And it all came tumbling down
Powell says Bush was ‘informed’ of Red Cross concerns
Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said yesterday that he and other top officials kept President Bush “fully informed … in general terms” about complaints made by the Red Cross and others over ill-treatment of detainees in U.S. custody.Powell’s statement suggests Bush may have known earlier than the White House has acknowledged about complaints raised by the International Committee of the Red Cross and human rights groups regarding abuse of detainees in Iraq.
“We kept the president informed of the concerns that were raised by the ICRC and other international organizations as part of my regular briefings of the president, and advised him that we had to follow these issues, and when we got notes sent to us or reports sent to us … we had to respond to them, and the president certainly made it clear that that’s what he expected us to do,” Powell said.
Powell said that he, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld kept Bush “fully informed of the concerns that were being expressed, not in specific details, but in general terms.”