WP: U.S. Works to Calm Furor Over Photos

Bush Vows Punishment for Abuse of Prisoners

By Dana Milbank
Saturday, May 1, 2004; Page A01

Arab countries reacted with rage and revulsion yesterday after images of U.S. soldiers abusing Iraqi prisoners were broadcast around the world.

Bush administration and U.S. military officials scrambled to contain the furor and to assuage concerns among allies. The photos showed U.S. troops celebrating as prisoners were sexually humiliated and otherwise abused.

"I shared a deep disgust that those prisoners were treated the way they were treated," President Bush said in a Rose Garden appearance with Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin. "Their treatment does not reflect the nature of the American people. That's not the way we do things in America. And so I didn't like it one bit." Bush said the abuses will be investigated and the perpetrators "will be taken care of."

Analysts said the strong response by Bush appeared directed less at an American audience than at an international audience skeptical about U.S. intentions in Iraq. The United States and Britain are struggling to meet a June 30 deadline for a transfer of sovereignty in Iraq, and the images threatened to undermine already tenuous international cooperation.

U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan said he was "deeply disturbed" by the photos, and the British government called the matter appalling. Arab countries were more strident, with the Arab League calling the mistreatment "savage acts" and Arab broadcast networks describing the incidents in similar terms. Arab newspapers and students and even a member of the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council said the images could be pivotal in turning Iraqis against the United States.

(snip)

Foreign policy experts said the photos could cause lasting damage to U.S. efforts. "It is a disaster," said Michael Rubin, resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and until earlier this year a political adviser to the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority. "Five or six people have managed to soil the reputation of American soldiers worldwide."

more…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A57849-2004Apr30.html

So I guess it is to be expected.

I heard a report that the soldiers were being egged on by CIA, types, who aren't going to face prosecution because they are "civilians."

The hoods are absolutely inhumane. The photos are appalling and cast shame on our whole country.

But I would say that as horrible as these pictures are, George W. Bush has done 100 time more to sully the reputation of the United States.

http://www.wgoeshome.com

Real FUCKING!!! MEDIA!!!! (FUCKING WHORES!!!!!) We would not have to endure 138 dead in April. Yeah, April fucking fools Mr. Bush. Scumbag of the earth. Satan looks better than you. Look at why they really hate us, You'd have to be a fucking moron if you didn't figure it out!

<http://www.aljazeera.net/news/arabic/2003/3/3-22-26.htm>

You are 100% correct Fearnobush.

That is why they really hate us.

what Kimmitt has to say.


In Baghdad, Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, a military spokesman, said he tried to limit the damage before the CBS show on Wednesday. "I talked with the Arab press two nights ago, before the '60 Minutes' show was broadcast because I wanted the Arab press to understand and possibly communicate to their fellow Iraqis a couple of key points," he said. Kimmitt said the U.S. military is "absolutely appalled" by the photos and that the perpetrators are facing criminal charges. He also said authorities believe the incident involves fewer than 20 of about 8,000 prisoners at Abu Gharib.

"Please don't for a moment think that that's the entire U.S. Army or the U.S. military, because it's not," Kimmitt said in remarks directed at Iraqis. "And if you think those soldiers that are walking up and down the street approve of what they saw, condone what they saw or excuse what they saw, I can tell you that I've got 150,000 other American soldiers who feel as appalled and disappointed as I do at the actions of those few."

Except by Faux News because all their NEWS comes from there. In order to be the Party Organ of the NEOCONS its Necessary !!!!!

It is just a few that we happen to have pictures of. From the sounds of it, this behavior was standard operating procedure and as usual the higher ups are in denial.

A senator getting involved in a company's or battalion's business was like dropping a nuke, I can't imagine what's going to happen to these people.

and CORPORATIONS are the apparent AUTHORITY there THEY need to be held to ACCOUNT.

WTF is REALLY going on in IRAQ? WHO is in CHARGE? look at the MESS the AFU civies got us in in FALLUJAH :argh:

this must END!

peace

"...I didn't like it one bit." How about "The United States is deeply sorry for what has happened."

"Five or six people have managed to soil the reputation of American soldiers worldwide."

bu$h, cheney, rumsfeld, rice, ashcroft, rush...

what a truly moronic thing to said to an international audience. it's ambiguous enough in english.

he's just ASKING to be mistranslated.

good point

- much less how they could be translated or mistranslated.

Junior thinks "idiom" means the same thing as "moran".

He is, after all, the "Commander in Chief"

We are not seeing photos of the vast majority of the attrocities in Iraq: not the Iraqui dead, the severly wounded civilians or those fighting to defend their own country, not the deformed babies from depleted uranium, not the destroyed cities and towns. The pictures that we did see are only the tip of the mountain of attrocities that was built on the foundation of a greedy imperialist illegal war. The true blame gos to the comander in chief and those who are reeping billions in profits.

There was a page posted a few days ago with a link to some very graphic pictures from this war. If I can find the post, I'll link it. Welcome to DU!

more upset over the photos of coffins than the dead in them

has become a bag of snakes ready to strike at any time and anywhere.

No matter what any of Bushco say it's too late. The Muslims have seen them and no amount of talk will change the impact! The fact that these were about humiliation via sex makes this story more shocking than if it were about beatings. It's the Media that loves these kinds of stories. Some Americans aren't shocked by this as much as Muslims are. This story has legs as they say in the Media. It is as damaging or more so than reports of US troops firing on ambulances.

from here out.

Their intention was to inflame the Arab world. They were extremely degrading.

Another means of agitating their world war?

Another way of executing their PNAC plan?

 = = VIET-NAM

Nguyen Ngoc Loan, whose execution of a Viet Cong prisoner on the streets of Saigon in 1968
became one of the most chilling images of the Vietnam War


=
IRAQ-NAM

At most, the 372nd's alleged abuses of prisoners were "stupid, kid things - pranks," Terrie
England said,

In 20 years every time IRAQ-NAM or some variant is mentioned this photo will pop into your
mind– Just like General Loan’s HEAD SHOT

No, it's how we do things outside of America.

It's all in how you parse it.

Look at how prisoners were treated in TEXAS under W's rule! He had plenty of opportunities to speak to abuses of prisoners (especially with respect to guaranteeing fair trials). How can anyone trust this guy to care about providing decent treatment to prisoners anywhere in the world given his track record.

I'd be willing to bet that any large US prison system has atrocities similar to these.

Maybe the rest of the world is just waking up to how brutal the US view of "justice" is.

for this sort of thing. Torturing prisoners and then taking photos for display as pornography - this is the sort of thing the third reich did.

This aestheticization of torture, sexual abuse, and the use for political domination chills me.

We are closer to fascism than we realize.

lest we have to realize that Hague Invasion Act.

Sure, remember how outraged the neo-fascists were about that? Why, imagine!! Good, brave 'Mur'can soldiers could be kidnapped and hauled off to the Hague to have a bunch of commies decide their fate. As I recall the Pentagon had an invasion plan for the Netherlands in case they ever needed to go rescue "our boys". I'd actually welcome seeing these fine young people (men and women, as I understand it) put on trial for this conduct. Why should it be excused just because their Commander in Chief hinself enjoyed similarly humilating prisoners on death row when he was governor?

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

death logic, death dialectic. everything sums up.

where are you going fellow Americans ? where this world is going ?

this world (i know there are others) is doomed.

photos and they waited 2 weeks. So Bush has known about this
for two weeks and NOW he is outraged? I wonder if this
had anything to do with the timing of their strike in Falujah.

CBS held the story until the photos turned up on the internet. That is when they went public.

Let's kick the bastard out of office NOW!