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More than a week after photographs and videos depicting the abuse of Iraqi detainees in Abu Ghraib prison surfaced, George W. Bush finally "expressed his regrets" in the Rose Garden on May 7. According to the Washington Post, aides had advised Bush to apologize the day before in televised appearances on Arabic news channels. Senior officials were reportedly puzzled when Bush did not apologize and had to push "for him to say he was sorry during his news conference with Abdullah." The Progress Report notes "an apology is a step in the right direction, but it will take more than words to restore damaged American credibility." On May 10, both Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney praised Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld for "courageously leading our nation in the war against terror" and said that he was doing a "superb job." But according to an article in the May 24 edition of the New Yorker magazine, a policy put in place by Secretary Rumsfeld "encouraged physical coercion and sexual humiliation of Iraqi prisoners in an effort to generate more intelligence about the growing insurgency in Iraq."
Sources: "Hard to Say You're Sorry," David Sirota, Christy Harvey and Judd Legum, The Progress Report, May 7, 2004; "Allegations of Abuse Lead to Shakeup at Iraqi Prison," Sewell Chan and Jackie Spinner, The Washington Post, April 30, 2004; "Bush: U.S. Owes Debt to 'Superb' Rumsfeld," Jim Drinkard and Tom Sequitieri, USA Today, May 10, 2004; "The Gray Zone, How a secret Pentagon program came to Abu Ghraib," Seymour M. Hersh, The New Yorker, May 24, 2004.