Archived news and commentary: May 3 - 9, 2004

2004/06/28 - 2004/07/04
2004/06/21 - 2004/06/27
2004/06/14 - 2004/06/20
2004/06/07 - 2004/06/13
2004/05/31 - 2004/06/06
2004/05/24 - 2004/05/30
2004/05/17 - 2004/05/23
2004/05/10 - 2004/05/16
2004/05/03 - 2004/05/09
2004/04/26 - 2004/05/02
2004/04/19 - 2004/04/25
2004/04/12 - 2004/04/18
2004/04/05 - 2004/04/11
2004/03/29 - 2004/04/04

Sunday, May 9, 2004

News and commentary:

"An Iraqi man carries an anti-U.S. poster..."
(Akram Saleh, Reuters, 2004/05/09)
"An Iraqi man carries an anti-U.S. poster during a protest in central Baghdad, to denounce the U.S. government for torturing Iraqi prisoners, May 9, 2004."

"Borrowed time in the botellón" (Michael Carlin, The New Criterion, May 2004)
Carlin on the Madrid bombings: "During the week after the election, a new symposium featuring the brightest lights of the Spanish academic left was announced. Its theme was to be the illegality of the war in Iraq and the “right of resistance” of Iraq’s population. That the bombing of innocent Spanish civilians was claimed by its authors as part of this “resistance” to the “occupation” of Iraq has in no way slackened the suicidal rhetoric of post-colonial oppression. Such ideological connivance in their own destruction by Spain’s intellectual and media elites has caused not even the slightest dyspepsia to any of the Madrileños with whom I regularly speak. Not only did they fail to reject Satan’s pomp, they embraced him horns and all. ...
The brittleness of Spanish political culture, such that it broke when put under the stress of terrorism, cannot be attributed to either terrorists or political opportunists. Such as these can only devour already moribund carrion. It must have been immediately apparent to the terrorists that Spain was living on borrowed time. With one of the lowest fertility rates in the known world, Spanish couples have created a hollow society united by the weakest of links. As Alasdair MacIntyre has so carefully argued, this substitution of sentiment for the more organic societal norms of faith and family straitens all forms of discourse, rendering impossible any substantive moral discussion within society as a whole. What blandishments can such a contraceptive society offer to the only children of Spain’s eco-vanity to make them come in from the bottelón and join in the search for a common good beyond the earnestly felt emotion of the moment? Little in the way of immediate gratification or collective high can be offered to compete with the fraternal thrill of calling a sitting Prime Minister a murderer to his face. The sad fact is that we cannot rely on Spain or the rest of Western Europe for anything but continued moral failure while its citizens are still too self-obsessed to replace their own populations."

"Saudi Justice?" (CBS News, 2004/05/09)
60 Minutes — "Why did the Government of Saudi Arabia frame seven westerners for a series of car bombings they didn't commit?":
"How had Sampson and Mitchell become trapped in this nightmare in the first place? They'd come to the attention of the Saudi security police through a Belgian friend of theirs named Raf Schyvens, a paramedic who was a witness to the second car bomb, and had given first aid that saved a man's life.
But the Saudis discovered that he used to drink in a bar with British expatriates where alcohol was illegally served. This was enough to make them charge Schyvens with involvement in the bombing and to insist that he knew who the bombers were. ...
“They say that they still regard you and the others as guilty of those bombings,” Bradley says to Sampson. “They say that the only reason that they let you go was because of an act of clemency by King Fahd, in other words a royal pardon. Does that bother you?”
“It bothers me. It's difficult to be bothered by the statements of the individuals who run a regime of such totalitarian brutality as the Saudi Arabians,” says Sampson.
'I know the members of their government are hypocrites. I know the members of their government are liars, and therefore I do not expect anything better from them than that. I do not expect anything other than them to continue playing their hypocritical games.'" (Note: As the he original links to William Sampson's articles of his torture and survival in a Saudi prison are down and as it is a must-read series, I've posted them on Watch:
"I angrily lunged toward my father" (William Sampson with Francine Dubé, National Post/Watch, 2003/09/11)
"And then I began to fight back" (William Sampson with Francine Dubé, National Post/Watch, 2003/09/10)
"'I was having a heart attack'" (William Sampson with Francine Dubé, National Post/Watch, 2003/09/09)
"My eleven days of Saudi torture" (William Sampson with Francine Dubé, National Post/Watch, 2003/09/08)
"'I am not quite the man I was'" (William Sampson with Francine Dubé, National Post/Watch, 2003/09/06))

"Chain of Command" (Seymour M. Hersh, The New Yorker, 2004/05/09)
"Last week, I was given another set of digital photographs, which had been in the possession of a member of the 320th. According to a time sequence embedded in the digital files, the photographs were taken by two different cameras over a twelve-minute period on the evening of December 12, 2003, two months after the military-police unit was assigned to Abu Ghraib.
One of the new photographs shows a young soldier, wearing a dark jacket over his uniform and smiling into the camera, in the corridor of the jail. In the background are two Army dog handlers, in full camouflage combat gear, restraining two German shepherds. The dogs are barking at a man who is partly obscured from the camera’s view by the smiling soldier. Another image shows that the man, an Iraqi prisoner, is naked. His hands are clasped behind his neck and he is leaning against the door to a cell, contorted with terror, as the dogs bark a few feet away. Other photographs show the dogs straining at their leashes and snarling at the prisoner. In another, taken a few minutes later, the Iraqi is lying on the ground, writhing in pain, with a soldier sitting on top of him, knee pressed to his back. Blood is streaming from the inmate’s leg. Another photograph is a closeup of the naked prisoner, from his waist to his ankles, lying on the floor. On his right thigh is what appears to be a bite or a deep scratch. There is another, larger wound on his left leg, covered in blood." (See also: "Torture at Abu Ghraib" (Seymour M. Hersh, The New Yorker, 2004/04/30))

"The Price of Arrogance" (Fareed Zakaria, Newsweek, from the 2004/05/17 issue)
"The events at Abu Ghraib are part of a larger breakdown in American policy over the past two years. And it has been perpetrated by a small number of people at the highest levels of government.
Since 9/11, a handful of officials at the top of the Defense Department and the vice president's office have commandeered American foreign and defense policy. In the name of fighting terror they have systematically weakened the traditional restraints that have made this country respected around the world. Alliances, international institutions, norms and ethical conventions have all been deemed expensive indulgences at a time of crisis. ...
The basic attitude taken by Rumsfeld, Cheney and their top aides has been "We're at war; all these niceties will have to wait." As a result, we have waged pre-emptive war unilaterally, spurned international cooperation, rejected United Nations participation, humiliated allies, discounted the need for local support in Iraq and incurred massive costs in blood and treasure. ...
Leave process aside: the results are plain. On almost every issue involving postwar Iraq — troop strength, international support, the credibility of exiles, de-Baathification, handling Ayatollah Ali Sistani — Washington's assumptions and policies have been wrong. By now most have been reversed, often too late to have much effect. This strange combination of arrogance and incompetence has not only destroyed the hopes for a new Iraq. It has had the much broader effect of turning the United States into an international outlaw in the eyes of much of the world.
Whether he wins or loses in November, George W. Bush's legacy is now clear: the creation of a poisonous atmosphere of anti-Americanism around the globe. I'm sure he takes full responsibility."

"Cursed by Oil" (Thomas L. Friedman, The New York Times, 2004/05/09)
"As I said, the Bush team has made a mess in Iraq. And I know that Abu Ghraib will be a lasting stain on the Pentagon leadership. But here's what else I know from visiting Iraq: There were a million acts of kindness, generosity and good will also extended by individual U.S. soldiers this past year — acts motivated purely by a desire to give Iraqis the best chance they've ever had at decent government and a better future. There are plenty of Iraqis and Arabs who know that. ...
A senior Iraqi politician told me that he recently received a group of visiting Iranian journalists in his home. As they were leaving, he said, two young Iranian women in the group whispered to him: "Succeed for our sake." Those Iranian women knew that if Iraqis could actually produce a decent, democratizing government it would pressure their own regime to start changing — which is why the Iranian, Syrian and Saudi regimes are all rooting for us to fail.
But you know what? Despite everything, we still have a chance to produce a decent outcome in Iraq, if we get our eye back on the ball. Of course, if we do fail, that will be our tragedy. But for the Arabs, it will be a huge lost opportunity — one that will only postpone their future another decade. Too bad so few of them have the courage to stand up and say that. I guess it must be another one of those "Zionist" plots."

