Rumsfeld's shock Iraq visit

Donald Rumsfeld arrived in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad today on a surprise visit as he tried to survive the storm over photographs showing US soldiers abusing Iraqi prisoners.

Speaking to US troops, the Defence Secretary described the pictures as a "body blow" but added that they did not reflect the behaviour of most American soldiers and added that he was a "survivor".

His visit came shortly after American senators were last night shown pictures and video footage which revealed degrading treatment of detainees.

"I saw cruel, sadistic torture," said Congresswoman Jane Harman. Another Senator described it as "a descent into the wings of hell".

In an another highly-damaging blow, the US was accused of officially sanctioning the use of torture against prisoners by a secret CIA interrogation unit.

At least 20 prisoners, mostly top al Qaeda suspects, are being subjected to beatings and mock executions, according to the New York Times.

This includes a technique known as "water boarding," where the suspect is strapped down and forcibly held underwater until he believes he is drowning.

The new revelations mark a significant deepening of the crisis of Iraq faced by President Bush and Tony Blair. In a closed-door session in Washington, senators and congressmen saw more than 1,600 photos which they said depicted forced sex, brutality and dogs snarling at cowed prisoners.

Some members of Congress said they feared that making the images public would inflame international outrage and endanger Americans in Iraq. The private screening came the day after Islamic militants broadcast film of an American hostage being beheaded in Iraq. The killers said it was to avenge abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad.

"There were some awful scenes. It

felt like you were descending into one of the wings of hell and sadly it was our own creation," said Democrat Senator Richard Durbin. He added: "When you think of the sadism, the violence, the sexual humiliation, after a while you just turn away, you just can't take it any more.

"I still cannot believe that this happened without the knowledge of those at higher levels."

Republican Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell said: "I don't know how the hell these people got into our army."

Others said they saw images of corpses, women commanded to expose their breasts and sex acts, including forced homosexual sex.

But senior Republican Tom DeLay said he thought "some people are overreacting". He added: "The people who are against the war are using this to their political ends."

The new footage marked the latest turn in a crisis that has prompted President Bush to apologise to the victims. Democrats are demanding the dismissal of defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

Before the viewing Mr Rumsfeld defended military interrogation techniques in Iraq. He rejected claims

that they violate international rules and may endanger Americans taken prisoner.

According to the New York Times, the CIA's officially sanctioned torture unit has used techniques including depriving prisoners of light, food and medicines. "Waterboarding" has been used against Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, captured in Pakistan last March and widely believed to have worked directly with Osama bin Laden in the planning of the September 11 attacks. At least one CIA agent has been disciplined for threatening another prisoner with a gun, the New York Times reports. The paper says that methods were sanctioned at the highest level by the Justice Department and the CIA.

Some of the prisoners are being held in the US and others in sympathetic foreign countries.

It reports that the FBI has told its agents to stay away from questioning led by the CIA because its methods are so harsh that they would be illegal under FBI rules.

In a further deepening of the crisis, an American TV station last night broadcast a home-made video diary in which a women guard at a PoW camp in Iraq talked of throwing rocks at inmates. The unnamed soldier was part of a military police detail trying to guard around 7,000 prisoners at Camp Bucca in southern Iraq.

Unleashing a torrent of obscenities about Iraqis, she complains: "These people eat better than we do. Every day they eat white rice, chicken." Talking about treatment of prisoners, she says: "If we shoot any more of the Iraqis or attack any of them, they're gonna supposedly come in and attack the camp.

"But we'll believe that when it actually happens because we've already killed another Iraqi just last night when I was working."

Pentagon officials say they have no plans to make the latest pictures public because they would violate prisoners rights to privacy under the Geneva Convention.