By Miral Fahmy
Reuters, 16 February 2006
DUBAI - Arabs said on Thursday new images of U.S. troops abusing Iraqi prisoners had eroded their respect for the West and would fuel the fury raging over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad.
The photographs made headline news in the Middle East the day after an Australian television station broadcast previously unpublished film and photographs of violations at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib jail.
They could not have emerged at a worse time for the West's image in the region. Emotions were already running high over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad published in European newspapers. Footage aired this week of British soldiers beating Iraqi youths two years ago has also stoked Arab anger.
"This is awful because I always look up to the British and Americans as the best in the world," said Kuwaiti firefighter Khalil al-Amir. "They are supposed to be more civilised. But when I see something like this it makes me think twice."
Evidence of abuse at Abu Ghraib within months of the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003 provoked international outrage when it was made public the following year. The Australian channel said the latest images were from the same time.
The grainy photographs and video images show prisoners, some bleeding or hooded, bound to beds and doors, sometimes with a smiling American guard beside them.
Arab television channels repeatedly aired a photograph showing a U.S. soldier sitting cross-legged while a hooded prisoner, stripped to his underwear, crouched beside him.
"Abu Ghraib II: worse than ever," said Dubai tabloid 7Days. "We are aware that the images will cause much anger at this time. However, we believe strongly they must be published."
AMMUNITION FOR MILITANTS
Several Arab commentators said the images undermined the U.S. campaign for democracy and human rights in the region. The Bush administration says one of the reasons it invaded Iraq was to end Saddam Hussein's brutal rule.
"The Americans went there to help the Iraqi people, so they say, but this does not appear to be the case with these images," said Jaber al-Harami of Qatar's Al Sharq newspaper. "If this is the democracy of America, then the Arab world doesn't want it."
Prominent Syrian human rights lawyer Anwar al-Bunni said the new photos further dented Washington's credibility in his country, which has been under intense U.S. pressure.
"The interest of the United States lies in promoting democracy and human rights in Syria. The pictures make the U.S. calls sound hollow," he told Reuters.
Saddam is on trial in Baghdad for crimes against humanity.
"This will remind everybody that what the Americans are doing in Iraq is actually not much different from what Saddam Hussein used to do," Abdul Bari Atwan, editor of the London-based Al Quds daily, told a British television station.
"So I think this is a shock reminder... that this occupation is not working, this adventure in Iraq was very costly."
Mohamed al-Sayed Said of Egypt's Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies said the images provided Islamist militants with more ammunition against the West. Saudi Islamist lawyer Mohsen Awajy agreed.
"These pictures could provoke terrorist acts and nobody will object if that's what happens," he told Reuters. "Any Muslim or Arab has reason to get revenge, and their actions would be justified. It's so disgusting, animals are more civilised."
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Citation: Miral Fahmy. "Iraq abuse images aggravate Arab hostility to West," Reuters, 16 February 2006.
Original URL: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L16736821.htm
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