Arab Reaction to Photos of Prisoner Abuse

[Oilwellian]

The sexual and physical abuse of Iraqi prisoners of war, a direct violation of the Geneva Conventions by US soldiers at the Abu Ghuraib prison, has naturally produced outrage in the Arab world. This is a big thing, folks. I saw the rightwing talking heads Friday evening trying to shrug off the photos and the incidents as minor affairs. They are not, in the world of public diplomacy. Can you imagine what the mood would be like in the United States if some foreign power had treated US POWs like this and then the photos came out?

Samia Nakhoul of Reuters has gathered up some immediate reactions from the person on the street, a few of which I quote here. She reports that a Syrian woman, Khadija Mousa, said, "They keep asking why we hate them? Why we detest them? Maybe they should look well in the mirror and then they will hate themselves . . . What I saw is very very humiliating. The Americans are showing their true image."

Abdel-Bari Atwan, editor of the pan-Arabist London newspaper, al-Quds al-Arabi, said, "The liberators are worse than the dictators. This is the straw that broke the camel's back for America . . . "That really, really is the worst atrocity. It affects the honour and pride of Muslim people. It is better to kill them than sexually abuse them.""

Daud al-Shiryan of Saudi Arabia: "This will increase the hatred of America, not just in Iraq but abroad. Even those who sympathised with the Americans before will stop. It is not just a picture of torture, it is degrading. It touches on morals and religion . . . Abu Ghraib prison was used for torture in Saddam's time. People will ask now what's the difference between Saddam and Bush. Nothing!"

Driver Hatem Ali, 30: "Americans are racists and cowards, that's what I understood from these pictures."

Mahmoud Walid, a 28-year-old Egyptian writer: "These soldiers are being touted as the saviours of the Iraqi people and America claims to be the moral leader of the world, but they have been caught with their pants down, they have been exposed, the whole world sees them as they really are."

Az-Zaman did an interview with General Mark Kimmitt in which it asked him whether the soldiers who abused these prisoners were Jewish, or possibly Israeli, and whether Israeli security forces were helping the US at Abu Ghuraib. Kimmitt said "no." But clearly that is the rumor in Iraq, that this abuse was carried out by Zionists put on a long leash by the US military. Since the United States has in fact coddled the Israeli army with regard to its abuse of Palestinians in the Occupied Territories, the Arab public has gotten used to thinking of Washington and Tel Aviv as a team, dedicated to oppressing and humiliating Arabs. The photographs are graphic illustrations of racism, hatred and contempt by some Americans for Arabs.

(snip)
In any case, this incident is in significant part a direct result of Rumsfeld policies--the Pentagon's kidnapping of unprepared reservists for long-term military duty in Iraq, supplemented by unregulated cowboy security firms. It has already been forgotten that some of the fighting around Najaf was done by US private security guards, who even deployed an attack helicopter!

I really wonder whether, with the emergence of these photos, the game isn't over for the Americans in Iraq. Is it realistic, after the bloody siege of Fallujah and the Shiite uprising of early April, and in the wake of these revelations, to think that the US can still win the hearts and minds of the Iraqi Arab public?
http://www.juancole.com/

[seabeyond]

1. remember the to do when jessica was captured

adn all our outrage adn concern of exactly how we expected her to be treated and what happened to her. slapped, you slapped her, you horrible people

[zanana]

2. Concerning the suicides at Guantanamo...

I wonder if these prisoners are being treated the same way. I don't know much about the Muslim religion, but I do know that humiliation is one of the worst things that can happen to them. I also think the soldiers knew this very well.

[seabeyond]

3. i put this on the thread about offending islam

i heard a couple months ago from a prisoner released from there that is exactly what is happening there./ stripping women down naked and flaunt and taunt the most offensive one woman smearing menstraul blood on the men. and many other things being done

[mouse7]

4. You have to wonder if they were "suicides" now

They killed two people in the prison in Iraq with the abuse. Stuck a fake IV in the arm and dumped the body without even registering one. Looks like the Brits were pissing on prisoners and throwing them off bridges, too.

Guantanamo Bay needs to open immediately to permanent neutral observers.

[lindashaw]

6. I e-mailed Lou Dobbs about this. Perhaps he will ask a question.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

5. What in the world were the neocons thinking?

If they were thinking at all? Surely they should have at least realized that someone would be around the prisoners who had a conscience and would report this. I'm fearful about what is going on in Guantanimo.

If you've read Leviticus, you know that it is forbidden to be naked in front of others. You don't mark the body. You don't sexually humiliate anyone. Leviticus is part of the Torah, which is part of the Book, which includes the Bible and the Qur'an.

What I really fear is that the crazies in the White House have planned this because they want to have a war against Islam-somehow this will bring about the end of the world. This is insane, but is a possibility, knowing who is in the White House.

[workforpower]

7. A bit off topic.

The neocons thought that Iraq would be like Romania. The people rose up and killed the Dictator and his wife. Condolisa Rice is a Soviet Block expert. When a workman has only a hammer,everything looks a nail. They really thought that the fall of Iraq would dommino throughout the region. A really bad policy.

The war in Iraq was lost on Thursday. They had to retreat and call in a general from the past. They don't want us there now and it will never change.

[Randers]

9. " the crazies in the White House have planned this"

It is too horrible to believe that this was intentional, yet I am afraid, also, that there could have been an intent to stir up the war.

[hel]

8. EVERYBODY was talking about them here in Turkey as well

today. All the newspapers and TV stations showed the pictures, with quite an angry tone, I'm afraid. It's gotten to the point that if you are not Anti-American nowadays, you are regarded as either stupid or evil, doesn't matter if the person you are talking to is Islamist, secularist, left-winger or right-winger. I think it's quite alarming actually.

[Karenina]

10. Not alarming,

NECESSARY. The U.S. *MIC must be STOPPED before they get us all killed. Unfortunately Amis are a bit S-L-O-W on the uptake. I still have faith in them because when they who retain our "core values" FINALLY DO GET IT, watch out for an unstoppable populist uprising! I can dream, can't I?

[corporatewhore]

11. the same ugliness that was manifested there lives here as well

my friend just came home from visting her children and was strip-searched, her luggage pawed through with out any care of her belongings humiliated and treated like a terrorist because she is arab.She is 60 something she said she was too old for this and seriously considering moving from the country because she wants to be treated like a human being.This is where it starts