Nation & World News
Photos fuel terrorist causes
Photographs of soldiers
degrading Iraqi prisoners
have been a blessing to
terrorists, observers say
By Jim Landers
The Dallas Morning News (KRT)
WASHINGTON — American sol
diers' abuse of Iraqi prisoners has set
back the Bush administration's efforts
to rally the Arab world to embrace
democratic values and reject Islamic
extremism, Arab commentators say.
"This is basically a very good and
useful piece of propaganda to be used
by the extremist forces who are wag
ing war right now in several countries,
including Iraq and Saudi Arabia," said
Mansoor al-Jamri, editor in chief of
the Bahraini newspaper A1 Wasat.
"Many people didn't believe the
Americans were going to brutalize the
Iraqi people. They thought they might
be tough, that they might bomb a
mosque where somebody was snip
ing at them, but to brutalize prisoners
was out of the minds of the majority
of the people — even those with anti
American feelings," he said Tuesday.
Photos of U.S. soldiers engaging in
abuse and humiliation of inmates at
Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison have been
widely published in the Arab press
since first aired last week in the Unit
ed States. Cable news outlets such as
Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya have shown
the images repeatedly. An Arab
League spokesman described them as
"beyond disgust."
President Bush has said he was dis
gusted by the abuse, and White House
National Security Adviser Condoleez
za Rice appeared Tuesday on Al-Ara
biya to describe the detainees' treat
ment as "unacceptable."
"We will get to the bottom of it,"
she said. "And those who are respon
sible will be punished."
In a sign of the administration's
concern over the controversy, Rice
said President Bush would speak di
rectly to the Arab world. The White
House said the president would do
interviews with Arab TV, but offered
no timetable.
John Zogby, president of the opin
ion-polling firm Zogby International,
said the photos would confirm nega
tive views of the United States held by
most Arabs.
"I have heard it said this will hurt
our image in the Arab world. But I
don't think anything can hurt our im
age in the Arab world anymore," he
said.
"The war in Iraq and the embrace
of (Israeli Prime Minister Ariel)
Sharon's plan for Gaza and the West
Bank have done serious damage to
our relations with the Arab world, not
only our diplomatic relations but
with the public," Zogby said.
Pictures apparently showing British
soldiers abusing Iraqis were pub
lished in London on Saturday, further
inflaming the situation. The Saudi
cabinet Monday called the abuse por
trayed by both American and British
forces "inhuman and degrading."
A-Jamri said the abuses would
make it difficult for governments in
the region to support the U.S. democ
racy initiative.
"For those seeking another vision
for the Middle East, they find it very
difficult to put Iraq forward and say,
'We are offering an alternative to Sad
dam Hussein's way,"' he said. "This
looks to the Arab people like their
governments succumbing to the Is
raelis and the Americans.
"It's dominating the talk of the re
gion," he said.
Some military officers and journal
ists suggested the British photos, in
cluding a soldier apparently urinating
on a hooded Iraqi prisoner, were
fakes. If so, it will take considerable
Turn to PHOTOS, page 5
U.S. chief of prisons decides
to lessen prison population
Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller
has also decided to stop
using hoods to cover the
faces of detainees in Iraq
By Evan Osnos
Chicago Tribune (KRT)
BAGHDAD, Iraq — Vowing to fix
Iraq's troubled detention and interro
' gation system, the new U.S chief of
prisons in Iraq said Tuesday that he
has suspended the widespread prac
* tice of placing hoods over detainees'
heads and that he intends to signifi
cantly reduce the population at the
main prison.
Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller headed
the U.S. detention center at Guan
tanamo Bay, Cuba, until he was trans
ferred to Iraq a month ago to repair
mistakes uncovered by a widening
investigation into abuse at the U.S.
run Abu Ghraib prison west of Bagh
dad.
With Iraq and the rest of the Arab
world seething over photographs
publicized last week showing naked
prisoners with bags over their heads
being humiliated by U.S. guards,
Miller quietly ordered a ban Friday on
placing hoods on Iraqi prisoners. On
Arab television and in newspapers,
the image of prisoners in dark hoods
has become among the most potent
and ubiquitous symbol of the U.S.
led occupation, shorthand for the sys
tem of raids and arrests that Iraqis
deeply resent.
"We just made the decision we did
not want to use that technique," Miller
said Tuesday in interviews with a group
of reporters in Baghdad. "I believe (the
hood) sends a message we do not want
to send to the civilian population."
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Miller said he plans to reduce the
population at Abu Ghraib from 3,800
to less than 2,000 in coming months.
Coalition officials have been increas
ingly eager to slash Iraq's prison popu
lation as a measure of goodwill to
dampen rising antipathy toward the
occupation.
Once used by Saddam Hussein as a
site of torture and executions, Abu
Ghraib became the central U.S. deten
tion facility for insurgents and foreign
fighters.
At times over the past year, it has
been overcrowded, which has been cit
ed by military investigators as a factor
in failures of oversight that con
tributed to abuse.
(c) 2004, Chicago Tribune. Visit
the Chicago Tribune on the Internet
at http://www.chicagotribune.com.
Distributed by Knight Ridder/
Tribune Information Services.
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