"Blast Kills Chechen Leader, Russian Gen." (Sergei Venyavsky, AP/Yahoo! News, 2004/05/09)
"The Kremlin-backed president of Russia's warring Chechnya region and a top Russian general were killed Sunday when an explosion tore through a stadium in the Chechen capital where they were attending Victory Day observances, the republic's Interior Ministry said.
President Akhmad Kadyrov died about 30 minutes after the blast, likely caused by a land mine planted under the stadium's VIP seats, a ministry official said on condition of anonymity. Col.-Gen. Valery Baranov, a top regional commander died at the scene, the official said.
In all, at least 10 people were killed and up to 100 injured, the official said. ...
Russia's NTV television broadcast footage of the stadium's VIP section collapsing into a jagged hole of torn wooden planks, sending up a plume of brown smoke. Panicked people dressed in their Sunday best clambered over the seating bleachers. One man was shown carrying a bloodied child, while men in uniform dragged a man covered in blood away from the broken seating area. Shots rang out into the air."

"Fake rape photos infuriate Arab world" (Sherrie Gossett, WorldNetDaily, 2004/05/09)
Yes, the "damage has been done" — partly by the BBC itself:
"The effects of the international scandal over Iraqi prisoner abuse continue to be compounded in the Arab and Muslim worlds by fake images of rape, torture and sadomasochism taken from pornography sites and distributed on pro-Islamist websites — including even news sites — as first revealed in WorldNetDaily. ...
Well-known Iraqi novelist Buthaina Al-Nasiri told WND the pornographic photos are still circulating widely through the Arab world — causing confusion between genuine abuse and fantasy. ...
Meanwhile, Adam Livingstone, senior producer for BBC NewsNight asked WND for the photos as they originally appeared on one Arabic site, as part of the BBC's further investigation into "the fake rape pictures [WND] has already exposed."
On May 4, the same day WND reported on the fake rape photos, the BBC ran a story entitled "Arab anger at torture photos" which reported a set of rape photos were circulating in the Middle East that "apparently shows two Iraqi women, both wearing traditional black robes, being raped at gunpoint by men ... wearing US Army uniforms." The BBC added that the pictures did not seem geniune because "the uniforms do not seem right." Paul Wood, BBC Middle East correspondent in Cairo added, 'The pictures of British soldiers abusing Iraqis might not be genuine either. But the damage has been done.'" (See also: "Bogus GI rape photos used as Arab propaganda" (Sherrie Gossett, WorldNetDaily, 2004/05/04) and "Arab anger at Iraq torture photos" (Paul Wood, BBC News, 2004/05/04): "On the Arabic satellite channels, it's "all torture, all the time" — wall-to-wall coverage of the photographs, the graphic images flooding into homes across the region. ...
And another set of photographs is circulating on Arabic-language web sites. It apparently shows two Iraqi women, both wearing traditional black robes, being raped at gunpoint by men described as wearing US Army uniforms.
These pictures do not seem genuine: the uniforms do not seem right. The pictures of British soldiers abusing Iraqis might not be genuine either. But the damage has been done. ...
So perhaps, in the backroom of a mosque in Saudi Arabia, in Yemen, or in Iraq itself, a young Muslim is being shown these photographs — and is recruited for jihad.")

"Frauds Try to Exploit Iraq Abuse Scandal" (Lee Keath, AP/Newsday.com, 2004/05/09)
"Fallujah native Abdul-Qader Abdul-Rahman al-Ani, his left elbow wrapped in bandages, his right forearm bound in a cast, recounted how he was beaten by soldiers who picked him up last month. The soldiers tied him and two others arrested with him to a tree and sodomized them one after the other, he told journalists.
"I ask President Bush," he said. "Does he agree with this?"
As Ani, 47, repeated his story, he was interrupted by Jabber al-Okaili, a member of one of the human rights groups that organized the gathering. "He's lying," al-Okaili shouted. "He's a liar!"
Al-Ani was rushed to an office, where al-Okaili and others unwound the bandage on his left arm and found the elbow unscarred and healthy. They cut off half of the cast on his forearm, even as al-Ani insisted, "By God, it's true, everything I say is true."
"All his papers were forged," al-Okaili, of the Free Iraq Institute, said after al-Ani left the building. 'Who knows why he did this. Maybe he was paid by former members of Saddam Hussein's regime.'"

"A Prison on the Brink" (Scott Higham et al., The Washington Post, 2004/05/09)
The first of three articles about "The Road to Abu Ghraib":
"The real trouble started after Oct. 15, when the 372nd Military Police Company, a segment of the 320 Battalion based in Cresaptown, Md., took over Abu Ghraib from a military police company based in Henderson, Nev. The 372nd soldiers, reservists from small-town America, were not trained to be prison guards. An MP officer from another unit at Abu Ghraib said he was struck by their unprofessionalism. ...
With little experience in corrections to fall back on, the unit deferred to MPs who had civilian prison backgrounds.
"Detainee care appears to have been made up as the operations developed with reliance on, and guidance from, junior members of the unit who had civilian corrections experience," Taguba later found.
Those members included Staff Sgt. Ivan L. "Chip" Frederick II, 37, who had worked as a correctional officer at Buckingham Correctional Center in Virginia, and Spec. Charles A. Graner Jr., 35, a divorced father of two who worked as a prison guard in Greene County, Pa. ...
"I have been made the scapegoat in this event," Phillabaum wrote in an e-mail to The Post. 'Frederick was the NCO [noncommissioned officer] in charge of that wing of the prison. No one higher in his chain of command, starting with his platoon sergeant, knew what was occurring. If he thought that his actions were condoned, then why were they only conducted between 0200-0400 hours for a few days in late October and early November?'" (See also: "In Abuse, a Portrayal of Ill-Prepared, Overwhelmed G.I.'s" (Douglas Jehl and Eric Schmitt, The New York Times, 2004/05/09): "The worst abuses at Abu Ghraib took place on or around Nov. 8, according to the details of the military investigation made public so far, and principally in Cellblock 1-A, the group of cells set aside for high risk prisoners. ...
"Taking these prisoners out of their cells and staging bizarre acts were the thoughts of a couple of demented M.P.'s who in civilian life are prison correction officers who well know such acts are prohibited," Colonel Phillabaum said.")

Saturday, May 8, 2004

News and commentary:

"'I'm sorry'" (Ibrahim Nafie, Al-Ahram, 2004/05/08)
An interview with President George W. Bush: "Obviously, our reputation has been damaged severely by the terrible and horrible acts, inhumane acts that were conducted on Iraqi prisoners. Today, I can't tell you how sorry I am to them and their families for the humiliation.
I'm also sorry because people are then able to say, look how terrible America is. But this isn't America, that's not — Americans are appalled at what happened. We're a generous people. I don't think a lot of people understand that. So I've got to do a better job of explaining to people that we're for a lot of things that most people who live in the Middle East want. We want there to be peace. We want people to have a living. We want people to send their kids to schools that work. We want there to be health care. We want there to be a Palestinian state at peace with its neighbours. We want there to be reform. We want people to have a chance to participate in the process.
But I'd say right now times are tough for the United States and the Middle East. ...
I'll tell you what else I'm sorry about. I'm sorry that the truth about our soldiers in Iraq becomes obscured. In other words, we've got fantastic citizens in Iraq; good kids; good soldiers, men and women who are working every day to make Iraqi citizens' lives better. And there are a thousand acts of kindness that take place every day of these great Americans who really do care about the citizens in Iraq. It's an awful, awful period for the American people, just like it's awful for the Iraqi citizens to see that on their TV screens." (See also: "Bush: Iraqi Prisoner Abuse 'Abhorrent'" (Terence Hunt, AP/Yahoo! News, 2004/05/05))

"Abu Gharib, other parts of the picture" (Ali, Iraq the Model, 2004/05/08)
Ali on a conversation with an Iraqi doctor, who spent a month at Abu-Ghraib as part of his training:
"— Yes but what about the way they are treated? And how did you find American soldiers in general?
— I’ll tell you about that; first let me tell you that I was surprised with their politeness. Whenever they come to the hospital, they would take of their helmets and show great respect and they either call me Sir or doctor. As for the way they treat the prisoners, they never handcuff anyone of those, political or else, when they bring them for examination and treatment unless I ask them to do so if I know that a particular prisoner is aggressive, and I never saw them beat a prisoner and rarely did one of them use an offensive language with a prisoner. ...
— As far as I know and from what I’ve seen, I’m sure that they are isolated.
— But couldn’t it be true that there were abusive actions at those times that the prisoners were afraid to tell you about?
— Are you serious!? These criminals, and I mean both types tell me all about there “adventures and bravery”. Some of them told me how they killed an American soldier or burned a humvee, and in their circumstances this equals a confession! Do you think they would’ve been abused and remained silent and not tell me at least!? No, I don’t think any of this happened during the time I was there. It seemed that this happened to a very small group of whom I met no one during that month. ...
— So, you believe there’s a lot of clamor here?
— As you said these things are unaccepted but I’m sure that they are isolated and they are just very few exceptions that need to be dealt with, but definitely not the rule. The rule is kindness, care and respect that most of these thugs don’t deserve, and that I have seen by my own eyes. However I still don't understand why did this happen." (Hat tip: Roger L. Simon. See also: "Abu Ghraib" (zeyad, Healing Iraq, 2004/05/05))

"Fisk Redlining" (Tim Blair, timblair.spleenville.com, 2004/05/08)
The Ideology of Double Standards. Why is it considered radical to view the torture at Abu Ghraib as "part of a culture" or that it even "is America", but bigoted and racist to draw similar conclusions regarding Arab or Muslim culture from Islamist atrocities? What's considered racist when applied to other cultures is radical when applied to America, the West, Israel and Christianity:
"The scenes from Abu Ghraib have inspired Robert Fisk to apocalyptic hyperbole:

Just look at the way US army reservist Lynndie England holds the leash of the naked, bearded Iraqi. Take a close look at the leather strap, the pain on the prisoner's face. No sadistic movie could outdo the damage of this image. In September 2001, the planes smashed into the buildings; today, Lynndie smashes to pieces our entire morality with just one tug on the leash.

