[A-List] Iraq Occupation: US, Britain Wage War, World Suffers Consequences

[Rick Rozoff <r_rozoff@xxxxxxxxx>]

1) US Troops Slay 25 Iraqi Militiamen In Karbala
2) Four Filipinos Killed In Attack On US Military Camp
3) American Soldier Killed In Western Iraq
4) Iraqi Security Personnel Killed, Wounded In
Drive-By Shooting
5) Mortars Fired Near Italian Embassy In Baghdad
6) Withdrawal Of Russian Electricity Workers To Leave
Iraq In The Dark
7) Russian Lower House Blasts Occupation, Calls For
Withdrawal Of Citizens
8) France, Russia Toughen Stance On Iraq
9) Tony 'See No Evil' Blair And Red Cross Revelations
Of Prisoner Abuse
10) Nelson Mandela Tells Of Horror At 'Terrible
Abuses'
11) Russian Commentary: Abu Ghraib Atrocities Torture,
Not Abuse
12) Indian Commentary: Not Just Bullies, But Also
Savage Perverts



1)
http://www9.sbs.com.au/theworldnews/region.php?id=84986®ion=6


Special Broadcasting Service (Australia)
May 12, 2004


UP TO 25 MILITIA KILLED IN IRAQ


Up to 25 militiamen have reportedly been killed in
clashes with US forces in the Iraqi city of Karbala.

A US military official in Baghdad said the members of
radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's Mehdi Army died in
fighting, with seven US soldiers wounded.

Earlier, a Karbala hospital spokesman said nine
militiamen were killed and seven injured in clashes in
the city centre, which reportedly lasted several
hours.

US troops and Mehdi Army militia also fought overnight
on the outskirts of the cities of Najaf and Kufa.
------------------------------------------------------
2)
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/s1107038.htm


Reuters
May 12, 2004


Four Filipinos killed in Iraq attack


Four Filipino workers have been killed in Iraq in a
mortar attack on a United States military camp,
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said.

The contractors were among more than 1,360 Filipinos
working at Camp Anaconda in Balad.

Another Filipino worker was killed by attackers in
Iraq at the end of April.

The Philippines, a staunch ally of Washington, also
has about 100 police, soldiers and medical personnel
assisting in reconstruction efforts in Iraq.
------------------------------------------------------
3)
http://www.jang.com.pk/thenews/may2004-daily/12-05-2004/main/update.shtml#12

Jang (Pakistan)
May 12, 2004


US soldier killed in western Iraq


BAGHDAD: A US soldier was killed Tuesday in a clash in
the restive western Iraqi province of Al-Anbar,
according to a coalition statement.

The soldier was killed "while conducting security and
stability operations" in the area but the military
declined to give further details. The death takes the
number of US troops killed since the US-led invasion
of Iraq in March last year to 775, according to
Pentagon figures.
------------------------------------------------------
4)
http://www.jang.com.pk/thenews/may2004-daily/12-05-2004/main/update.shtml#10

Jang (Pakistan)
May 12, 2004

Iraqi paramilitary killed in Iraq shooting


BAQUBAH: A member of the Iraqi security forces was
killed and another injured Wednesday in a drive-by
shooting near the town of Baqubah, a colleague said.

The two members of the paramilitary Iraqi Civil
Defence Corps were returning to their barracks when
they were overtaken by another vehicle whose occupants
opened fire, Ali Najm said. Najm took the injured man
to hospital after the ambush some 80 kilometres (50
miles) north of Baghdad. Hundreds of members of the
new US-trained Iraqi security forces have been killed
in bombings and shootings across the country in the
last year since they are seen by insurgents as
collaborators.
------------------------------------------------------
5)
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/s1107159.htm

Reuters
May 12, 2004

Mortars fired near Italian embassy in Baghdad


Three mortar rounds were fired in the area around the
Italian embassy in Baghdad on Wednesday but the
building was not damaged and no injuries have been
reported, Italy's Foreign Ministry said.

