Websites call for revenge; US fends off mounting criticism
BAGHDAD: Enraged Iraqis protested against “American savagery” in US-run jails here yesterday as fresh fighting between coalition forces and guerrillas loyal to Moqtada Sadr killed 17 people.
Some 500 Iraqis protested outside Abu Ghraib, the US-run jail at the centre of a damaging scandal over prisoner abuse, a day after US officials revealed that 25 detainees had died in US custody in Afghanistan and Iraq since December 2002.
“Abu Ghraib, witness of American savagery,” said one banner. “US Army go home. Your families are waiting for you — this country is for Iraqis,” said another.
Polish forces, which command the force in Karbala, started distributing leaflets late on Tuesday warning they would conduct nightly patrols to disarm Sadr’s followers.
A US base near the Shiite holy city of Najaf, where Sadr has dug in with thousands of armed followers, came under fresh mortar attack early yesterday morning but there were not reports of casualties, officials said.
“We want you to be more vigilant and more disciplined and, God willing, I’m leading you to martyrdom,” Sadr told thousands of followers in a mosque near Najaf, according to video film footage distributed by his office.
n DUBAI: Websites were being flooded yesterday with reports on the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by US guards, with many people calling for revenge against the “new Crusaders.” “The Crusaders are back. Where are you Saladin?” asked Khaled Hammam from Chechnya on the site www.al-ansar.biz, in reference to the 12th century Iraqi Kurdish warrior who defeated Europe’s Christian invaders.
Internet sites continued to reproduce graphic pictures of prisoners shown naked and in humiliating positions at the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad which were first published April 28 by CBS television.
The pictures are shown with fiery remarks calling for “cleansing the honour” of Muslims.
“The new conservatives, and particularly the gang of (US President George W.) Bush, are enjoying the humiliation of the Muslims,” wrote Kuwaiti Islamist Shaikh Hamed ben Abdallah Al Ali on www.qal3ah.net.
“You real terrorists who are leading the jihad (holy war), continue on the same path, unite under this banner and terrorise the enemies of Islam,” said the Salafist religious leader known for his anti-American stands.
The two sites also published an editorial by the London-based daily Al-Quds Al-Arabi denouncing “the scandalous aggression against Iraqi detainees ... which shows the contempt of the US administration for all Arabs and Muslims.” “Shaikh Osama (bin Laden), his deputy Ayman Zawahiri and the followers of Al Qaeda should be the happiest people in the world while watching these humiliating pictures which give them the best motives to mobilise frustrated youths who care for their religion and dignity,” it said.
One internet user, presenting himself on www.alsaha.net as a “resistance” fighter in Iraq, said “our anger and revenge will not be appeased until we pierce the eyes which saw the sexual organs of the Iraqis and until the Americans, British and Israelis are castrated on the banks of the Tigris and Euphratus rivers.”
Another internet user from Jordan, Abdel Jabbar Abu Gharbiya, called on the “heroic fighters” in Iraq to “cut the genitals of enemy soldiers taken prisoner and to release them in order for them to suffer the pains of humiliation.”
Some users said prisoners were abused to deliver a message to Muslims seeking to take part in the resistance against the United States.
“Publishing these pictures is part of the psychological warfare against Muslims ... just like pictures of Saddam” Hussei after his capture in December, said a user on www.al-ansar.biz.
n WASHINGTON: The US administration fended off mounting criticism of the prison abuse scandal as it was revealed that two detainees were illegally killed.
The two alleged homicides were among 25 deaths in US military custody in Iraq or Afghanistan investigated since December 2002, an army officer said.
Maj-Gen. Donald Ryder, the army’s chief law enforcement officer, said another detainee was killed while trying to escape and 10 other deaths were still under investigation.
One soldier was found guilty of homicide for shooting an Iraqi who threw rocks at him, a military spokesman said. A CIA contractor killed a detainee at the now-notorious Abu Ghraib prison on November 3, he added.
The contractor’s case has been handed over to the US attorney general’s department as the military has no jurisdiction.
Top US officials condemned the abuse and humiliation of detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison, with White House national security adviser Condoleezza Rice telling Al Arabiya television that the United States was “deeply sorry” for the abuses.
“We are deeply sorry for what has happened to these people, and what the families must be feeling. It’s just not right. And we will get to the bottom of what happened,” she told the Arab channel in an interview.
Despite the five military investigations that have already been started, US lawmakers have called for a congressional inquiry.
The Senate Armed Services Committee summoned Defense Department officials for a hearing on Tuesday and the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence will hold a closed hearing on the abuse yesterday.
Carl Levin, the top Democrat on the armed services committee, said Congress must launch its own probe.
“I don’t think we can assume that all the investigation that is necessary is going on,” he said.
“I think we have a very heavy responsibility of oversight in the Congress, to make sure that there is a thorough investigation, that there is no cover up.” Senator John Warner, the Republican chairman of the committee said the abuse scandal was one of the most serious to hit the US army.
“I have been privileged to be associated with the military for over a half century and on this committee for 25 years now, and this is as serious a problem of breakdown in discipline as I’ve ever observed,” Warner said.
He added that the panel would meet Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld “at the first opportunity that we can.” Senator Ted Kennedy, a leading Democrat, expressed “revulsion” at what he heard in Tuesday’s closed hearing.
Republican Senator John McCain added his voice to calls for a probe. “Not an hour goes by that there isn’t an additional allegation,” he said.
As the controversy spiralled, the State Department postponed its annual report on the US human rights record, citing “technical reasons.” It had been set for release yesterday.
The new head of the US prison system in Iraq revealed plans to slash the numbers of detainees at Abu Ghraib from 3,800 to a maximum of 2,000. Maj-Gen. Geoffrey Miller also said use of hoods for prisoners would be banned.
But the US administration reaffirmed its disgust at the abuse.
Rumsfeld meanwhile confirmed that the United States will keep about 135,000 troops in Iraq beyond the 90-day extension announced last month.
-Agencies


photo: Iraqi demonstrators gather around Adnan Abdulallah shortly after his release from Abu Ghraib prison on the outskirts of Baghdad, yesterday. Some 2,000 Iraqis demonstrated in front of Baghdad’s Abu Ghraib prison, chanting “democracy doesn’t mean killing innocent people.” – AP
Last update on: 6-5-2004