Our entire morality? Lynndie isn’t the only one doing some tugging here.

Could ever Islam have come so intimately into contact with the sexuality of the Old Testament? Could neo-conservative Christianity - Lynndie is also a churchgoer - have collided so violently, so revoltingly, so obscenely with Islam?

Making rather a lot of this, isn’t he? Lynndie also used to hang out at the local Dairy Dip. Maybe her victims preferred Baskin-Robbins. It’s the ultimate ice cream chain confrontation! Fisk believes that unnamed forces compelled Lynndie England — Fisk refers to her as “a girl” — and her fellow tormenters to carry out their loathsome acts:

They were told to do these despicable things. They were encouraged. This was an order from someone. Who? When can we see their pictures, their identity, their passports, their orders?

What does it matter? We’re all to blame, according to Robert:

Yes, it's part of a culture, a long tradition that goes back to the Crusades; that the Muslim is dirty, lascivious, un-Christian, unworthy of humanity — which is pretty much what Osama bin Laden (now forgotten by Mr Bush, I notice) believes about us Westerners.

Is there anything Fisk and bin Laden don't agree on?" (See also: "An illegal and immoral war, betrayed by images that reveal our racism" (Robert Fisk, Independent/robert-fisk.com, 2004/05/07) and "Abu Ghraib Is America" (Michael Graham, The Corner, 2004/05/05))

"Democracy Now" (Robert Kagan and William Kristol, The Weekly Standard, from the 2004/05/17 issue)
"We do not know how close the American effort in Iraq may be to irrecoverable failure. We are inclined to believe, however, that the current Washington wisdom — that the United States has already failed and there is nothing to do now but find a not-too-damaging way to extricate ourselves — is far too pessimistic, a panicked reaction to the difficulties in Falluja and with Moktada al-Sadr, as well as to the disaster of Abu Ghraib. ...
But loss of confidence that the war is winnable goes well beyond left-wing Democrats and isolationist Republicans. The Bush administration seems not to recognize how widespread, and how bipartisan, is the view that Iraq is already lost or on the verge of being lost. The administration therefore may not appreciate how close the whole nation is to tipping decisively against the war. In a sense, it doesn't matter whether this popular and elite perception of the situation in Iraq is too simplistic and too pessimistic. The perception, if it lingers, may destroy support for the war before events on the ground have a chance to prove it wrong." (Also: "We don't claim to have a silver bullet. But we believe one answer to the current crisis would be to move up elections by several months, perhaps to September. ...
Accelerating the elections would have several virtues: First, it would change the subject. Instead of focusing on their anger at Americans, Iraqis would be compelled to begin focusing on the coming elections, where each and every Iraqi adult will have a chance to participate in shaping the future. Second, with elections coming quickly, those who continued to commit violence in Iraq would be understood to be attacking not only the United States, but also the elections process, and therefore democracy. The insurgents would be antidemocratic rather than anti-American.")

"Crisis of Confidence" (David Brooks, The New York Times, 2004/05/08)
"Believe me, we've got even bigger problems than whether Rumsfeld keeps his job. We've got the problem of defining America's role in the world from here on out, because we are certainly not going to put ourselves through another year like this anytime soon. No matter how Iraq turns out, no president in the near future is going to want to send American troops into any global hot spot. This experience has been too searing.
Unfortunately, states will still fail, and world-threatening chaos will still ensue. Tyrants will still aid terrorists. Genocide will still occur. What are we going to do then? Who is going to tackle the future Milosevics, the future Talibans? If you were one of those people who thought the world was dangerous with an overreaching hyperpower, wait until you get a load of the age of the global power vacuum. ...
We've got to reboot. We've got to come up with a global alliance of democracies to embody democratic ideals, harness U.S. military power and house a permanent nation-building apparatus, filled with people who actually possess expertise on how to do this job.
From the looting of the Iraqi National Museum to Abu Ghraib, this has been a horrible year. The cause is still just, but to keep it moving forward, we have to reinvent the enterprise."

"I was a fool, says librarian who married a terrorist" (John Shaw, The Daily Telegraph, 2004/05/08)
"A Cambridge University librarian who was married to the leader of last weekend's machinegun attack on westerners in Saudi Arabia condemned his actions as "horrendous and despicable" yesterday.
"I did not marry a terrorist," Jane Tienne said of Mustafa Abdel-Qader Abed al-Ansari, whom she had not seen since they separated in 1996, a few months after their wedding.
"I am opposed to all killing, all suicide bombers in Palestine, Israelis in Apache gunships and American soldiers in Iraq. I oppose it all. I am not a pacifist but I oppose killing."
Mrs Tienne told the Telegraph that she was horrified when she heard her of her former husband's involvement in the attack.
"Something must have happened in the eight years after we were married for him to do such a thing," she said. "He was not a violent person."
Al-Ansari was the organiser of the outrage which claimed seven lives including two Britons at the Saudi port of Yanbu. He was killed, along with his three fellow-attackers, in a gun battle with police following an hour-long chase. A further 25 people were injured." (See also: "Saudi vows to crush terror with iron fist after shooting rampage" (AFP/Yahoo! News, 2004/05/02))

"Mistreatment of Prisoners Is Called Routine in U.S." (Fox Butterfield, The New York Times, 2004/05/08)
"Physical and sexual abuse of prisoners, similar to what has been uncovered in Iraq, takes place in American prisons with little public knowledge or concern, according to corrections officials, inmates and human rights advocates. ...
The corrections experts say that some of the worst abuses have occurred in Texas, whose prisons were under a federal consent decree during much of the time President Bush was governor because of crowding and violence by guards against inmates. Judge William Wayne Justice of Federal District Court imposed the decree after finding that guards were allowing inmate gang leaders to buy and sell other inmates as slaves for sex. ...
In a case that began in 2000, a prisoner at the Allred Unit in Wichita Falls, Tex., said he was repeatedly raped by other inmates, even after he appealed to guards for help, and was allowed by prison staff to be treated like a slave, being bought and sold by various prison gangs in different parts of the prison. The inmate, Roderick Johnson, has filed suit against the Texas Department of Criminal Justice and the case is now before the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans, said Kara Gotsch, public policy coordinator for the National Prison Project of the American Civil Liberties Union, which is representing Mr. Johnson."

"Prison torture common in Mideast, surveys find" (David R. Sands, The Washington Times, 2004/05/08)
"The scandal over abuse at a U.S. military prison in Iraq is unfolding in a region where governments routinely employ torture, psychological abuse and secret detentions of common prisoners and political detainees, according to numerous U.S., U.N. and private surveys.
Human rights activists say the long history of prisoner abuse and torture in the region makes the images of American troops at Abu Ghraib prison physically and sexually humiliating Iraqi prisoners all the more devastating to the campaign to improve civil liberties and government accountability across the Middle East. ...
Abderrahim Sabir, U.S. spokesman for the Paris-based Arab Commission for Human Rights, said the revelations coming out of Abu Ghraib prison will have "tremendous negative effects" on efforts to combat much larger systematic abuses in other countries in the region.
"Just in terms of lobbying other countries over prisoner treatment, torture and fair trials, the United States is simply not going to be able to do that for now," said Mr. Sabir, formerly head of North African affairs for Amnesty International."

"Soldier Says Role Was to 'Make It Hell' for Prisoners" (Jackie Spinner, The Washington Post, 2004/05/08)
An article about Spec. Sabrina D. Harman, a military police officer who has been charged with abusing detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. Apparently, she hadn't been briefed that it is wrong to stack naked detainees in pyramids:
"Her face is now famous as belonging to one of two soldiers posing in the widely published photograph of naked Iraqi detainees stacked in a pyramid. The picture is one of several that have inflamed the Arab world and brought condemnation from President Bush and other U.S. political and military leaders.
Harman is accused by the Army of taking photographs of that pyramid and photographing and videotaping detainees who were ordered to strip and masturbate in front of other prisoners and soldiers, according to a charge sheet obtained by The Washington Post. She is also charged with photographing a corpse and then posing for a picture with it; with striking several prisoners by jumping on them as they lay in a pile; with writing "rapeist" on a prisoner's leg; and with attaching wires to a prisoner's hands while he stood on a box with his head covered. She told him he would be electrocuted if he fell off the box, the documents said. ...
She said the prison had no standard operating procedures and on Tier 1A, where suspected insurgents were held, Army and other intelligence officers "made the rules as they went." ...
"The Geneva Convention was never posted, and none of us remember taking a class to review it," Harman said. 'The first time reading it was two months after being charged. I read the entire thing highlighting everything the prison is in violation of. There's a lot.'"