A journalist from Italian state broadcaster RAI had
said during a live link-up on Wednesday evening that
she had news from the Qatar-based Al Jazeera Arab
television channel that the embassy had been hit by a
blast.

The Italian Foreign Ministry said the embassy was
operating normally hours after mortar shots in the
region.

"Today at 2:00pm local time there were a couple of
mortar rounds in the neighbourhood of the embassy.
It's not clear what the target was," a spokesman at
the Italian Foreign Ministry later said.

"We spoke to the ambassador a couple of minutes ago:
there weren't any victims or damages, activities are
continuing as normal," he added.

Some 2,700 Italian troops are stationed in the
southern Iraqi city of Nassiriya, making it the third
largest foreign presence after US and British forces.

Italy has been on high alert in Iraq since a suicide
attack killed 19 Italians at a paramilitary police
base in Nassiriya last November.

Also last November, the Italian embassy in Baghdad was
hit by an explosion at night causing structural damage
but no injuries.
------------------------------------------------------
6)
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?sf=2813&click_id=2813&art_id=qw1084350782212B262&set_id=6

Independent Online (South Africa)
May 12, 2004


Russian withdrawal keeps Iraq in the dark


Baghdad - The planned pullout of Russian electricity
workers from Iraq after the killing of a colleague and
the kidnapping of two others has set back plans to
rebuild the country's battered power industry, the
head of electricity generation said on Wednesday.

Russian workers were involved in three key power
station projects that had already been delayed because
of the security crisis in the country amid warnings
from the industry of 14-hour power cuts in the summer,
said head of power generation Mohsen Hassan.

"There is a lot of work to be done in the current
maintenance period but now there is a problem from the
attacks and kidnapping," Hassan said.

"This has given us a severe problem and stoppage of
the work," he said. "Our target will be affected
accordingly.

Russian firm Interenergoservis said it planned to
evacuate about a third of its 340-strong staff by next
Monday after a worker was shot and beaten to death and
two others were kidnapped.

The three were returning to Baghdad after working on
rebuilding an electric power plant located about 50km
south of the Iraqi capital when they were attacked.

A group of Russian, Belarussian and Ukrainian workers
were briefly taken hostage in Iraq last month.

One was released immediately and the others within 24
hours after the gunmen learned that most of them were
from Russia - a country that furiously opposed the
United States-led invasion of Iraq. Hundreds of
Russians were pulled out in response to that incident.

Hassan said last month that work on refurbishing some
25 key power plants and building more than 10 new ones
had been badly hit by the departure of foreign
experts, while badly needed supply deliveries have
been unable to reach the plants because of attacks on
convoys.

Hassan said then there was no chance of reaching a
target of generating 6 000 megawatts in July when
oppressive temperatures in Iraq can exceed 50°C and
electricity use surges because of demand for air
conditioning. - Sapa-AFP
------------------------------------------------------
7)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3706627.stm

BBC News
May 12, 2004

Russian firms urged to leave Iraq


-The Duma said the US-led coalition had "practically
lost control" of Iraq, putting everyone there in
danger.
-"Similar excesses" could be prevented in future by
ending what the Duma called the "disproportionate use
of force", ensuring the involvement of Iraqis in
resolving the crisis in their nation and ending the
"scandalous practice of the inhumane treatment of
Iraqi prisoners by the occupying military".





Russian businesses are being urged to reconsider the
stationing of any personnel in Iraq.

The statement from the lower house of parliament,
Duma, came after a Russian power plant worker was
killed and two were taken hostage in Iraq on Monday.

The Duma said the US-led coalition had "practically
lost control" of Iraq, putting everyone there in
danger.

It demanded that the coalition fully investigate
Monday's attack and take steps to prevent "similar
excesses".

Russia opposed the invasion of Iraq and has no troops
there.

