By Randall Mikkelsen
Washington - United States Vice-President Dick Cheney rushed to the aid of Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld - under fire over Iraqi prison abuses - by saying people should "get off his case" and let Rumsfeld do his job.
"Don Rumsfeld is the best secretary of defence the United States has ever had," Cheney said in a statement from his office late on Saturday. The statement appeared to signal a White House push to rally Republicans behind the embattled Rumsfeld.
"People ought to get off his case and let him do his job," said Cheney, a Republican.
'eople ought to get off his case and let him do his job' Democrats, including presidential candidate Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, have demanded Rumsfeld's resignation following disclosures that Iraqi soldiers were mistreated in Iraqi prisons run by the US occupying force.
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The Washington Post newspaper said in its Sunday edition that the Bush administration was reviewing hundreds of additional photographs of abuse of prisoners in Iraq, which a Pentagon official was quoted as calling "horrible."
The controversy over treatment of Iraqi prisoners erupted after CBS television showed photographs of the abuse.
American President George Bush said he had admonished Rumsfeld last week over his initial handling of the controversy, a rare public White House reference to a rebuke. But he said later Rumsfeld would remain in the cabinet.
National security adviser Condoleezza Rice was quoted in the Post as saying, shortly after speaking to Bush, that Rumsfeld will continue to have the president's support. "He has the strongest possible support here in the White House," Rice said.
'He has the strongest possible support here in the White House' Some analysts have said Rumsfeld's future could hang on the impact of the additional photographs of prisoner abuse, which Rumsfeld told Congress on Friday could further damage the United States.
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