that agents had interviewed him in Mosul while he was in the custody of Iraqi police.
The FBI said it checked records and reported that it had "no derogatory information . . . that would warrant further detention." The FBI said its agents and Coalition Provisional Authority officials told him that Iraq was dangerous and offered to help him secure safe passage out of the country. "Mr. Berg refused these offers. . . . He also refused government offers to advise his family and friends of his status," the statement said.
Berg's parents have said he was in U.S. custody, although officials in Baghdad flatly denied that Wednesday. Berg was released in early April, a day after his parents filed a federal lawsuit claiming he was being wrongfully held by U.S. authorities.
"Nicholas Berg was an innocent civilian who was in Iraq to help build a free Iraq," Bush said. "There is no justification for the brutal execution of Nicholas Berg, no justification whatsoever."
Islamic militants who claimed a link to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, an associate of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, posted the chilling video on a Web site and warned that more such killings will follow.
U.S. officials would not say how many foreigners have been kidnapped in Iraq, citing security concerns. A string of abductions has harried the efforts to rebuild Iraq in the past month, with two Russian oil workers the latest kidnap victims on Tuesday.
In the ongoing battle between U.S. and coalition forces and anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, there were conflicting reports Wednesday about whether a deal might soon be struck to end the combat.
In heavy fighting, U.S. tanks and troops killed nearly two dozen al-Sadr militia fighters near a holy shrine in Karbala, officials said, while stressing that any deal would come at the hands of Iraqi negotiators who have not consulted with U.S. officials.
Al-Sadr held a rare press conference, saying he would disband his militia if so ordered by other clerics, but would still oppose the U.S. presence in Iraq.
Al-Sadr's forces have been pummeled by U.S. troops in many engagements in the past 10 days. Many residents of Najaf, where he lives, have protested his insurgency, saying he threatens to prompt the destruction of religious shrines and has strangled the local economy, which depends on pilgrims traveling to those shrines.