However, it negotiated reconstruction contracts worth
a reported $1bn and has several hundred civilian
contractors there.

'Alive and well'

Gunmen killed one Russian power plant worker and
kidnapped the other two as they returned from work at
a power station near Baghdad on Monday.

Russian news agency Interfax identified the two men
held as Alexander Gordiyenko, 27, and Andrei
Meshcheryakov, 33. It said Alexei Konorev, 43, was
killed.

The identity of the kidnappers, and prospects for the
release of the two abducted Russians, remain unclear.

Interfax quoted Alexander Abramov, the general
director of energy firm Interenergoservis - the men's
employer - as saying they were "alive and well",
though their whereabouts remained a mystery.

However, Mr Abramov refused to confirm or deny these
comments when asked by another agency, Itar-Tass.

Officials at the Russian embassy in Baghdad are
reported to have said there has been no contact with
the kidnappers and no demands have been received.

'Scandalous'

In its statement on Wednesday, the Duma called on
Russian businesses in Iraq "to consider without delay
and in a responsible fashion the issue of whether your
specialists should remain" in Iraq.

Personnel should be compulsorily evacuated if
warranted by circumstances, the deputies said,
according to Itar-Tass.

"Similar excesses" could be prevented in future by
ending what the Duma called the "disproportionate use
of force", ensuring the involvement of Iraqis in
resolving the crisis in their nation and ending the
"scandalous practice of the inhumane treatment of
Iraqi prisoners by the occupying military".

The foreign ministry has already repeatedly urged
nationals to leave Iraq.

Last month, Moscow evacuated some 365 citizens of
ex-Soviet countries after a spate of kidnappings of
foreign nationals.

However, about 300 workers chose to stay behind - the
great majority Interenergoservis workers. Among them
were eight Russian and Ukrainian workers who had been
abducted and then freed.

Reports suggest Interenergoservis is now planning to
evacuate many of its remaining workers in Iraq, though
it is as yet unclear exactly how many.

'Sorry state'

The Russian firm is involved in reportedly lucrative
projects to rebuild at least three key power stations
in Iraq.

Its international project director, Yevgeny Loginov,
told Reuters the Iraqi energy ministry had urged it
not to leave "because the energy sector there is in
such a sorry state".

The Iraqi head of power generation, Mohsen Hassan,
told Agence France Presse the departure of foreign
experts had badly hit the reconstruction of Iraq's
power supplies.

He reportedly said there was no chance of meeting a
energy supply target for July, when oppressive
temperatures mean demand surges.
------------------------------------------------------
8)
http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1083180464511

Financial Times
May 12, 2004

France and Russia toughen stance on Iraq
By Mark Turner at the United Nations and Andrew Jack
in Moscow



France and Russia have raised the stakes on a new
United Nations resolution on Iraq, warning they will
only support a proposal that gives Iraqis genuine
control over their political future.


In an interview with the Financial Times, Jean-Marc de
la Sablìere, France's ambassador to the UN, insisted
the transfer of sovereignty should be "real and
visible". "We are not in a mood to support a
resolution we do not consider a good one," he said.
"We think the credibility of the UN should be taken
into account."

Vyacheslav Trubnikov, Russia's first deputy foreign
minister, said this week that Moscow could only back a
resolution that took "into account the interests of
Iraq 100 per cent", and that it should create "an
Iraqi government by the Iraqis themselves".

The warnings from two of the five permanent members of
the UN Security Council came as Bill Frist, US Senate
majority leader, described classified photographs and
video clips of prisoner abuse in Iraq that senators
were given access to as "appalling", saying in many
ways they "go beyond" the images already in the public
domain.

Mr Frist said some of the images were totally
unrelated to Abu Ghraib prison.

UN Security Council members met informally to discuss
the relationship between Iraq's caretaker government
and the US.

The UN is aware that how it manages the transfer of
power in Iraq will be critical to rebuilding its
international authority following the divisions in the
run-up to the US-led invasion last year.

