Rumsfeld Rallies the Troops at Prison

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld ventured Thursday to the detention center where the mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners occurred and told U.S. troops it was “a body blow for all of us,” but vowed, “We’ll get through this tough period.”

The Cabinet secretary, under pressure to resign over the scandal, made a pointed effort to boost morale by making a surprise visit from Washington to address several hundred troops who now staff the prison west of Baghdad.

“It doesn’t represent America,” Rumsfeld said of the physical and sexual humiliation documented in now infamous photographs from a cellblock at this sprawling internment camp. “It doesn’t represent American values. It doesn’t represent the values of you, each of you, in this room. The people who engaged in abuses will be brought to justice.”

As Rumsfeld spoke in the prison mess hall, many enthusiastic soldiers snapped his picture, using the kinds of personal digital cameras their colleagues employed last year to photograph detainees in degrading fashion.

“We needed this,” 1st Sgt. Juan Marin, 46, a military policeman from Puerto Rico, said after the secretary’s speech. “It does help.”

Rumsfeld, accompanied by Air Force Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, vowed that those responsible for the mistreatment of prisoners would be punished.

“The world will see how a free system, a democratic system, functions and operates,” Rumsfeld said. “Transparency. With no cover-ups.”

Rumsfeld’s tone was subdued compared with when he visited Abu Ghraib last fall and denounced Saddam Hussein’s abuses at the notorious prison. “In recent months we’ve seen abuses here under our responsibility,” Rumsfeld acknowledged Thursday.

In his comments, the secretary moved beyond Abu Ghraib to the larger military effort in Iraq, challenging the notion that the war has spiraled out of control amid an almost daily toll of dead U.S. troops and Iraqis and the despair of Iraqis caught up in the violence.

“The schools are open, the hospitals are open, the clinics are open and they’ve got a new dinar,” Rumsfield said, referring to the Iraqi currency. “The dinar’s been steady and strong.”

He also complimented the often-criticized Iraqi police and security services, which have been widely assailed in the United States for failing to fight insurgents and in some cases joining their ranks against coalition forces.

“Some of them ran and didn’t stay there and fight,” Rumsfeld said. “Well, let me tell you: 300 Iraqi security forces have been killed, and they didn’t get killed sitting in their barracks with their fingers in their ear waiting for something to happen. They got killed because they were out there.”

The nation’s top defense official said he had stopped reading newspapers -- apparently because of the intense criticism over the scandal -- but was engrossed in a book about Ulysses S. Grant and the Civil War. He noted the deep divisions that greeted that war, but pointed out that participants later said they had done the right thing. He noted a current-day parallel, though he acknowledged that the two wars were also very different.

“The veterans looked back and they knew it was worth it,” Rumsfeld said of the Civil War fighters. “And you’re going to look back and know it’s worth it.”

After his speech, Rumsfeld -- wearing a blue blazer, gray slacks and tan combat boots -- toured part of the huge facility in the midst of a sandstorm. He and his entourage walked along the edge of the barbed wire that separates various sections of the giant tent city where most inmates are housed. One prisoner donned a T-shirt with the emblazoned question in English: “Why am I here?”

Accompanying Rumsfeld was the new detention director in Iraq, Maj. Gen. Geoffrey D. Miller, who has been assigned to improve training for U.S. troops and reduce the detainee population from a high at Abu Ghraib of 8,000 down to about 2,000.

Later, Rumsfield traveled by helicopter to Camp Victory, an Army base on the U.S.-controlled grounds of the international airport outside Baghdad. The camp is where six U.S. soldiers accused of abuse at Abu Ghraib are awaiting adjudication of their cases.

During a town hall meeting in an ornate former palace for Hussein, soldiers peppered Rumsfeld with pointed questions.

“You should become a journalist,” Rumsfield quipped to one female soldier, who asked why troop numbers in Iraq had not been reduced.

Among other things, Army personnel asked for more adequate bulletproof armor, armored Humvees and better insurance coverage, and they spoke of the difficulties of being deployed abroad. One soldier complained that the Army was no longer paying for rest and recreation trips back home -- an assertion that Myers denied.

Another soldier wanted to know about a U.S. effort to gain support for a United Nations resolution on Iraq and how it would change the role of U.S. forces.

“It would assist in getting, oh, maybe one or two handfuls of countries to add troops that have thus far not felt they could do so,” Rumsfeld responded. “That would be a very good thing.”

A civilian Defense Department employee serving in Baghdad complained that he was often unarmed and had no way to protect himself when traveling in a convoy. He asked if something could be done to allow him to carry a weapon.

Rumsfeld directed the question to Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, chief field commander in Iraq, who could not provide an immediate response. Sanchez said he would get back to the civilian.

Later, Rumsfeld was mobbed by soldiers as he left the palace. Many asked him to pose with them for photographs. He smiled broadly, shook hands and lingered even as his security guards tried to nudge him away to the waiting aircraft. It was clear he enjoyed this more than his recent trip to a congressional committee hearing room.

“I want you to know that the American people have a very good center of gravity,” Rumsfeld told the troops before leaving. “They’re sound. They’re sensible. They understand what’s taking place and they support you.”