WASHINGTON, 12 May 2004 — Now it’s time for the “blame game.”
As part of its campaign of damage control regarding the Abu Ghraib Iraqi prison scandal, the Pentagon has announced it informed Congress of the abuses last January, when it sent a press release to congressmen regarding the prisoner abuse accusations.
Now senators and congressmen insist they didn’t know about the report because they were not notified directly by the Pentagon.
“Any public announcement in January is a joke,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, said Monday.
Other lawmakers were quick to join in the fray. Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Nebraska, said the press releases were “not a substitute for congressional notification.”
“A press release from Central Command isn’t good enough. The Pentagon communicates with the Hill, and they know how to,” Lara Battles, a spokesman for Rep. Ike Skelton of Missouri, the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, told reporters. “They do it all the time, and that did not occur.” She said Rep. Skelton and other congressmen “expect to be notified of important events directly from the Pentagon, not from the news media.”
Members of Congress say they were blind-sighted by the photos, and Monday the Senate unanimously passed a resolution condemning the abuses.