Friday, May 7, 2004

News and commentary:

"ALL DONNE GO HOME"
(Murad Sezer, AP/Newsweek, 2004/05/07)
From Newsweek's photo gallery "Anatomy of a Quagmire": "ALL DONNE GO HOME is scrawled across the remains of the Saddam Hussein statue at Fardos Square in Baghdad, an omen of troubles to come."

'"'US soldiers abused young girl at Iraqi prison'" (itv.com, 2004/05/07)
"The US military has said it will investigate claims by a former inmate of Abu Ghraib prison that a girl as young as 12 was stripped and beaten by military personnel.
Suhaib al-Baz, a journalist for the al-Jazeera television network, claims to have been tortured at the prison, based west of Baghdad, while held there for 54 days.
Mr al-Baz was arrested when reporting clashes between insurgents and coalition forces in November.
He said: "They brought a 12-year-old girl into our cellblock late at night. Her brother was a prisoner in the other cells.
She was naked and screaming and calling out to him as they beat her. Her brother was helpless and could only hear her cries. This affected all of us because she was just a child."
The allegations cannot be verified independently but Mr al-Baz maintains psychological and physical violence were commonplace in the jail. ...
Mr al-Baz claims the guards at the prison were keen to take photographs of the abuse and turned it into a competition.
'They were enjoying taking photographs of the torture. There was a daily competition to see who could take the most gruesome picture.
The winner's photo would be stuck on a wall and also put on their laptop computers as a screensaver.
I had a good opinion of the Americans but since my time in prison, I've changed my mind. In Iraq we still have no freedom or democracy. They are so cruel to us.'"

"Rumsfeld apologizes to abused Iraqis" (MSNBC, 2004/05/07)
"Rumsfeld did not describe the photos, but U.S. military officials told NBC News that the unreleased images showed U.S. soldiers severely beating an Iraqi prisoner nearly to death, having sex with a female Iraqi female prisoner and “acting inappropriately with a dead body.” The officials said there was also a videotape, apparently shot by U.S. personnel, showing Iraqi guards raping young boys."

"More Photos, Videos in Iraq Abuse Scandal-Rumsfeld" (Reuters/My Way, 2004/05/07)
"The abuse scandal at Abu Ghraib prison includes more photographs and videos that are potentially worse than the photos shown around the world of smiling American soldiers next to naked Iraqi prisoners in humiliating positions, U.S. officials said on Friday.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, said there were many more photos and videotapes that had not been published showing cruel and sadistic acts by U.S. personnel.
"I've said today that there are a lot more photographs and videos that exist. If these are released to the public, obviously it's going to make matters worse. That's just a fact," Rumsfeld said.
"I mean I looked at them last night and they're hard to believe," he said. 'And if they're sent to some news organization and taken out of the criminal prosecution channels that they're in, that's where we'll be. And it's not a pretty picture.'" (See also full transcripts: "Rumsfeld Testifies Before Senate Armed Services Committee" (The Washington Post, 2004/05/07) and "Rumsfeld Testifies Before House Armed Services Committee" (The Washington Post, 2004/05/07))

"US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld..."
(Stephen Jaffe, AFP, 2004/05/07)
"US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld is sworn in before the Senate Armed Services on Capitol Hill to testify on the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse by US soldiers."

"Rumsfeld Apologizes to Iraqi Prisoners" (AP/Yahoo! News, 2004/05/07)
"Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld on Friday extended "my deepest apology" to Iraqis brutally abused in U.S. military prisons and said he favors compensating them for their suffering.
"These events occurred on my watch. As Secretary of Defense, I am accountable for them. I take full responsibility," Rumsfeld told the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Rumsfeld took the witness chair after a week of controversy over shocking photographs of U.S. captors abusing their prisoners, often forcing them to assume sexually humiliating poses. Several Democratic lawmakers have demanded his resignation. ...
Rumsfeld had scarcely uttered his opening apology when protesters interrupted him.
"Fire Rumsfeld," some yelled before they were hustled from the room.
Rumsfeld sat calmly in his seat while the room was quieted.
Moments earlier, he added his personal apology to Bush's.
"I feel terrible about what happened to these Iraqi detainees. They are human beings. They were in U.S. custody," he said.
'To those Iraqis who were mistreated by the U.S. armed forces, I offer my deepest apology.'" (See also: "Major U.S. Papers Call for Rumsfeld's Resignation" (Diane Bartz, Reuters/Yahoo! News, 2004/05/07))

"Local Iraqis divided over photos" (John Iwasaki, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 2004/05/07)
"The abuse of Iraqi prisoners at the hands of U.S. soldiers draws intense reactions from some who left Iraq to find freedom in Washington state, but prolonged outrage isn't one of them.
While some local Iraqis are bothered by the images, others welcome them. ...
Imad al-Turfy, another Everett resident, shows no sympathy for the prisoners, saying their treatment paled when compared with the horrors inflicted under Saddam Hussein's regime.
"They raped our women. They killed our kids. So there's hatred between us, the people here, and the people in Iraq," he said, referring to the Shiite Muslims who emigrated and the Sunni Muslims who ruled Iraq under Saddam.
"Anything coming to them would make me happy."
Al-Muhanna and al-Turfy were among about 20 Iraqi men who met last night to talk politics, discuss their jobs and offer opinions on the latest headlines.
Al-Turfy said he could "tell a million stories" about Saddam's abuses: the people who were blown apart by dynamite or thrown off 20-story buildings, or the family that was buried alive in a car in Baghdad.
"You can't imagine," he said. "They killed us like rats. Like anything cheap."
So to view photos of prisoners in humiliating positions — one month after seeing another chilling image, the charred and mutilated corpses of Americans hanging from a bridge over the Euphrates River — was "worth it, because they did the same to us," al-Turfy said, a comment echoed by several other Iraqis."

"The Greyhawk Factor" (Greyhawk, The Mudville Gazette, 2004/05/07)
A brilliant post on Hersh's "televised disinformation campaign": "Seymour Hersh has had an amazing story dropped into his lap. A group of American GIs, caught on camera, abusing and humiliating Iraqi prisoners. Heinous acts. The wheels of justice were certainly turning, but nailing the abusive guards is not enough for the intrepid reporter. Indeed, since evidence indicates that one of those guard's attorneys most likely provided that information to Hersh, it follows that getting the higher ups was likely part of the deal.
But, having failed to provide "actionable intelligence" against those "higher ups" in his largely factual (albeit chronologically challenged) New Yorker article, Hersh has embarked on a televised disinformation campaign, recently appearing on the "O'Reilly Factor" in an effort to sow additional confusion in a public already stunned into incomprehension by the graphic photos he helped make famous worldwide.
The campaign relies on two main points, neither of which is completely factual: 1) the Army did nothing, and 2) it's the superior's fault, not the troops. Point one is a lie. Point two is true, but there's a level where it becomes ludicrous. Given that point one is a lie, that level is low." (See also the transcript of the O'Reilly Factor: "Inside Iraq's Abu Ghraib Prison" (FOX News, 2004/05/04) and "Torture at Abu Ghraib" (Seymour M. Hersh, The New Yorker, 2004/04/30))

"Blame Worthy" (Lawrence F. Kaplan, The New Republic, 2004/05/07)
Kaplan on "one of the thorniest questions of our time: Does the responsibility for wartime atrocities lie with their immediate perpetrators or does it lie within a "system" that permits and even encourages such depredations?":
"To understand Kerry's reluctance to focus on the guards, we would do well to cast a glance backward, for this is hardly the first time the public has responded to a wartime revelation of this scope. Having been convicted in 1971 of premeditated murder during the My Lai massacre of 1968, Lieutenant William Calley became an overnight hero. A White House poll found that 79 percent of Americans disagreed with the verdict, and on the day it was handed down, the Nixon team received over 50,000 telegrams demanding clemency. Within days, "The Battle Hymn of Lt. Calley" had sold 200,000 copies, and Nixon, citing "public support," sprung Calley from his jail cell.
As it happens, one of the voices raised in Calley's defense belonged to John Kerry. The responsibility for My Lai, Kerry said in congressional testimony, rested not with Calley, but "with the men who designed free fire zones ... with the men who encourage body counts." Lest anyone miss the point, Kerry told an audience at the New York Stock Exchange, "Guilty as Lt. Calley might have been of the actual murder, the verdict does not single out the real criminal. Those of us who have served in Vietnam know that the real guilty party is the United States of America." ...
Echoing as it does the cliché that Vietnam was an "atrocity-producing situation," Kerry's suggestion that Abu Ghraib was more policy than accident implies that the guards were not so much victimizers as victims who deserve a Nuremberg defense. But the notion, popularized then as now by the likes of Kerry and Hersh, is risible. By all accounts, what happened at Abu Ghraib did not reflect official policy — indeed, the source of the photographs was a military investigation into violations of official policy."

