The inside story of what happend re the prisons

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The Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse controversy has stirred a passionate debate in the Arab world about "the war of information" that has raged since before President Bush approved the military campaign that toppled Saddam Hussein.

Arab media outlets with strong anti-U.S. sentiments have used the controversy to voice more opposition to the occupation of Iraq, but the Arab media are not a monolith that sways to one agenda.

Khaled al-Maeena, editor of Arab News, an English-language newspaper in Jidda, Saudi Arabia, withheld publication of the most disturbing of the Abu Ghraib prison photos. "They're distasteful. I don't want to inflame passions, '' he said. "I don't want to see the whole American nation condemned for what only a handful of people did, just as we don't want to have the application of collective guilt on all Saudis because 16 of the 19 (Sept. 11) hijackers came from here."

Al-Wafd, an opposition newspaper in Cairo, published four photos last week purporting to show U.S. troops sexually abusing Iraqi women. The U.S. Embassy in Cairo condemned the publication of the images, which had circulated widely on the Web, saying they were actually staged photos lifted from pornographic Web sites.

Arab TV networks have reported the Abu Ghraib story from all angles -- including ways that U.S. officials would call biased.

On Wednesday, for example, a Jordan TV correspondent ended her report by saying, "London and Washington invaded Iraq on the basis of disarming the country and toppling a brutal dictator, but since weapons of mass destruction are nowhere to be found, the images of Iraqis' torture and abuse by U.S. and British soldiers leave the occupiers with no moral or legal ground."

Statements like this prompted Congress to fund al-Hurra, the U.S.-based Arabic-language satellite network (whose name means "The Free One"). But al- Hurra, which began broadcasting in February, is widely derided in the Arab world, and its audience is tiny in proportion to daily viewers of Al-Jazeera, whose daily audience is estimated at 35 million; Al-Arabiya TV; Abu Dhabi TV; Jordan TV; and about 130 other Arab-language satellite networks that devote at least part of their programming to news.

Amr Abdel Rahman, an Egyptian human rights researcher for the European Commission in Cairo, said, "The Arab media has covered this scandal in a very spectacular way, as if they are happy that they found out finally that the Americans are violating human rights." But Jamal Khashoggi, a media adviser to Prince Turki al-Faisal, Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United Kingdom, said he believes the Arab media have covered the prison story evenhandedly.

"I don't blame the Arab media for making a big deal about this, because it is a big deal," Khashoggi said. "At the same time ... it has been pointed out, even in Riyadh, that Americans and congressmen and the mainstream ... in America are against what happened. The Arab media is not ignoring this. So I think the Arab media is being fair in it how it covers the story."

Hisham Milhem, a Washington correspondent for the Lebanese newspaper As- Safir and a regular analyst on Al-Arabiya, said, "The coverage has been in the spirit of 'We told you so,' because many stories of abuse (at Abu Ghraib) have been circulated before.''

Asad Abukhalil, a political science professor at California State University Stanislaus, said the Arab media are no more biased than U.S. media. He said Al-Jazeera, with its range of talk shows and call-in segments, offers a more diverse range of discussion than its U.S. counterparts. "I think Al- Jazeera is far more restrained, far more serious and far more professional than CNN," said Abukhalil. "It's what CNN should be."

Compared with Western media, Arab-language networks are more likely to show Iraqi civilians who are killed or maimed in Iraq -- described with language that U.S. officials would call provocative.

Jamal Dajani, the producer of WorldLink TV's "Mosaic," which rebroadcasts Arab news segments on satellite television stations in the Bay Area and other communities, said that sort of reporting is not surprising.

"Arab media are going to show the effects of the war, the devastation,'' he said. "On our networks here, we talk about 'coalition forces.' On Arab media, they talk about 'occupation forces.' On CNN (on Friday), they talked about '16 insurgents killed.' In the Arab world, they call them 'resistance fighters.' Those are little nuances. Someone is manipulating something on both sides."

The proliferation of satellite television channels in the region has even made U.S. news shows such as ABC's "Nightline" a must-see, said Arab News' al- Maeena. "For people like me who know English, I'd rather watch Ted Koppel, Peter Jennings and Dan Rather (than al-Hurra)," he said. "We can watch anything, anytime."

