Prison plan shocks Pentagon

2004-05-27 18:10

Washington - Pentagon officials were caught by surprise by President George W Bush's announcement on Tuesday that the notorious Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad was to be torn down, The New York Times said on Thursday.

"This office was not aware of any plans to raze Abu Ghraib or build another prison," a Pentagon spokesperson told the daily insisting that he remain anonymous lest he was seen as contradicting the president.

A White House official, who also asked not to be identified, told the daily it was Bush's idea to include the announcement in a speech on Tuesday, in which he outlined his strategy to hand over power to an interim Iraqi government on June 30.

The official said Bush had discussed the idea of destroying Abu Ghraib, which has become a symbol of the US military's abuse of Iraqi prisoners, with his war cabinet and US overseer in Iraq Paul Bremer.

Bremer, in turn, consulted with Iraqis and General Geoffrey Miller, who is in charge of detention operations in Iraq, and replied to Bush that it was a good plan, the White House official said.

It was unclear if Bush's war cabinet included Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, or, if it did, whether Rumsfeld passed on the information on Abu Ghraib to his subordinates at the Pentagon.

Bush's announcement also surprised US lawmakers, including the Senate subcommittee which oversees reconstruction spending in Iraq, the daily said.

Separately, The New York Times on Thursday quoted Miller as saying that Abu Ghraib, already used during the regime of Saddam Hussein as a torture and execution centre, would be vacated by US forces by August.

- AFP