"Our Weird Way of War" (Victor Davis Hanson, The National Review, 2004/05/07)
"No, the challenge again is that bin Laden, the al Qaedists, the Baathist remnants, and the generic radical Islamicists of the Middle East have mastered the knowledge of the Western mind. Indeed they know us far better than we do ourselves. ...
First, shock the sensibilities of a Western society into utter despair at facing primordial enemies from the Dark Ages. The decapitation of a Daniel Pearl; the probing of charred bodies with sticks, whether in Iran in 1980 or Fallujah in 2004; the promise of torturing Japanese hostages — all this is designed to make the Western suburbanite change channels and head to the patio, mumbling either, "How can we fight such barbarians" or — better yet — "Why would we wish to?"
If, on occasion, an exasperated and furious West sinks to the same level — renegade prisoner guards gratuitously humiliating or torturing naked Iraqi prisoners on tape — all the better, as proof that the elevated pretensions of Western decency and humanity are but a sham. A single violation of civility, a momentary lapse in humanism and in the new world of Western cultural relativism and moral equivalence, presto, the West loses its carefully carved-out moral high ground as it engages not merely in much needed self-critique and scrutiny, but reaches a feeding frenzy that evolves to outright cultural cannibalism. ...
Key here is our own acceptance of such moral asymmetries. Storming the Church of the Nativity is a misdemeanor in the Western press; shelling a minaret full of shooters is a felony. Blowing up Westerners in Saudi Arabia or Jordan is de rigueur; asking Muslims to take off their scarves while in French schools is a casus belli. If Afghanistan has roads, a benevolent man as president, and al Qaedists on the run, call it a failure because Mr. Karzai has not been able, FDR-like, to tour the countryside in a convertible limousine waving to crowds."

"Media Missteps: Context gets lost in hysteria and grandstanding" (Jonah Goldberg, The National Review, 2004/05/07)
"CBS should be ashamed for running those photos. ...
Now before you get all pious with table-thumping sermons about the glories of the First Amendment and the need to publish news without fear and all that, consider a few facts.
In 1994, ten Belgian peacekeepers were horribly mutilated alive (castrated, their Achilles tendons slashed, etc.) in Rwanda. The full extent of the barbarity wasn't disclosed for a long time for fear of reprisals.
Just a month ago, television news networks agonized about how much they should show of the butchery of Americans in Fallujah. They opted for very, very little.
Within 48 hours of the 9/11 attacks, the major news networks and leading newspapers were settling on a policy to stop showing images of victims leaping to their death from the World Trade Center. NBC ran one clip of a man plunging to his death, and then admitted it was a mistake. An NBC News v.p. told the New York Times, "Once it was on, we decided not to use it again. It's stunning photography, I understand that, but we felt the image was disturbing."
In fact, post-9/11 coverage illuminates an interesting cultural cleavage in the media. When shocking images might stir Americans to favor war, the Serious Journalists show great restraint. When those images have the opposite effect, the Ted Koppels let it fly. ...
Of course, CBS had every right to do what it did. But that's irrelevant. Nobody's suggesting the government should have stopped them. I'm suggesting that CBS should have stopped itself. Now we'll all have to live with the consequences — and some of us will die from them."

"This Sorry Mess" (Denis Boyles, The National Review, 2004/05/07)
"The Bush apology makes the facts of this case suddenly irrelevant. Real torture's one thing, and it's wise that the military's taking seriously its investigation of the serious charges against the guards at Abu Ghraib. But humiliation? Making captured Iraqi terrorists wear ladies' undergarments is tantamount to what, exactly? Treating them like British comedians? ...
In fact, only moments after Bush spoke his apology, Le Monde was suggesting that one apology may not be sufficient anyway, since the prison scandal was just the tip of an iceberg of American outrages in Iraq. In an editorial the paper explained that it is American "brutality and incompetence [that] nourished radical Islam" while one of Le Monde's popular cartoonists pointed out that "torturing" prisoners is just part of the American way of life. I felt humiliated just reading the paper. ...
Judging the merits of an entire war by the stupid acts of "trailer-trash troops" (to use Johnson's phrase) in one incident in one battle in that war is dumber — and far more irresponsible — than the acts over which Johnson and the the Euro-press are waxing hysterical; even in the short-run, this kind of cheap posturing is much more dangerous and threatening to lives, American, Iraqi, British, and otherwise." (See also: "Bush: Rumsfeld 'Will Stay in My Cabinet'" (John J. Lumpkin, AP/Yahoo! News, 2004/05/06))

"A model presents an intricate silver mask..."
(Reuters, 2004/05/07)
"A model presents an intricate silver mask during a catwalk show in Beirut, May 7, 2004. Lebanese fashion designer Najwa Sinno presented her lavish collection of traditional Lebanese gowns and accessories at the Movenpick Hotel on Friday."

"Hezbollah TV" (Shawn Macomber, FrontPageMagazine, 2004/05/07)
Macomber on Hezbollah's satellite channel al-Manar: "One of the Syrian/Iranian funded network’s newest and most popular programs is a game show called, “The Mission.” Contestants answer questions about the American-Zionist conspiracy for points. For every question a contestant answers correctly, they are allowed to move another step closer to the goal of Jerusalem on a large map. Sixty points lands a contestant on the holy city while the Hezbollah anthem plays in the background. The refrain “Jerusalem is ours and we are coming to it” rings out as the contestant collects a $3,000 check. ...
Avi Jorisch, a Soref Fellow at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, wrote an exhaustive study of al-Manar, Beacon of Hatred. He quotes al-Manar’s chairman of the board, Nayef Krayem, describing the relationship between Hezbollah and al-Manar: “They breathe life into one another,” he tells Jorisch. “Each provides the other with inspiration. Hezbollah uses al-Manar to express its stands and its views, etc. Al-Manar in turn receives political support for its continuation.”
Jorisch quotes an al-Manar employee explaining that certain programming is meant to 'help people on the way to committing what you in the West call a suicide mission. It is meant to be the first step on the process of a freedom fighter operation.'"

"Abu Ghraib as Symbol" (Charles Krauthammer, The Washington Post, 2004/05/07)
"For the jihadists, at stake in the war against the infidels is the control of women. ... The case the jihadists make against freedom is that wherever it goes, especially the United States and Europe, it brings sexual license and corruption, decadence and depravity. ...
Which is what made one aspect of the Abu Ghraib horrors even more incendiary — the pictures of female U.S. soldiers mocking, humiliating and dominating naked and abused Arab men. One could not have designed a more symbolic representation of the Islamist warning about where Western freedom ultimately leads than yesterday's Washington Post photo of a uniformed American woman holding a naked Arab man on a leash. ...
Which is why the abuse at Abu Ghraib is so inflammatory and, for us and our cause, so damaging. It reenacted the most deeply psychologically charged — and most deeply buried — aspect of the entire war on terrorism, exactly as Osama bin Laden would have scripted it." (See also: "New Prison Images Emerge" (Christian Davenport, The Washington Post, 2004/05/06))

"Good ol’ girl who enjoyed cruelty" (Sharon Churcher, The Daily Telegraph/whiteprivilege.com, 2004/05/07)
"Pointing crudely at the genitals of a naked, hooded Iraqi, the petite brunette with a cigarette hanging from her lips epitomised America’s shame over revelations US soldiers routinely tortured inmates at Abu Ghraib jail near Baghdad.
Lynndie England, 21, a rail worker’s daughter, comes from a trailer park in Fort Ashby, West Virginia, which locals proudly call “a backwoods world”.
She faces a court martial, but at home she is toasted as a hero.
At the dingy Corner Club Saloon they think she has done nothing wrong.
“A lot of people here think they ought to just blow up the whole of Iraq,” Colleen Kesner said.
“To the country boys here, if you’re a different nationality, a different race, you’re sub-human. That’s the way girls like Lynndie are raised.
“Tormenting Iraqis, in her mind, would be no different from shooting a turkey. Every season here you’re hunting something. Over there, they’re hunting Iraqis.”
In Fort Ashby, in the isolated Appalachian mountains 260km west of Washington, the poor, barely-educated and almost all-white population talk openly about an active Ku Klux Klan presence.
There is little understanding of the issues in Iraq and less of why photographs showing soldiers from the 372nd Military Police Company, mostly from around Fort Ashby, abusing prisoners has caused a furore."

