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Blair ducks fallout as Bush takes flak - Prof Taylor on Abu Ghraib photos 
Blair ducks fallout as Bush takes flak London, 8 May By swiftly calling an investigation into the alleged abuse of Iraqi prisoners by British troops, Prime Minister Tony Blair has so far managed to dodge the fallout that has come down on his ally in the White House. "We're in the middle of a massive propaganda war. There is a battle for competing truths, and these photographs (of alleged abuse of detainees) may be just another part of that battle," said Philip Taylor, a professor in international communications at the University of Leeds. He was referring to gruesome shots published in the mass-circulation Daily Mirror last week which purportedly showed British soldiers beating and urinating on an Iraqi detainee. Experts have cast doubt on their authenticity, but the tabloid is standing by them. "You try to sow seeds of doubt, but in fact it doesn't matter," Taylor said. "The debate in Britain about whether the pictures are authentic or not is not getting reported widely in the Middle East. They're just reporting that the British are mistreating prisoners." Blair's decision to order an inquiry by the Royal Military Police immediately after the Daily Mirror photos appeared have helped to keep public opinion away from forming definite and politically harmful conclusions about their veracity. US President George W. Bush, in contrast, waited a full week before publicly apologising over graphic images aired by CBS television of gloating US troops humiliating Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison. "The British are much more sensitised to dangerous images than the Americans," explained Taylor, recalling the incident of a US soldier covering the statue of deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein with the US flag during the fall of Baghdad in April last year. That scene drew the ire of Arab public opinion. Taylor also pointed to embarrassing shots of men being held captive by the United States in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba for their alleged ties with Osama Bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network. "Any politician that puts his hand up and says, 'Look, we're sorry, this shouldn't have happened and were going to do something about it to make sure this doesn't happen again' can probably get away with it," Taylor said, referring to Blair. Tim Crook, a senior lecturer at the University of London's Goldsmith College, underlined the British public's "strong belief that British forces are civilised, disciplined, superior to the Americans". But he predicted that the good impression might not last. On Wednesday, lawyers for a dozen Iraqi families began a court battle in London for compensation and an independent probe into the deaths of relatives who they claim were killed by British troops in Iraq. The International Committee of the Red Cross meanwhile revealed that it has expressed concern to London over the handling of Iraqi detainees in the British-occupied south. Crook said he sensed a possible government campaign to intimidate the Daily Mirror's editor Piers Morgan, by helping to shed doubt on the pictures he published. Some commentators have accused his newspaper - which opposed the Iraq war - of "being unpatriotic, of putting soldiers (in Iraq) under a greater risk" by publishing the abuse claims. Taylor said it was conceivable that covert organisations might try to sow doubts about the pictures' authenticity, but added that military experts quoted in the media have little interest in defending the government. |