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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http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apus_story.asp?category=1110&slug=Prisoner%20Abuse%20Whistleblower
Sunday, May 9, 2004 · Last updated 4:26 p.m. PT
Friends commend abuse whistle blower
By DAVID B. CARUSO
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
The military policeman who blew the whistle on fellow soldiers who were photographed abusing Iraqi detainees has an independent streak and knew "right from wrong," say people who know him.
Spc. Joe Darby was commended in a military report for promptly alerting superiors after discovering photographs of fellow 372nd Military Police Company personnel taking part in abuse of prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison.
Darby, 24, who is still on duty overseas, "didn't worry about what people thought," said Robert Ewing, Darby's history teacher and football coach at North Star High in Jennings, Pa. "He wasn't one that went along with his peers."
Darby's tip led to an investigation of prisoner abuse that has outraged people around the world and changed the tenor of America's war effort in Iraq.
The military said Sunday that Spc. Jeremy C. Sivits, 24, of Hyndman, also from Pennsylvania, will be the first soldier to face a court martial in connection with the abuse. He faces trial May 19 in Baghdad.
Darby "didn't realize that he had done anything that was super special," said sister-in-law Maxine Carroll. "The way he looks at it, he was just doing his job."
Carroll said the family is concerned some people will view Darby's decision to turn in fellow soldiers as traitorous, rather than heroic, especially in Cresaptown, Md., where he lives and where the 372nd is based.
"It scares you a little," she said.
Friends and former neighbors in Pennsylvania said they are proud of Darby.
"There is just so much violence in the world, and someone has to stop it," said Gilbert Reffner, 50, who lived across the street from Darby when Darby was growing up. "Joe, he did his part."
The family moved to Jenners, Pa., in the early 1990s, neighbors said, in southern Pennsylvania coal country just a few miles from the spot where an airliner hijacked by terrorists crashed on Sept. 11, 2001.
In Jenners, the Darbys probably had a tougher time in the blue-collar town than most. His stepfather was disabled from a construction accident. His mother stayed home to care for his young brother, and money was tight.
Darby worked evenings after school. He attended North Star High in nearby Boswell, then left to study forestry at Somerset County Vocational and Technical High School.
After he married his wife, Bernadette, the couple moved to Virginia, where he worked as an auto mechanic before enlisting.
Reffner described Darby as polite and respectful. He said the family had little money when he was growing up.
"He didn't have much at all," Reffner said. "But he was brought up properly. He was brought up to know right from wrong."
Jennifer Pettitt, mother of a high-school girlfriend, called him a "regular kid," but one who was not particularly concerned with being popular.
"They say he did have a temper. But instead of hitting people, he'd hit towel dispensers in the school bathroom," she said.
Carroll said her brother-in-law does not realize that he probably changed the course of history when he alerted a superior to the photographs of Iraqis being abused.
"We told him we were on our way to New York to do the 'Today' show. He didn't believe it," she said. "I think he kind of thinks we were just putting him on."
cl-nwtreehugger
Community Leader:
They came to power illeagally, they planned to attack Iraq BEFORE Bush was president! They totally ignored public opinion about the war, they (stupidly) thought that they could walk into Iraq and liberate the people. They expected it to be a swift 'job' and that the people of Iraq would thank them. Yes, maybe a few will thank them for thier freedom from Sadams tyranic rule. BUT, there are many who hate America for the sanctions that they imposed on thier country since the last Gulf War. They are hated because the US are bank rolling Isreal...against thier poor arab nieghbours in Palastine. Isreal, with American blessing, are taking thier land and building Jewish settlements.
It is also hypocritical of America to pretend to be sorry for the way that thier troops are treating the Iraqi prisoners, when the human rights of prisoners in thier own prisons are non existant. No amount of appologising will change people's minds...the damage has been done.
Bush and co, along with our own PM...Mr T Blair,have done more to encourage terrorism, than any Tyrant they have tried to depose.
Elaine
That's hardly a fair statement.
Elaine
It's foolish to think that *our* military doesn't have a few bad apples. While ultimately it is the President's responsibility as our leader, it's not reasonable to expect that he can micromanage the entire military.
It isn't micromanagement to expect your leader to demand an immediate investigation of allegations like this and making certain that the problem is fixed immediately.
However, the other party has latched on to this in an attempt to MAKE it political and further their own agenda.
Unfortunately this administration looked at this as a political problem as well.
James
janderson_ny@yahoo.com
CL Ask A Guy
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