"Moore accused of publicity stunt over Disney 'ban'" (Andrew Gumbel, Independent, 2004/05/07)
"Less than 24 hours after accusing the Walt Disney Company of pulling the plug on his latest documentary in a blatant attempt at political censorship, the rabble-rousing film-maker Michael Moore has admitted he knew a year ago that Disney had no intention of distributing it.
The admission, during an interview with CNN, undermined Moore's claim that Disney was trying to sabotage the US release of Fahrenheit 911 just days before its world premiere at the Cannes film festival.
Instead, it lent credence to a growing suspicion that Moore was manufacturing a controversy to help publicise the film, a full-bore attack on the Bush administration and its handling of national security since the attacks of 11 September 2001. ...
But Moore's publicity stunt, if that is what is, appears to be working. A front-page news piece in The New York Times was followed yesterday by an editorial denouncing Disney for censorship and denial of Moore's right to free expression." (See also: "Disney's Craven Behavior" (The New York Times, 2004/05/06) and "Disney Takes Heat on Blocking Bush Film" (Jim Rutenberg and Laura M. Holson, The New York Times, 2004/05/06))

"Bin Laden offers rewards for death of leaders, urges holy war in Iraq" (AFP/Yahoo! News, 2004/05/07)
"Osama bin Laden put a price of some 120,000 dollars on the heads of US civilian and military officials in Iraq, as well as UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and his aides, and called on Iraqis to fight against their planned new interim government, in a message deemed authentic by the CIA.
The message, indicating that the Al-Qaeda leader was still alive and well, was distributed in text and audiotape form on websites frequently used by Islamic extremists.
"We in the Al-Qaeda organization are committed to give a prize of 10,000 grammes of gold to whoever kills Bremer or his deputy, or the commander of the US forces or his deputy in Iraq," it said.
The reference was to Paul Bremer, the US-led coalition's civil administrator for Iraq.
"Whoever kills Kofi Annan, the head of the Iraq mission or his envoys, like Lakhdar Brahimi, will receive the same prize of 10,000 grammes of gold," the statement said.
It accused the United Nations, which is working with the coalition in Iraq to set up a new government, of being 'a crusader and Zionist instrument, disguised behind some relief work.'"

"Major U.S. Papers Call for Rumsfeld's Resignation" (Diane Bartz, Reuters/Yahoo! News, 2004/05/07)
Micro Swedish Site Wants Rumsfeld to Stay, Considers Calls for his Resignation Hysterical and Out of All Proportions: "Donald Rumsfeld took a beating in the U.S. press as many newspapers demanded the defense secretary's resignation with scathing critiques of his handling of the war in Iraq that cited the abuse of Iraqi prisoners as the last straw.
The New York Times, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, New York Newsday, Boston Globe, Minneapolis Star Tribune and Detroit Free Press all called for Rumsfeld to step down in editorials on Thursday or Friday. ...
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch called for Rumsfeld's resignation, as well as that of his deputy, Paul Wolfowitz, and Undersecretary Douglas Feith for the prisoner abuse, underestimating the number of troops needed in Iraq, overestimating the danger of weapons of mass destruction, alienating allies and pushing the State Department out of plans to run a postwar Iraq.
"It's the accumulation of all these miscalculations, misconceptions and missteps — and an arrogant inability to admit his mistakes — that require him to step down," the paper wrote on Thursday.
In New York, The New York Times and Newsday called for Rumsfeld to go and the Wall Street Journal and Daily News said President Bush should keep him on.
The Times accused Rumsfeld of "almost willful blindness" and said his whole team should step down." (See also even more "Rumsfeld Should Go" Op-Ed's and editorials, via RealClear Politics:
"You're Fired" (Peter Beinart, The New Republic, 2004/05/07)
"Star player Rumsfeld drops the ball" (Michael O'Hanlon, Newsday.com, 2004/05/07)
"He Must Go ... Immediately" (Jeffrey H. Smith, Los Angeles Times, 2004/05/07)
"Restoring Our Honor" (Thomas L. Friedman, The New York Times, 2004/05/06)
"Resign, Rumsfeld" (The Economist, 2004/05/06))

"Al-Sadr Dismisses Bush Apology for Abuse" (AP/FOX News, 2004/05/07)
"Radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr denounced the U.S. abuse of Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib prison, dismissing an apology by President Bush and demanding Friday that the American soldiers charged with abuse be tried in Iraqi courts.
Meanwhile, one of al-Sadr's senior aides told worshippers in Basra that anyone capturing a female British soldier can keep her as a slave. Waving an assault rifle, Sheik Abdul-Sattar al-Bahadli also said anyone capturing a British soldier will receive about $350 and anyone killing one will receive $150.
He held what he said were documents and photographs of three Iraqi women being raped at British-run prisons in Iraq."

"Gamble Brings Old Uniforms Back Into Style" (Rajiv Chandrasekaran, The Washington Post, 2004/05/07)
"Fallujah is now caught in a time warp. Iraqi soldiers wearing their crisp, olive-green army uniforms — a sight unseen since former president Saddam Hussein's government was toppled more than a year ago — now man checkpoints on roads leading into the city. Stout generals, their lapels adorned with stars and crossed swords, stroll around the mayor's office with the same imperious air they projected when Hussein was president. ...
"Many of the guys who were shooting at the Marines have simply put on their old army uniforms and joined the Fallujah Brigade," said a U.S. official familiar with the new force.
Some of the Iraqi generals, including a leader of the new force, had been officers in Hussein's Republican Guard, an elite army unit dominated by Sunni Muslims and accused of human rights abuses against Shiite Muslims and Kurds.
The generals, whose return to power has angered many Shiite and Kurdish leaders, do not pretend to hew to the U.S. military message about the insurgency in Fallujah. They have joined residents in proclaiming a victory over the Marines. They have publicly dismissed American claims that foreign militants are holed up in Fallujah. They have also urged U.S. troops to stay away from the city.
Mohammed Latif, a former official in Hussein's intelligence service who was named the brigade's leader, proclaimed to reporters on Thursday that "there are no insurgents" in Fallujah."

Added one theme in Themes:
"Abuse Of Iraqi POWs By GIs Probed" - News and commentary on the Iraqi prisoner abuse scandal.

Thursday, May 6, 2004

News and commentary:

"Old cars are seen in the main courtyard..."
(Nasser Nasser, AP, 2004/05/06)
"Old cars are seen in the main courtyard outside Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's headquarters in the West Bank town of Ramallah, Thursday, May 6, 2004. Arafat fortified his West Bank headquarters with piles of old cars and barrels of concrete Thursday, in a move to prevent tanks from moving in, fearing an Israeli invasion is imminent, Palestinian officials said."

"Arab Jew-hatred in The Netherlands" (Joshua Livestro, The Jerusalem Post, 2004/05/06)
"Instead of naming, shaming, and punishing the perpetrators of these [anti-Semitic] crimes, the Dutch political class prefers to "gain a deeper understanding of the motives of the criminals." The Amsterdam Social Services Commissioner Ahmed Aboutaleb thinks he has found this root cause of Arab anger: the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. ... He also urges people to make the distinction between "normal street talk" and real anti-Semitism which, according to him, is a much rarer phenomenon.
No wonder, then, that the Dutch police don't know what to do with the case of the Turkish immigrant rapper zg r Korkmaz and his group NAG (Nieuwe Allochtone Generatie - New Immigrant Generation). In his song "F***ing Jews," Korkmaz warns the "f***ing Jews" that immigrants are "comin' to kill" them. After CIDI's director Ronnie Naftaniel filed a complaint against him, Korkmaz reported to his local police station. But the police, who probably couldn't decide whether these lyrics were an expression of genuine anti-Semitic feelings or just normal street talk, sent him away without even charging him. "I don't understand," Korkmaz said. "I was here to make a statement because I feel CIDI is right. My lyrics were completely over the top." Instead of singing "kill all Jews," he would have preferred to have sung "kill the Jews that are in Israel's government and are responsible for the slaughter of Palestinian babies."
Korkmaz's song is a hit among Arab immigrant schoolchildren. He is obviously an idiot, but he was on to something when, in the course of complaining about being "unfairly singled out" by CIDI, he observed that 'Holland is full of Jew-haters, and the Internet is full of songs like mine.'"

"Shia leaders offer deal to militant" (Mohamad Bazzi, Newsday.com, 2004/05/06)
"Leaders of Iraq's largest Shia Muslim tribes have offered renegade cleric Muqtada al-Sadr a face-saving deal — and an ultimatum — to leave the holy city of Najaf.
The arrangement would give al-Sadr a chance to avoid humiliation by surrendering to the tribal leaders instead of being arrested by U.S. troops. But it would still require him to stand trial in an Iraqi court in the assassination of a rival cleric last year. It also would require al-Sadr to disarm his militia, the Mahdi Army, which has been fighting with U.S. forces for more than a month.
The deal has the blessings of Iraq's top Shia cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, according to several people involved in drafting it. While U.S. officials have not yet been presented with the full details, they appear willing to accept it. The tribal leaders told al-Sadr yesterday that he had until only May 15 to accept the offer. If he turns it down, he will lose the tribes' backing. That would effectively give the U.S. military a green light to arrest or kill al-Sadr and crush his militia by launching an attack on Najaf."