The US has said it will head a unified command of
international and local forces, but many countries
believe Iraqis should have control over their own
army. France also believes that arrangements for the
US-led multinational force should be revisited after
the election of a new government at the end of
January.

Russia is floating the possibility of a two-step
process. The first would be for the Security Council
to endorse a government chosen by Lakhdar Brahimi, the
UN special envoy, assuming it has wide support.

The council would then invite that government to
submit ideas for a more detailed resolution. The idea
has won some backing but there are concerns that time
is running short. One diplomat warned against a "Merry
Widow" scenario, in which the last act is still being
written as the first act is performed.

Russia is also calling for an international conference
before June 30, to inject greater transparency into
the process. That idea is less popular.
------------------------------------------------------
9)
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/668602.cms

The Times Of India
May 10, 2004

Sorry, but I didn't know, says Blair
RASHMEE Z AHMED

-The Red Cross report made clear that British
specialists were in charge of the notorious prison at
various points of time since the Iraqi invasion.


LONDON: In a widening and deepening image crisis for
the trans-Atlantic military coalition, British Prime
Minister Tony Blair has urgently denied he or any of
his ministers knew anything at all about the torture
of Iraqi captives.

Even as a secret Red Cross report on gross
interrogation torture received a public airing on
Monday on the Wall Street Journal website, Blair
insisted his government had, all along, been in the
saintly situation of the fabled three monkeys' "see no
evil, hear no evil, speak no evil".

Blair's denial came amid claims that his government
knew a year ago that Iraqi prisoners were being
grossly abused by UK troops.

In a sign that the controversy was escalating, Blair's
meeting on Monday with the Chinese premier ran into
embarrassing publicity problems. With Premier Wen
blandly looking on, Blair was forced to explain to
journalists how and why the UK felt it had a right to
lecture Beijing on human rights abuses.

The Red Cross saw US troops keeping Iraqi prisoners
naked for days in darkness at the Abu Ghraib jail in
October, and was told by the intelligence officer in
charge it was "part of the process," a leaked report
said on Monday.

According to the report, the Red Cross repeatedly drew
allegations of mistreatment to the attention of the
authorities. It is known to have told British military
commanders that the methods of prisoner abuse was the
same in wide swathe of British-run detention centres.

The Red Cross report made clear that British
specialists were in charge of the notorious prison at
various points of time since the Iraqi invasion.
------------------------------------------------------
10)
http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1083180408296&p=1012571727172

Financial Times
May 11, 2004

Mandela tells of horror at reports of 'terrible
abuses'
By John Reed in Johannesburg


-In the lead-up to the war, he said US President
George W. Bush "cannot think properly" and accused him
of "wanting to plunge the world into a holocaust".


Nelson Mandela yesterday spoke out against "terrible
abuses" by American and UK forces in Iraq, in a speech
marking the 10th anniversary of his inauguration as
South Africa's first black president.

"We watch as two of the leading democracies, two
leading nations of the free world, get involved in a
war that the United Nations did not sanction," Mr
Mandela said to a joint session of parliament in Cape
Town.

"We look on with horror as reports surface of terrible
abuses against the dignity of human beings held
captive by invading forces in their own country."

The Nobel laureate and former president was an
outspoken opponent of last year's US-led invasion of
Iraq.

In the lead-up to the war, he said US President George
W. Bush "cannot think properly" and accused him of
"wanting to plunge the world into a holocaust".

"We see how the powerful countries - all of them
democracies - manipulate multilateral bodies to the
great disadvantage of the poorer developing nations,"
he said yesterday. "There is enough reason for
cynicism and despair."

In recent months an increasingly frail Mr Mandela, who
turns 86 this year, has been cutting back on public
appearances. His aides have said he plans to focus on
writing the second volume of his autobiography.

