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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GW will be in the White House till 2008 and brother Jeb will be there till 2016 so stop your whining and face reality!
To say that we are "freeing the Iraqi's FROM these men" is a bit of a stretch. Most of them are simply soldiers.
Inhumanity is horrible, regardless of who the perpetrator is - whether it's an Iraqi committing human rights abuses, or an American. It would not be okay for Iraqi soldiers to commit sex crimes against Americans. It's not okay for American soldiers to commit sex crimes against Iraqi's.
Imagine this was a prison inside the US. Imagine that 14 prisoners were killed under suspicious circumstances. Imagine that prisoners in your state prison are forced to masturbate in front of guards while hooded, and their photos are taken. Imagine they're forced to touch one another in a sexual way. Imagine they're told they'll be electrocuted, with wires attached to their hands and penises. Imagine prisoners are stacked on top of one another, hooded & nude while a female guard made fun of them.
Imagine this was happening at some jail in your home town.
It doesn't matter that the convicts in the jail may have robbed an old lady or killed someone. If we decide that guards of prisons can commit sex crimes against prisoners, because the prisoners have undoubtedly done worse, then we have become a nation that needs to be stopped.
I don't want to live in a country where prisoners are treated like animals, regardless of what the prisoners have done.
I want to belong to a more civilized nation than that.
Those responsible should be tried for SEX CRIMES - and be treated as every sex criminal is treated. If one of those soldiers responsible moves next door to me, I want to know exactly what they're capable of, so I can protect my family. These are obviously not sane, responsible people.
And, they should be held responsible for the trouble they've created all of our armed forces. America WILL suffer as a result of the actions of these few.
I want to thank you for expressing my own thoughts so well.
I feel for all the lives lost - the 2500+ lives lost at the World Trade Center - and the 10,000 - 15,000 civilian lives lost in Iraq. The thousands of Afghanistan civilians lost. And all the soldiers, on all sides, who are fighting for what they truly think is right and good.
What really frustrates me, is that many people don't seem to see that if it hurts us as a nation so much to have lost 2,500 people on 9/11, then how much more painful must it be for a nation to be invaded and lose 5 - 6 times that many civilians, including children?
It doesn't matter what country a person is from - I don't understand how an American life can seem so much more valuable than an Iraqi life. A life is a life. The only difference I can see is that WE are the invaders, and it's the Iraqi's who have lost so many babies to this war - our babies are all safe at home.
>"GW will be in the White House till 2008 and brother Jeb will be there till 2016 so stop your whining and face reality! "<
Not whinning..... I'm praying.
Well said!
And
Not whinning..... I'm praying.
Many of those prisoners were not convicted of anything, they were being held for questioning and interrogated to see if they had any information that might be useful. Rumsfeld has admitted that there are videos and more pictures that show sadistic brutality against prisoners. A female prisoner was vedeotaped being raped. By labelling the recipients of abuse as being thugs witht he implication that they are deserving of abuse is an abhorrent rationalization for something that even our president doesn't agree with.
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