"Sudan 'starved Darfur refugees'" (BBC News, 2004/05/06)
"A UN report has accused the Sudanese government and Arab militia of colluding in the systematic starving of refugees in the Darfur region.
The report said a United Nations team found "appalling" and "outrageous" conditions when it visited the town of Kailek less than two weeks ago.
Pro-government Arab militias had been preventing food deliveries and stopped anyone leaving the town, it added.
One aid worker described what happened there as the "politics of starvation".
Eight or nine children were reported to have been dying from malnutrition every day.
The report said women and girls were raped and described inhumane sanitary conditions and a lack of medical treatment.
Members of the UN team were said to be "visibly shaken" by circumstances in the town." (See also: "Fact finding and rapid assessment mission, Kailek town, South Darfur, 25 April 2004" (unsudanig.org, 2004/04/25))

"Bush: Rumsfeld 'Will Stay in My Cabinet'" (John J. Lumpkin, AP/Yahoo! News, 2004/05/06)
"President Bush said Thursday that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld "will stay in my Cabinet" despite Democratic calls for his departure over abusive treatment of Iraqi prisoners by American military guards.
"Secretary Rumsfeld has served our nation well," Bush told reporters in an appearance in the White House Rose Garden. Speaking slowly for emphasis, he added, "Secretary Rumsfeld has been the secretary during two wars, and he is an important part of my Cabinet."
With King Abdullah II of Jordan at his side, Bush also offered his first outright apology for the mistreatment suffered by Iraqis at the hands of their American captors. He said he was "sorry for the humiliation suffered by the Iraqi prisoners and the humiliation suffered by their families," and said the images had made Americans "sick to their stomach." ...
House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi told reporters she believes Rumsfeld must go, then issued a statement that said, "The abuses could have been prevented with proper leadership at the top of the chain of command."
Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, issued a statement saying, "For the good of our country, the safety of our troops, and our image around the globe Secretary Rumsfeld should resign. If he does not resign forthwith, the president should fire him." ...
At the same time, he was unflinching in his support of Rumsfeld, whom he called back to the Pentagon in 2001 for his second tour of duty as secretary.
"He will stay in my Cabinet," the president said."

"'So Called Saddam'" (James Taranto, Best of the Web Today, 2004/05/06)
"Rep. Maxine Waters, a far-left Californian and member of the Congressional Black Caucus, had this to say in an interview yesterday with the "Democracy Now" radio program: "Everywhere we go we seem to be creating a mess. We've created a mess in Iraq, and our soldiers are dying every day. Now we find that we are violating the prisoners. We're treating them worse than so-called Saddam had treated them."
With all due respect to the glories of free speech, this is pathetic. What happened at Abu Ghraib is bad enough without exaggerating it by preposterously calling it worse than Saddam. And "so-called Saddam"? Does Waters simply believe America's enemies don't exist?" (See also: "Rep. Maxine Waters Calls on Congress Not To Recognize New Haitian Government" (Democracy Now!, 2004/05/05))

"The gods that failed" (Peter Hitchens, The Spectator, from the 2004/05/08 issue)
"Radicals may like to fool themselves that it is still bold and revolutionary to attack religious faith in Western countries, but the truth is that it is political faith that is sacrosanct these days. And Mr Mandela is a saint of that faith, revered far beyond the boundaries of reason. Only a confirmed heretic, an outcast from the Mother Church of political correctness with nothing to lose, could tackle this task.
Why is it that such reverence is accorded to this flawed human being, who has spent so much of his time as a figleaf for the far-from-saintly African National Congress? I think it is partly because reformist politics has replaced Christian faith as the main expression of moral feeling in this country. ...
What fun it is to denounce wicked regimes in far-away countries, especially if our political opponents sympathise with them. How superior we can feel, how much enjoyment is to be had in demanding the release of unjustly imprisoned dissenters and in sneering at squalid tyrants a long way off. The more evil they are, the more we become good by attacking them — or so we like to think. ...
When we engage in this strange sort of modern morality, are we doing any real good, or merely making ourselves feel good? In my view we have turned selected dark and oppressed parts of the world into playgrounds where we can exercise our pallid, flabby consciences, organs which we seldom activate at home."

"The U.S. Loses by Quitting in Fallouja" (Max Boot, Los Angeles Times, 2004/05/06)
"As if to demonstrate that a picture can be worth a thousand bullets, two sets of photographs released last week have done incalculable damage to the U.S. position in Iraq.
The most remarked-upon pictures were those depicting sadistic abuses at Abu Ghraib prison. People all over the world who barely noticed Saddam Hussein's far greater barbarism are twisting themselves into paroxysms of rage over the actions of a handful of Americans. Less discussed, but just as harmful, were the photos of Marines turning Fallouja over to a symbol of the ancien regime — a former Republican Guard general who, with his green uniform, beefy build and bushy mustache, looked like a Hussein clone. The former images signal to Iraqis (and the rest of the Arab world) that the Americans are hopelessly depraved, the latter that they are fatally weak. It is hard to think of a more debilitating one-two punch.
The last-minute substitution of a different, less unsavory Iraqi general to command the makeshift Fallouja Brigade is a slight improvement, but it only confirms the baleful confusion permeating U.S. ranks. President Bush's mantra of "stay the course" rings increasingly hollow in the face of abrupt policy reversals that reek of desperation." (See also: "'We Won': Fallujah Rejoices in Withdrawal" (Rajiv Chandrasekaran and Naseer Nouri, The Washington Post, 2004/05/02) and "U.S. Marines Hand Falluja to Former Saddam General" (Fadel Badran and Michael Georgy, Reuters, 2004/04/30))

"Iraqi WMDs, Now in Syria" (Larry Elder, FrontPageMagazine, 2004/05/06)
An interview with terrorism expert John Loftus:
"Jordan recently seized 20 tons of chemicals trucked in by confessed al-Qaeda members who brought the stuff in from Syria. The chemicals included VX, Sarin and 70 others. But the media seems curiously incurious about whether one could reasonably trace this stuff back to Iraq. Had the terrorists released a "toxic cloud," Jordanian officials say 80,000 would have died! ...
John Loftus: There's a lot of reason to think (the source of the chemicals) might be Iraq. We captured Iraqi members of al-Qaeda, who've been trained in Iraq, planned for the mission in Iraq, and now they're in Jordan with nerve gas. That's not the kind of thing you buy in a grocery store. You have to have obtained it from someplace. ...
Elder: David Kay said, in an interim report, that there was a possibility that WMD components were shipped to Syria.
Loftus: A possibility? We had a Syrian journalist who defected to Paris in January. The guy is dying of cancer, and he said, "Look, my friends in Syrian intelligence told me exactly where the stuff is buried." He named three sites in Syria, and the Israelis have confirmed the three sites. They know where the stuff is, but the problem is that the United States can't just go around invading Arab countries. . . We know from Israeli and defectors' intelligence that the son of the Syrian defense minister was paid 50 million bucks to bring the stuff across the border and bury it. ... This is sort of a political dream for the president. The worst nightmare is al-Qaeda gets Weapons of Mass Destruction from Iraq. And it looks like it's coming true." (See also: "'Attack could have killed 80,000'" (Mahmoud Al Abed, The Jordan Times, 2004/04/27))

"A naked detainee at the Abu Ghraib prison..."
(The Washington Post, 2004/05/06)
"A naked detainee at the Abu Ghraib prison is tethered by a leash to prison guard Army Pvt Lynndie England in these undated photos. Relatives positively identified England from this photo. These photos were cropped from the waist down for publication purposes."

"New Prison Images Emerge" (Christian Davenport, The Washington Post, 2004/05/06)
"The collection of photographs begins like a travelogue from Iraq. Here are U.S. soldiers posing in front of a mosque. Here is a soldier riding a camel in the desert. And then: a soldier holding a leash tied around a man's neck in an Iraqi prison. He is naked, grimacing and lying on the floor.
Mixed in with more than 1,000 digital pictures obtained by The Washington Post are photographs of naked men, apparently prisoners, sprawled on top of one another while soldiers stand around them. There is another photograph of a naked man with a dark hood over his head, handcuffed to a cell door. And another of a naked man handcuffed to a bunk bed, his arms splayed so wide that his back is arched. A pair of women's underwear covers his head and face. ...
Other photographs show wounded men and corpses. In one, a dead man is lying in the back of a truck, his shirt, face and left arm covered in blood. His right arm is missing. Another photograph shows a body, gray and decomposing. A young soldier is leaning over the corpse, smiling broadly and giving the "thumbs-up" sign.
And in another picture a young woman lifts her shirt, exposing her breasts. She is wearing a white band with numbers on her wrist, but it is unclear whether she is a prisoner." (See also the gallery: "Iraqi Prisoners Controversy" (The Washington Post, 2004/05/06))

"U.S. Troops Start Major Attacks on Shiite Insurgents in 2 Cities" (Edward Wong, The New York Times, 2004/05/06)
A report from Karbala: "The American military has begun its first major assault against Shiite insurgents, striking at their enclaves here and in Diwaniya in an effort to regain control in southern Iraq. ...
The operation began at 11 p.m. on Tuesday and took place in two waves. The first assault began late Tuesday here and in Diwaniya, and ended at dawn on Wednesday.
The second unfolded just after midnight Thursday in this city, when more than 450 soldiers in armored vehicles rumbled into a neighborhood amusement park where Mr. Sadr's militiamen, known as the Mahdi Army, were storing heavy weapons near a ferris wheel and bumper car ride.
At 12:30 a.m., soldiers were drawn into an intense firefight, killing an Iraqi who had been lobbing grenades from the area of the pirate ship ride. The man was carrying identification showing he worked for an American-trained security force, the Facilities Protection Service."