Yesterday he urged South Africans never to forget "the
terrible past from which we come" under apartheid. He
spoke of the challenges posed by poverty, unemployment
and HIV/Aids, which he said "continues to threaten our
future in a particularly frightening manner".

However, he held up his country as a beacon to people
around the world. "In a cynical world, we have become
an inspiration to many," he said. "We signal that good
can be achieved amongst human beings who are prepared
to trust, prepared to believe in the goodness of
people."
------------------------------------------------------
11)
http://en.rian.ru/rian/index.cfm?msg_id=4299228

Russian Information Agency (Novosti)
May 12, 2004

ABU GREIB [Ghraib]: ABUSE OR TORTURE?


MOSCOW
RIA Novosti political commentator Vladimir Simonov



Let us first decide what the Abu Greib scandal is all
about. US Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld thinks
the word "torture" is not right. "I'm not a lawyer,"
he said. "My impression is that what has been charged
thus far is abuse, which I believe technically is
different from torture."

The heaps of new photographs depicting the atrocities
committed by US and British troops against the inmates
of Abu Greib and other Iraqi prisons might change the
secretary's impression. They show US soldiers in heavy
boots jumping on naked male Iraqis arranged in a pile.
They show electric wires connected to the fingers of
an Iraqi with a sack on his head. They show military
working dogs intimidating the detainees.

US Major General Antonio M. Taguba provided the
evidence of the inmates, which he finds "creditable
based on the clarity of their statements and
supporting evidence provided by other witnesses." In
particular, he mentions soldiers breaking chemical
lights and pouring the phosphoric liquid on detainees.


Enough, one might think. One does not need to be the
Pentagon chief to distinguish between abuse and
genuine, full-scale torture that even Saddam Hussein
did not resort to.

Senior US and British officials are apologising with
the same zeal with which they had recently created
commissions to investigate the "strange" lack of
weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. In the past few
days, the Islamic world has heard apologies from
National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, Defence
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, US President George Bush,
and British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

But these admissions of guilt were strictly limited.
The top officials apologised for the improper
behaviour of a bunch of soldiers who do not - repeat,
not - represent the noble coalition armies or the
Western type of democracy, which they are bringing in
their Hummers to Iraq, just as they had brought it to
Afghanistan. They all mean that the seven "black
sheep" - the US soldiers who may face tribunal because
of Abu Greib abuses - cannot discredit the flock.

But they know there is little new in this scandal. For
the past 18 months, the largest world publications and
international human rights organisations have been
sounding the alarm over the humiliating treatment of
detainees and torture in the prisons of Afghanistan
and Iraq and at the US Guantanamo base in Cuba.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell, who appeared the
other day on Larry King's live show on CNN, made an
interesting discovery. He peered into US history and
found the forerunner of Sgt. Jeremy Sivits, a warden
in Abu Greib who will be put on trial in Iraq on May
19. The forerunner of today's "liberator" of Iraq was
Lieutenant William Calley, the "liberator" of Vietnam,
who in 1968 ordered his platoon to incinerate the
Vietnamese village of My Lai.

Interestingly, one of the loudest voices raised to
partially justify Calley was that of Democratic
presidential frontrunner John Kerry. He admitted that
the lieutenant could be charged with manslaughter but
said this verdict did not point to the genuine
criminal. Those of us who served in Vietnam know that
the true culprit is the United States of America, said
John Kerry.

It appears that Kerry's idea is applicable to the
Iraqi scandal. The shame and pain of Abu Greib is not
a sad aberration, as the Washington officials claim,
but a norm of US relations with the Third World.

The chain of moral responsibility is apparent. A
female US sergeant puts a naked Iraqi on a rope leash
and orders him to crawl around on his fours because
she was ordered to do so by the military intelligence,
which is applying harsher interrogation methods in
compliance with the orders from their seniors, up to
and including Secretary Rumsfeld. Hovering behind
these horrible doings is the shadow of the Washington
administration, which made the decision to launch the
unfair war under the guise of bringing the US type of
democracy to the Gulf.

