[A-List] US imperialism: yawning credibility gap

["Michael Keaney" <michael.keaney@xxxxxx>]

US 'crisis point' as torture claims widen
MICHAEL SETTLE, Chief Political Correspondent
The Herald, May 03 2004

THE row over the alleged abuse of Iraqi prisoners by coalition forces
intensified last night after David Kay, the coalition's former chief weapons
inspector, said public outrage in America was likely to fuel demands for the
US to withdraw its troops.

Dr Kay offered a bleak assessment of postwar Iraq, saying a civil rebellion
was emerging and, due to a lack of proper intelligence, coalition forces
were now on extraordinarily dangerous ground.

His comments came as condemnation of photographs apparently showing
prisoners being abused by US and British soldiers spread to other Muslim
countries. Amnesty International, the human rights group, said it had warned
US and UK authorities in Iraq that captives were being abused, while The New
Yorker magazine claimed that an internal US Army report found that Iraqi
detainees were subjected to "sadistic, blatant and wanton criminal abuses"
at the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad.

The number of US deaths continued to climb when six soldiers were killed and
more than 30 injured in a mortar attack near Ramadi.

Speaking on BBC radio yesterday, Dr Kay said: "We are clearly at a crisis
point."

He stressed there was growing opinion in America that the US could no longer
rebuild Iraq on its own because America itself was "becoming the issue, not
just the insecurity; it's the fact you've got so many Americans there, which
is deeply offensive".

Noting that this feeling had been fuelled by the publication of the
photographs showing US troops abusing Iraqis, Dr Kay added: "Pretty soon on
this side of the Atlantic, unless there is a real change in policy or a real
breakthrough in security, you are going to see a growing outcry of voices in
the US to simply get out."

General Richard Myers, America's most senior soldier, insisted abuse of
Iraqi prisoners was not widespread.

He added: "We review all the interrogation methods. Torture is not one of
the methods that we're allowed to use and that we use."

As Royal Military Police continued their investigations into alleged abuse
by British troops, the Daily Mirror defended its publication of photographs,
purporting to show members of the Queen's Lancashire Regiment mistreating
Iraqi prisoners.

However, the authenticity of the photographs was disputed. Regimental
sources pointed out how the floppy hat worn by a soldier in one picture was
not used in Iraq, the rifle shown was not the model issued, and the truck
featured was the wrong type.

The paper stood by its story and today's edition added to the controversy by
claiming hundreds of photographs have been taken of British servicemen
mistreating Iraqi civilians.

The Mirror quoted the soldiers who made the pictures public as saying: "We
stand by every single word of our story. This happened, it is not a hoax and
the Army knows a lot more has happened."

A Ministry of Defence spokesman said the authorities were not aware of other
photos of prisoners being mistreated or of a culture of trading pictures.
Jack Straw, foreign secretary, stressed that if the abuse claims were
proven, compensation would be paid to the victims.

As more reports suggested Britain was on the verge of sending more soldiers
to Iraq, Tony Blair and Mr Straw squarely placed the emphasis on the fact
that troop numbers were under constant review, conspicuously failing to deny
the central premise of the claims.