Wednesday, May 5, 2004

News and commentary:

"Abu Ghraib" (zeyad, Healing Iraq, 2004/05/05)
"Now, regarding the disgusting images from Abu Ghraib that the whole world had witnessed in the last few days. They didn't come as a surprise at all, we have been hearing stories about the abuse of prisoners for a long time from released detainees and from humanitarian organisations. It doesn't shock me at all that some American soldiers are so sick and devoid from any humanity. You need to have a cousin pushed off from a dam by some in order to learn that. What surprises me though are people saying "Saddam did worse", or the soldiers responsible claiming they were 'never taught anything about running a prison', and 'No one gave us a copy of the Geneva conventions'. We have a saying for that over here, "An excuse uglier than the guilt". ...
While Saddam Hussein sits safely in his comfortable cell in Qatar or wherever else he is being held, Iraqi detainees are being put into the most humiliating and degrading conditions that can be imagined. While the guilty are free to wreak havoc, and take refuge in holy cities, the innocent are detained and mistreated for months without charges. But it seems like that is life.
They may be just a few soldiers, it may be an isolated case, but what's the difference? The effect has been done, and the Hearts and Minds campaign is a joke that isn't funny any more."

"Limbaugh on torture of Iraqis: U.S. guards were "having a good time," 'blow[ing] some steam off'" (Media Matters for America, 2004/05/05)
"Hours before President George W. Bush announced plans to address the Arab world to condemn the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. military personnel at the Abu Ghraib prison, Rush Limbaugh justified the U.S. guards' mistreatment of the Iraqis, stating that they were just "having a good time," and that their actions served as an "emotional release."
As reported by Wonkette.com, Limbaugh's comments can be found on his website. From the May 4 Rush Limbaugh Show, titled "It's Not About Us; This Is War!":

CALLER: It was like a college fraternity prank that stacked up naked men --
LIMBAUGH: Exactly. Exactly my point! This is no different than what happens at the Skull and Bones initiation and we're going to ruin people's lives over it and we're going to hamper our military effort, and then we are going to really hammer them because they had a good time. You know, these people are being fired at every day. I'm talking about people having a good time, these people, you ever heard of emotional release? You of heard of need to blow some steam off?

The day before, on his May 3 show, Limbaugh observed that the American troops who mistreated Iraqi prisoners of war were "babes" and that the pictures of the alleged abuse were no worse than 'anything you'd see Madonna, or Britney Spears do on stage.'"

"The Silver-Lining of Abu Ghraib" (Austin Bay, Strategy Page, 2004/05/05)
"The photos are an anti-American propagandist's centerfold, and provide America-haters with a new Exhibit A to support their perpetual charges of American hypocrisy and decadence. They stir legitimate anger at a difficult time of transition in Iraq. They damage American military and political efforts.
But there is an odd silver-lining. America's open society includes its military. U.S. military actions are subject to legal review. The American public's revulsion is also a healthy indicator. Unlike Baathists who danced for Al Jazeera television after the murder and mutilation of four Americans in Fallujah, the American reaction is regret. The American message is, "We don't rejoice, we don't condone or excuse, we investigate and prosecute."
Immediate candor, supported by verifiable change in procedures and then followed by quick compensation of victims — that should be U.S. policy for addressing the crimes at Abu Ghraib.
Candor in the digital age means more than press conferences. Candor in the digital age means press tours of Abu Ghraib. Candor entails a comparison of current conditions there with those in the October to December 2003 time frame when the mistreatment occurred. Full candor — here's where the bitter truth begins to seed a better future — also means a comparison of current conditions with those under Saddam's regime."

"Bush: Iraqi Prisoner Abuse 'Abhorrent'" (Terence Hunt, AP/Yahoo! News, 2004/05/05)
"President Bush told a skeptical Arab world on Wednesday that the treatment of Iraqi prisoners by some members of the U.S. military was "abhorrent" and does not represent the America he knows. He conceded mistakes but stopped short of apologizing in interviews with two Arabic-language TV stations.
"We don't tolerate these type of abuses," Bush told Al-Arabiya television, a satellite channel based in the United Arab Emirates. He said there was "more than an allegation, in this case, actual abuse — we saw the pictures. There will be a full investigation."
Seeking to counter photographs beamed around the world of U.S. soldiers gloating over naked detainees in demeaning positions, Bush sat for interviews with both Al-Arabiya, which is popular around the Arab world, and with Al-Hurra, a U.S.-government funded station." (See also: "President Bush Meets with Al Arabiya Television on Wednesday" (The White House, 2004/05/05): "In our country, when there's an allegation of abuse — more than an allegation in this case, actual abuse, we saw the pictures — there will be a full investigation and justice will be delivered. We have a presumption of innocent until you're guilty in our system, but the system will be transparent, it will be open and people will see the results. This is a serious matter. It's a matter that reflects badly on my country. Our citizens in America are appalled by what they saw, just like people in the Middle East are appalled. We share the same deep concerns. And we will find the truth, we will fully investigate. The world will see the investigation and justice will be served." )

"US military commander apologises to people of Iraq for prison scandal" (AFP/Yahoo! News, 2004/05/05)
"The US commander of the prison system in Iraq, Major General Geoffrey Miller, apologised to the Iraqi people for the abuse of detainees by US soldiers at Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad.
"I would like to personally apologise to the people of Iraq for a small number of leaders and soldiers who have violated our policies and possibly committed criminal acts," Miller told reporters touring the Abu Ghraib detention facility outside Baghdad.
'I personally guarantee that this will not happen again.'"

"Abu Ghraib Is America" (Michael Graham, The Corner, 2004/05/05)
"Kennicott condemns American society as a whole for the actions of a few out-of-control prison guards in Iraq.

"Look at these images closely and you realize that they can't just be the random accidents of war, or the strange, inexplicable perversity of a few bad seeds...we are, collectively, responsible for what these individuals have done... These photos ARE us." [emphasis in the original].

Kennicott goes on to compare us to the colonial powers of old Europe (America is an empire, remember?) and he even somehow links the crimes of Abu Ghraib to the popularity of internet porn.
You know, if a conservative Christian wrote an essay linking sex crimes and child abuse to the widespread availability of porn, the Washington Post would toss it into the circular file. But there is no attack on the war effort so ridiculous and irrational that it will not appear in my morning paper." (See also: "A Wretched New Picture Of America" (Philip Kennicott, The Washington Post, 2004/05/05): "But these photos are us. Yes, they are the acts of individuals (though the scandal widens, as scandals almost inevitably do, and the military's own internal report calls the abuse "systemic"). But armies are made of individuals. Nations are made up of individuals. Great national crimes begin with the acts of misguided individuals; and no matter how many people are held directly accountable for these crimes, we are, collectively, responsible for what these individuals have done. We live in a democracy. Every errant smart bomb, every dead civilian, every sodomized prisoner, is ours.")

"Iraqi Recounts Hours of Abuse by U.S. Troops" (Ian Fisher, The New York Times, 2004/05/05)
"Mr. Abd spoke with no particular anger at the American occupation, though he has seen it closer than most Iraqis. In six months in prisons run by American soldiers, in fact, he said most of them had treated him well and with respect.
"Most of the time, they wouldn't even say, 'Shut up,'" he said.
That changed in November — he does not know the exact date — when punishment for a prisoner fight at Abu Ghraib degenerated into torture. That night, he said, he and six other inmates were beaten, stripped naked (a particularly deep humiliation in the Arab world), forced to pile on top of one another, to straddle one another's backs naked, to simulate oral sex. American guards wrote words like "rapist" on their skin with Magic Marker, he said.
The curiosity, through much of the ordeal, was the camera. It was a detail he mentioned repeatedly as he recalled being forced against a wall and ordered by the Arabic translator to masturbate as he looked at one of the female guards.
"She was laughing, and she put her hands on her breasts," Mr. Abd said. "Of course, I couldn't do it. I told them that I couldn't, so they beat me in the stomach, and I fell to the ground. The translator said, 'Do it! Do it! It's better than being beaten.' I said, 'How can I do it?' So I put my hand on my penis, just pretending."
All the while, he said, the flash of the camera kept illuminating the dim room that once held prisoners of Mr. Hussein, recording images that have infuriated the Arab world and badly sullied America's image in a country more willing these days to think the worst of its occupiers."

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