The guise has fallen now, revealing electric wires
connected to naked bodies, working dogs biting
detainees, and dog collars clasped around human necks.


Washington and London do not seem to understand what
serious damage the torture in Abu Greib and other
prisons have done to their reputation of
"international guardians and defenders of human
rights." The very ability of these countries to pursue
a foreign policy that could be trusted by the
international community and, more importantly, to
fight against international terrorism has been put in
question.

Today, the US president cannot decide what he should
do - support his defence secretary or fire him. But
Rumsfeld's resignation from the ranks of advocates of
the arrogant and missionary US doctrine, which is
humiliating to the weak countries and was devised to
keep up the election chances of the Big Chief, is a
minor event when seen against the backdrop of other,
more serious and lasting consequences of the scandal.
Some members of the US administration admit that a new
generation will grow up before the USA and the Arab
world will leave behind them the May 2004 scandal in
the Abu Greib prison. But this might appear to be
overly optimistic.
------------------------------------------------------
12)
http://www.samachar.com/features/120504-features.html

Samachar News (India)
May 12, 2004


Not just bullies, but also savage perverts
BY V GANGADHAR

- Nations like the US and Britain which had been
preaching human rights to the rest of the world had
been exposed as the worst kind of bullies capable of
practising the worst kind of torture and sexual
perversion on unarmed, helpless prisoners of war.



In the Oscar-winning David Lean film classic `The
Bridge on the River Kwai?, an obstinate but principled
British Colonel Nicholson (superbly played by the late
Sir Alec Guinness) waves a tattered copy of the Geneva
Convention on the treatment of Prisoners of War before
his Japanese tormentor and asserts that his officers
would not do any manual labour. ?This is war, not a
game of cricket,? snarled the sadistic Japanese
Colonel Saito. He tears the copy of the Geneva
Convention and bundles off the British Colonel into
the torture chamber.

Over the years, we are accustomed to such portrayals.
The White Man from the West is a gentleman. He plays
according to the rules. It is the infidels from the
rest of the world who created all the mischief. This
illusion had been drilled into us by the Western
media, television, books and distorted history. The
American, the Britisher, can do no wrong. They played
with a straight bat.

Finally, that illusion had been shattered. The
photographs and videos depicting the vile torture and
humiliation meted out to Iraqi prisoners of war in the
Baghdad prisons had shocked the entire civilised
world. The roles of the civilised world and the
savages are now reversed. Nations like the US and
Britain which had been preaching human rights to the
rest of the world had been exposed as the worst kind
of bullies capable of practising the worst kind of
torture and sexual perversion on unarmed, helpless
prisoners of war.

The ultimate losers are human dignity and decency. As
newspapers and TV screen flashed pictures of prisoners
stripped naked, tied up, dragged, had dogs set on
them, forced to form human pyramids, urinated upon and
savagely beaten up, our minds were benumbed with
shock. Were these atrocities perpetrated by a nation
which produced leaders like Thomas Jefferson and
Abraham Lincoln? Were these the so-called leaders of
the `Free World?? What had happened to the United
States of America?

The signs were there for quite sometime. Absolute
power brings with it absolute corruption. As the Armed
Forces Committee of the US Senate and Congress,
debated the National Shame, both Republican and
Democratic Senators made forceful speeches condemning
the prison incidents.

But not one of them considered the root cause of the
problem, the illegal invasion of Iraq to get rid of
the `cruel dictatorship? of former President Saddam
Hussein. Iraq was invaded on the false pretext of its
possession of weapons of mass destruction. This charge
had been proved blatantly false, no such weapons were
found anywhere in Iraq.

The charges of Iraqi collusion with the Al Qaeda had
also been proved false. In fact, even the US
intelligence agencies could not find any links between
Saddam Hussein and the shadowy agents of Osama bin
Laden. Saddam Hussein may not have been an angel, but
despite all the propaganda barrage against him, Iraq
was more peaceful and its people happier under him
than its present turmoil. And Saddam Hussein did not
strip his prisoners naked and torture them.