Chronicle correspondent Charles Levinson contributed to this report from Cairo.E-mail Jonathan Curiel at [email protected].

British quizzed Iraqis at torture jail even as scandal broke
British quizzed Iraqis at torture jail

· Tories demand Hoon explains when he was told about prisoner abuse
· Whitehall alarmed over report that detainees were hidden from Red Cross

Peter Beaumont, Martin Bright and Paul Harris in Washington
Sunday May 9, 2004
The Observer UK

British military intelligence officers were interrogating prisoners in the notorious Abu Ghraib jail in Iraq even as the first reports of abuses at the prison came to light, The Observer can reveal.

The Ministry of Defence has confirmed that three 'military personnel' were stationed at the prison, outside Baghdad, between January and April this year. Coalition sources in Iraq say MI6 also visited the jail regularly.

The revelations threaten to drag the British government into the heart of the international scandal over coalition abuse at Abu Ghraib. It follows claims in yesterday's Guardian that the humiliating sexual abuse at the jail was consistent with procedures taught to British and American special forces.

An MoD spokesman said the three British military staff were based at Abu Ghraib, but insisted they were unaware of abuses or the US investigation that began in January. The three interrogators interviewed a small number of prisoners with a view to 'gathering information' that could help the coalition. Their work, he said, was consistent with the Geneva Conventions on the treatment of prisoners and responsibility for guarding them remained with the US.

The interrogators arrived at the prison after the abuse was discovered and after investigations began into the allegations. One left the prison in March while the others remained until April.

The disclosure will put fresh pressure on British Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon to clarify when he first heard of allegations of mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners amid claims from the Red Cross that British officials were alerted in November.

The MoD told The Observer that Hoon was not informed of the American investigation into Abu Ghraib and was first alerted to the scandal by media reports.

Shadow foreign secretary Michael Ancram said: 'These new revelations show that it is now imperative that Geoff Hoon or the Foreign Secretary himself come to the House of Commons on Monday to fully explain when he was first informed of the abuses in Abu Ghraib.'

Senior Pentagon sources have also told this newspaper that plans are being drawn up to bulldoze Abu Ghraib within a month in an attempt to assuage Arab outrage at photographs of US sexual abuse of detainees inside the prison.

But the commander of US detention facilities in Iraq said yesterday the US military will continue to run the prison with a reduced population and that if orders are received to close Abu Ghraib, the military would shift the mission to Camp Bucca, south of Basra.

The Red Cross disclosed to The Observer that its president, Jakob Kellenberger, had personally warned three of George W. Bush's most senior officials - National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, Secretary of State Colin Powell and Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz - of widespread abuse tantamount to torture.

Whitehall sources expressed concern last night that the US was transporting prisoners from Afghanistan to Abu Ghraib for interrogation to avoid being overseen by the Red Cross.

Officials are known to be shocked by the findings, contained in a report by Major-General Antonio Taguba, the senior US officer secretly sent to investigate the abuse. According to Taguba's leaked report: 'Various detention facilities operated by military police in Iraq, hosted "ghost detainees" - unidentified prisoners brought to them by "other government agencies".'

Taguba reports that the 320th MP Battalion at Abu Ghraib 'held a handful of "ghost detainees" that they moved around within the facility to hide them from a visiting International Committee of the Red Cross survey team.' He concludes: 'This manoeuvre was deceptive, contrary to army doctrine and in violation of international law.'

British officials believe Abu Ghraib became a secret substitute for the controversial US prison facility at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, which was attracting hostile international attention.

Although Taguba does not refer to foreign prisoners, it is thought that some who might otherwise have been shipped to Guantanamo ended up at Abu Ghraib.

The new revelations came as Bush used his weekly national radio address yesterday to condemn the abuse as 'a stain on our country's honour and reputation' but vowed not to be deterred in America's mission to bring democracy to Iraq.

The revelations also came as Lynndie England, one of the central figures in the abuse allegations, was charged with conspiring to mistreat prisoners, among other charges.

Bush repeated his claim that the abuse 'was the wrongdoing of a few' and should not reflect on the thousands of US military personnel 'who are serving and sacrificing in Iraq'.