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Bush "disgusted" over Iraq abuse
President George W Bush says he shares the widespread international revulsion at the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by US guards at a notorious Baghdad jail.
As the graphic pictures were beamed across the world, Mr Bush said he was disgusted and vowed that those responsible would be "taken care of".
One of the images shows a hooded and naked prisoner standing on a box with wires attached to his genitals.
Last month, the US army suspended 17 soldiers over alleged prisoner abuses.
Elsewhere in Iraq, US marines have begun withdrawing from the Iraqi city of Falluja after a month of bloody clashes with rebels.
Two battalions have been pulling back from front-line positions and are set to move further out during the day.
A new Iraqi force, led by one of Saddam Hussein's former generals, is expected to move into the city while the US maintains a presence outside the flashpoint city.
Slow reaction
Six soldiers - including a brigadier general - are facing court martial in Iraq, and a possible prison term over the POW pictures taken at the notorious Abu Ghraib detention facility in Baghdad and broadcasts by CBS television on Thursday.
The naked prisoner standing on a box with wires attached to his genitals was told that if he fell off the box, he would be electrocuted, CBS said.
Another image shows naked prisoners being forced to simulate sex acts. In another, a female soldier, with a cigarette in her mouth, simulates holding a gun and pointing at a naked Iraqi's genitals.
CBS News said it delayed the broadcast for two weeks after a request from the Pentagon due to the tensions in Iraq.
"I shared a deep disgust that those prisoners were treated the way they were treated. I didn't like it one bit," President Bush said in Washington.
The people who are alleged to have carried out the abuse "do not reflect the nature of men and women we sent overseas", Mr Bush added.
"That's not the way we do things in America."
The pictures did not initially cause much of a stir in America.
This is partly because any criticism of US troops while they are dying in Iraq is liable to be extremely unpopular in the US, says the BBC's Justin Webb in Washington.
The political debate in America has turned now to the issue of the numbers of US soldiers dying in Iraq.
ABC's Nightline, an influential evening current affairs television programme, is to hold a reading tonight of all the names of the American dead.
Politicians in Britain and the Middle East have expressed disgust at the images.
A spokesman for UK Prime Minister Tony Blair said he was "appalled" and described the incident as regrettable.
Adnan Al-Pachachi, a member of the Iraqi Governing Council, said it would create a great deal of anger and discontent among Iraqis already concerned about security in the country.
But he rejected a comparison with the treatment of prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad during the days of Saddam Hussein.
"I don't think you can compare the two. Saddam Hussein's prisoners were not only tortured but executed. It was much worse than what is there now."
One of the suspended soldiers, Staff Sergeant Chip Frederick, said the way the army ran the prison had led to the abuse.
"We had no support, no training whatsoever. And I kept asking my chain of command for certain things... like rules and regulations," he told CBS. "It just wasn't happening."
[Source: BBC]
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