It all amounts to arrogance of power and intolerance
to any kind of opposition. The prison torture had been
going on for months and the Red Cross had prepared a
detailed dossier. The prisoners were genuine soldiers
of the Iraqi army who like any other patriotic
citizens, had to fight for their country when its was
invaded. They did not possesses any military secrets
and had not conspired against the US. More important
they were not terrorists. Under such circumstances,
the Iraqi were fully entitled to humane treatment
under the Geneva Convention which the US and UK chose
to flout. Perhaps, they were under the impression that
the Convention was applicable only to Western
prisoners of war.

The Iraqi incidents, no doubt had led to an
international outrage leading to apologies from
President George Bush and his Secretary of Defence
Donald Rumsfeld. With a presidential election due in
November, the President cannot afford to sack his
Defence Secretary who was highly regarded by the right
wing elements in the Republican party.

The Extreme right wing Vice President, Dick Cheney, in
fact commended Rumsfeld as the `greatest defence
secretary the US ever had?, a compliment which should
make every decent American blush in embarrassment! The
Arab world, was no doubt shocked. But their rulers
dare not protest too much. The rulers of Saudi Arabia,
Jordan and Egypt and the Emirate states dare not
antgaonise the mighty US even when their own people
had been tortured and humiliated.

The Arab rulers, seeking US protection for their
dictatorial regimes, are the most shameless on earth,
ready to bear any kind of insults meted out to their
people. They did not protest at the invasion of Iraq
and they would not protest at the persecution and
humiliation of the Iraqi prisoners of war. For such
shameless Arab leaders, US arms, handshakes from the
Western leaders, receptions at the White House were
more important than national or Arab pride. This is
one of the major tragedies of the Arab world. And it
enables the US to be more authoritarian and pro-Israel
without any official critical references from the Arab
rulers.

The US media finally published photographs of the
prison atrocities. But to its shame, the powerful CBS
network, agreed to delay the publication of the
pictures by a fortnight on a request from Chief of
Staff of the US armed forces. Why did CBS agree to
this strange request? The prison torture issue did not
involve any national security, it was a blot on the
fair name of the US and the photographs should have
been published without any delay. But then the US
media, on similar situations in the past, had the
habit of obeying government orders. In 1961, the
powerful New York Times agreed to withhold reports on
the forthcoming illegal invasion of Cuba because
President John Kennedy requested it to do so quoting
national security.

The Bay of Pigs invasion stage-managed by the CIA
flopped miserably and turned out to be a permanent
blot on the Kennedy administration. Former Managing
Editor and later columnist of the NYT, James Reston
later agreed that the paper had blundered in
withholding this story which had nothing to do with
national security. And now CBS had been bullied on the
same count.

While the US remained the sole super power in the
world, with Britain hanging around as its favourite
poodle, it had lost all moral grounds to act as the
protector of human rights in any part of the world.
One of the charges held against Saddam Hussein was
that his government violated human rights. What did
the US do, then in the Iraqi prisons? More disturbing,
there are now efforts to cover up the shoddy
incidents. British Defence Minister, Geoffrey Hoon
made a statement questioning the authenticity of the
photographs. This is a ridiculous statement which is
sure to boomerang on him in the days to come.

Meanwhile, some kind of a court-martial procedures had
been launched against seven US soldiers. It is hard to
believe that only seven were involved in the prison
torture. The chain of command for this shameful
episode must be exposed and the top men exposed and
punished. But so long as the US did not recognise its
mistake in invading Iraq the present state of affairs
would continue. Bullied by the US, the UN had
abdicated its duties in the Middle East and one is
perplexed at its silence over the POW?s issue. UN
Secretary General Kofi Annan, had once again proved he
was nothing but a dummy of the US.











	
		
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