Phil Taylor's papers
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BACK TO : PROPAGANDA AND THE GWOT Year 3 - 2004 (mainly Iraq)
Abuse 'Makes the U.S. Totally Lose Credibility' by R C Paddock & M K Stack 
Abuse 'Makes the U.S. Totally Lose Credibility' From North Africa to Southeast Asia, photos from Iraq prison get big play. Resentment of the U.S. flares amid charges of hypocrisy over rights. By Richard C. Paddock and Megan K. Stack Los Angeles Times Staff Writers May 5, 2004 JAKARTA, Indonesia - Photographs depicting the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. troops prompted a wave of outrage across the Islamic world Tuesday as Muslims condemned the United States for what they perceived as cruelty and hypocrisy. For many Muslims already angry about the invasion of Iraq and Washington's support for Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, the photos of naked and hooded Iraqis subjected to humiliation at the hands of their American guards confirmed the widespread view that Washington has no desire to bring human rights to the occupied country. "People are outraged," said Mona Makram-Ebeid, a professor of political science at American University in Cairo. "Even after everything else that's happened, this is the final drop that makes the U.S. totally lose credibility. Whatever they say about human rights, about democracy, nobody is listening anymore." Newspapers from Algeria to Pakistan to Indonesia gave prominent play to the abuses at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad. The photographs were first aired on CBS' "60 Minutes II," and the New Yorker magazine first published details of the U.S. investigation. Similar allegations against British troops in Iraq are being investigated. The U.S. Army general who was in charge of the prison when the alleged abuse occurred last year has been relieved of duty. Six soldiers face criminal charges of cruelty and mistreatment. Six others have been reprimanded for misconduct. The photographs prompted President Bush to express his "deep disgust" and call for a quick investigation. The graphic images shocked and offended Muslims, who regard nudity and sexual abuse at the hands of Americans - including grinning women - as deeply humiliating. "There is no excuse for what happened," Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi told reporters. "We cannot accept it and there is no justification at all for such inhumane treatment of the Iraqi prisoners." With its frequent criticism of governments around the world for human rights abuses and mistreatment of jailed dissidents, the U.S. had created the expectation that it would treat prisoners humanely. Respect for human rights was one of the reasons the administration put forward for the overthrow of Saddam Hussein. Malaysia's New Straits Times argued in an editorial that the ill treatment of prisoners by U.S. soldiers was not an aberration, as evidenced by past conflicts in Southeast Asia. "Despite its desperate attempts to sanitize the war in Iraq, Washington can no longer hide these gruesome sights," the newspaper said. "Bush says, 'That's not the way we do things in America,' but that's very much the way the U.S. has fought its 'wars of liberation' from the Philippines to Vietnam. The real war criminals are in the White House, but like the My Lai massacre in Vietnam, it will be the small fry who will become the fall guys for Abu Ghraib." In Pakistan, the inflammatory photos reinforced the belief that brutality and degradation are frequent weapons in the U.S. war on terror, whether it is waged in the streets of Iraqi cities or the mountains of neighboring Afghanistan. "We weren't shocked because we had heard that such things were taking place in Afghanistan," said Saad Ahsanuddin, a young Harvard-educated Pakistani entrepreneur who returned in 2001 after nine years in the United States. "The ones who will be really outraged are those who have family members in those prisons and the religious fundamentalists who will use those photos as a tool to bash Americans." In Indonesia, the country with the world's largest Islamic population, the disclosures were yet another disheartening development for moderates who say it will further undermine their ability to advocate closer ties to the United States. "This puts us in a very difficult position, people like me who would like to see a reasonable relationship," said Salim Said, an American-educated political science lecturer at the University of Indonesia in Jakarta. "Americans say they are going to liberate Iraq. Then they use the same prison as Saddam Hussein to torture people. How can they treat prisoners like that?" Indonesia's militant Muslims seized on the issue to promote their anti-American agenda and said the reports of abuse would harden opposition to the U.S. military presence in Iraq. Irfan Awwas, chairman of the militant Indonesian Mujahedin Council, who spent nine years in prison for treason under President Suharto, called the treatment of the inmates an "extraordinary humiliation." "America has failed to win the Iraqis' hearts," said Awwas, who was declared a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International in the 1980s. "The insult by the Americans is too much, and the hatred against America will be widespread. America has dug its own grave." In the minds of many Muslims, the alleged torture of prisoners fits into a pattern of hypocrisy: The U.S. accuses Muslims of terrorism while allowing Israel to assassinate Hamas leaders. The U.S. criticizes countries for violating human rights, then does the same. "In the past, the U.S. administration has criticized abuses by the Indonesian military," said Azyumardi Azra, the rector of National Islamic University in Jakarta and one of the select few who met with Bush last year when he visited Bali. "Now this kind of thing is being conducted by the U.S. military. It reflects some kind of double standard by the U.S." Marty Natalegawa, spokesman for Indonesia's Foreign Affairs Ministry, agreed. "The episode serves as a useful reminder for a country to be truly confident of its own record and conduct on human rights before prescribing to others how to conduct themselves." In Arab countries, the images have become a lightning rod for frustration and anger about the war in Iraq. "Now the people's minds have been made up. They believe that all the Americans are committing atrocities," said Fahad Kheraiji, a U.S.-educated professor of mass communications at King Saud University in Riyadh, the Saudi capital. "If you try to argue, they say, 'Didn't you see the pictures?' They are saying it everywhere." Others argued that America lost credibility in the region long ago due to its support for Israel and then its invasion of Iraq. "It's really hard to say how many people were surprised and how many people already thought the Americans were abusing human rights," said Othman Rawaf, a member of the council that advises Saudi Arabia's royal family and the country's first human rights organization. "A lot of people don't really take the U.S. position on human rights seriously anyway," Rawaf added. "This just adds to the frustration." In another Arab quarter, some dismissed outrage as the domain of those who are sheltered from Arab reality. "In order to be shocked, you have to be a Westerner and believe that the world is good, fair, liberal," Algeria's influential French-language daily Le Quotidien d'Oran editorialized. "You have to possess a house, a car, the right to go wherever you wish, a wife and be happy. The Arabs do not have all that." Paddock reported from Jakarta and Stack from Damascus, Syria. Times staff writer Evelyn Iritani in Lahore, Pakistan, and Sari Sudarsono of The Times' Jakarta Bureau also contributed to this report. |