Bush: Iraqi prisoner abuse on Arab TV
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| Wed, 05-05-2004 - 10:17am |
Bush to address Iraqi prisoner abuse on Arab TV.
President Bush will give interviews to two Arab television networks Wednesday about reports of U.S. military personnel abusing Iraqi prisoners, the White House said.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan said the 10-minute interviews with Al-Hurra, a U.S.-sponsored network, and Al Arabiya will take place about 10 a.m. ET (1400 GMT) in the Map Room at the White House.
"This is an opportunity for the president to speak directly to the people of Arab nations and let them know that the images that we all have seen are shameful and unacceptable," McClellan told reporters during a Bush campaign tour.
Referring to photographs that have surfaced showing Iraqi prisoners being abused McClellan said, "The images do not represent what America stands for, nor do they represent the high standards of conduct that the military is committed to uphold. The U.S. believes in treating all people with dignity and respect."
Asked why Bush would not meet with the Arab network Al-Jazeera, McClellan would only say the other two networks "reach a wide range of people in the Middle East."
McClellan said the actions of the accused soldiers at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq "do not represent what 99 percent of the men and women in the military stand for." (Full story)
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said Tuesday that he would take "all measures necessary" to ensure that abuse of detainees in Iraq "does not happen again."
Rumsfeld defended the Defense Department's handling of the matter in the face of congressional criticism, noting that a criminal investigation by the Army was under way and publicly disclosed three months before what he called "deeply disturbing" photographs were broadcast last week.
"This is a serious problem, and it's something the department is addressing," he said at a Pentagon news briefing. "The system works. The system works."
Rumsfeld said the criminal investigation was one of six launched since January.
More..............
http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/05/05/iraq.abuse.main/index.html


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Apologizing to the Iraqis would be very acceptable to me.
I appreciate that Pres. Bush has now apologized and I'm not belittling that.
Since he is in charge, he not only must apologize, he must accept responsibility. If he had any balls, he'd tender his resignation.
(The uproar and fear that Cheney would step into his shoes would be momentum enough to bounce him right back into being a popular president again, maybe even get him re-elected.)
>"Iraqi soldiers"<
What I saw was an inflamed mob not soldiers.
>"no one cared"<
How can you think that?
>"IMO it was not an apology when Bush told the king of Jordan that he was "sorry for the humiliation suffered by the Iraqi prisoners and humiliation suffered by their families" "<
ITA "sorry" is for for a minor informal "oops" not a formal apology that SB made directly to the people in question, the Iraqis, not a third party.
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