US President George Bush yesterday defied calls for the resignation of his embattled Defence Secretary, even as new questions arose over the role of Mr Donald Rumsfeld in the scandal over US abuse of Iraqi detainees.
With Mr Rumsfeld by his side Mr Bush thanked him for his leadership, saying: "You are courageously leading our nation in the war against terror.
"You're doing a superb job. You are a strong Secretary of Defence, and our nation owes you a debt of gratitude."
The President was speaking after chairing what amounted to a war council in the Pentagon, attended by Mr Rumsfeld, the Vice President, Mr Dick Cheney, the Secretary of State, Mr Colin Powell, Gen Richard Myers, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff and US Ambassador to Iraq, Mr John Negroponte.
The show of unity was clearly intended as Mr Bush's response to calls from democrats and leading US newspapers for Mr Rumsfeld to resign over the affair which has rocked the administration and shamed America.
During the closed-door briefing Mr Bush was shown new pictures and still frames from video clips of abuse in the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad which "filled him with deep disgust and disbelief", according to a spokesman.
Emerging from the meeting, a grim-faced Mr Bush said: "There will be a full accounting for the cruel and disgraceful abuse of Iraqi detainees" which are "an insult to the Iraqi people and an affront to the most basic standards of morality and decency.
"The harm goes well beyond the walls of a prison" and "has given some an excuse to question our cause and to cast doubt on our motives," Mr Bush said, acknowledging the damage to America's image internationally.
Mr Bush said that an investigation was launched after "reports of abuse became known to our military" in January this year. But in a major embarrassment for the administration, a leaked Red Cross report yesterday revealed that the Pentagon was informed several times by the Red Cross during 2003 of a "practice" of abuse and torture in US-run Iraqi prisons.
The Washington Post also reported that the use of sensory deprivation tactics first authorised against detainees at Guantanamo was personally authorised by Mr Rumsfeld or his deputy Mr Paul Wolfowitz.
In a further setback for Mr Rumsfeld, the Military Times, a weekly newspaper widely circulated among US soldiers, said that responsibility for abuse extended all the way up to the top generals and civilian leadership.
Mr Rumsfeld had set the tone by "refusing to give captives their rights under the Geneva Conventions," said an editorial in the May 17th edition which accused the Defence Secretary and Gen Myers of "professional negligence" for failing to read the army's own damning report on the abuses before it appeared in the media.
In further evidence of disaffection among the US military with the Pentagon leadership, a number of senior US officers said at the weekend that the US was winning tactically but losing the war strategically in Iraq.
After the war council yesterday, during which Mr Bush was briefed over a secure video link by the military command in Iraq, he said US-led forces would stay in Iraq following the June 30th creation of a caretaker government. "We're on the offensive against the killers and terrorists in that country, and we will stay on the offensive," he said, adding that the US-led coalition was fully committed to Iraqi independence.
"The Iraqi people, and men and women across the Middle East, are watching closely, and they will see America keep its word," he said.
The fall out from the scandal will continue today when the author of the US army report on the abuse, Maj Gen Antonio Taguba testifies to the Senate Armed Services Committee about his finding that "sadistic, blatant and wanton criminal abuses" were inflicted by soldiers in Abu Ghraib prison.