http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/05/01/iraq.prisoner.reax/index.htmlIn Cairo, a spokesman for the Arab League said it had complained of abuses by U.S.-led forces after a mission to Iraq in December. The League feared more cases of ill-treatment were going unnoticed, he said.
"It is beyond the words of despicable acts and disgust that we feel at watching such photographs," Hossam Zaki told Reuters.
"The irony of it is that Saddam Hussein never really held a banner of spreading freedom...He was an autocratic ruler, a dictator, a repressive ruler, whatever you want to call him. It was expected to witness such atrocities under his rule," he said, according to the Reuters report.
"But to have the American soldiers supposedly bringing freedom and democracy and the American way of life to this part of the world, spreading this kind of shameful misconduct, that is an irony that to my taste is very sickening," he said, according to Reuters.
Zaki said the Arab League mission had heard similar accounts of abuse in Iraqi prisons, but did not have supporting evidence. But he said the mission had raised its concerns with the Iraqi Governing Council and the U.S. embassy on its return to Cairo.
"(It) is most likely that there are other cases that have not been photographed," he told Reuters.
"Shame on America. How can they convince us now that it is the bastion of democracy, freedoms and human rights? Why do we blame our dictators then?" asked Mustafa Saad, who was reading morning papers in a downtown Cairo cafe, the A.P. reported.
President Bush Friday expressed disgust at the images, saying the apparent mistreatment of the Iraqi prisoners "does not reflect the nature of the American people. That's not the way we do things in America." (Full story)
Mohammed Hassan Taha, an editor at Nile Sports News Television, said Arabs should not allow the matter to pass quietly, according to the AP dispatch. "This is not humiliation of Iraqis, it is humiliation of all Arabs," said Taha, while buying a newspaper with the photos on its cover.
Dara Nor al-Din, a former judge and member of the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council, said the torture of prisoners and detainees or showing them naked contradicts principles of human rights.
"We used to criticize Saddam's regime regarding the beating of detained people, so why should we accept to repeat the same tragedy. This is not acceptable," Nor al-Din told AP.
At Baghdad's Mustansiriyah University, student Ahmad Taher, 24, asked, "Is this the way the Americans treat prisoners?"
"Americans claim that they respect freedom and democracy, but only in their country," Taher, 24, added.
Hussein al-Saeedi, spokesman for Kuwait's al-Salaf radical Islamic group, said the images "make every sensible person doubt all the principles Western democracies are offering" and show the need for an end to the U.S. occupation.
"America justified its invasion of Iraq by saying the country was under a dictatorship. Unfortunately, Americans are now torturing the Iraqi people in the same place Saddam tortured them," he said.
In Syria, Damascus merchant Sahban Alawi, 45, asked "what's the difference between them and Saddam Hussein? They are doing to Iraq more than what he did."
Iraqis saw the images of abuse via television. Iraq's major newspapers, including those at odds with the U.S.-led occupation, did not publish the photographs, which have been splashed across the pages of Saturday's European publications.
"I can't describe what I felt when I saw those scenes; they revolted me and proved the barbarity of the occupation forces," said Mohammad Salman, a traffic policeman, Reuters reported. "What's the difference between them and Saddam? They are finishing what he started," he said.
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