A U.S. soldier walks past Iraqi detainees standing behind razor wire at Abu Ghraib

By Ahmad Maher, IOL Staff

CAIRO, May 18 (IslamOnline.net) - The torrent of digital graphic and abhorrent photos of smiling U.S. soldiers sexually abusing and torturing helpless Iraqi prisoners has checkmated the U.S. quest to win "the hearts and minds of the Arabs."

Arabs believe that the psychological scars left by the shocking "pornographic" photos mounted to the ones created by the 9/11 attacks on the Americans. Even more.

"It is more than killing," said Nafisa Zaki, a 62-year-old Egyptian housewife. "The Americans were taken unaware in the September 11 attacks."

"But the torture and raping of our brothers in Iraq are intentional humiliation and insult to the dignity of the entire Arab world. It showed how much hatred they harbored for us. I swear that animals and even devils can't do this."

She stressed that "the breath is poor and speech unable to express our disgust at these photos. When the Americans invaded Iraq, we were saddened. Now we are disgusted."

U.S. President George W. Bush had denounced the misconduct as "abhorrent, shameless and unacceptable" and apologized for it.  

He appeared on Arab TV channels on May 4 in an attempt to regain trust of the Arab world in the aftermath of the abuse scandal, asserting the behavior of few soldiers does not reflect the American culture and values.

Weak Point

The New Yorker said Rumsfeld has authorized the prisoner abuse

Rania Galal, an Egyptian journalist, believes that the U.S. military knew how to "break the staunch will and pride of the Arabs".

She said the Americans have taken advantage of Arab and Muslim taboos of nudity and reverence for a traditional code of ethics.

"They rolled into Iraq with prior knowledge of how to humiliate the Arabs and play on their weak point of honor and dignity."

Jalal went on: "The Americans treated our Arab brothers in Iraq like animals. They were fully aware and even trained in how to bring the Arabs to their knees.

"With all these pictures now unfolded, the torture of Iraqi prisoners has, as far as I’m concerned, dwarfed the 9/11 attacks with its sadistic nature."

The journalist also hit out at U.S. "parrot-fashion" of women's rights in Iraq, saying reports of raping female prisoners and women being forced to expose their breasts are a case in point.

"Needless to say the story of an Iraqi girl called Nour, who was rapped by U.S. soldiers in Abu Gharib and then disappeared without a trail," she said.

Iraqi prisoners who were set free from Abu Gharib prison Friday, May 14, called for issuing an international arrest warrant for U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and his trial over their abuse.

The American New Yorker magazine dropped a bombshell Sunday, May 16, saying the torture was okayed by Rumsfeld.

Taher Mahmmoud, the director of The Noble Qur’an radio station in Somalia, said the Arab world has got the message now.

"This torture is deliberate and intentional, no doubt," he said. "It is done in a disgusting and shocking way. I myself was dumbfounded and can’t look at these pictures."

Drawing a comparison between the 9/11 attacks and the "prisoner attacks", Mahmmoud said Al-Qaeda was not authorized by the Islamic or the Arab world, but those soldiers were given the go-ahead from their commanders.

"I can’t even talk about this pornography with my friends or my family."

In a damning report presented to the U.S. administration in February, U.S. Major General Antonio Taguba found numerous "sadistic, blatant and wanton criminal abuses"  at Abu Gharib prison.

The female U.S. soldier who appeared in many abuse photos admitted that she was "instructed" by her commanders to pose for photographs with naked Iraqi detainees.

Jamal Arafawi, a Tunisian journalist at Al-Sahfa newspaper, thinks "the abuse was conducted by ill-experienced and unprofessional soldiers.

"But I also think that the U.S. intelligence community might have exchanged expertise with Israel’s Mossad on how to extract confessions from prisoners."

He asserted that the Israeli occupation soldiers use the complex significance of honor in the Arab world to interrogate the Palestinians.

New Look

Rania Sherif, a Jordanian-born auditor, said Bush has now his own "sex scandal" and needs a "new look".

"I think that the U.S. president needs now a new look just like actors and actresses to face the world," she said.

Mrs. Sherif, who lives in Cairo, expected the humiliation of Iraqi prisoners, not to mention the U.S.-led invasion, will surely fan out terrorism, citing the beheading of American civilian, Nick Berg, in Iraq.

Ayman Al-Masri, a Lebanese journalist, agreed that the scandal discredited Bush's clichés of spreading freedom and democracy in war-torn Iraq.

"History will not forgive the crimes of the U.S. administration and its army against the Iraqi people and humanity, on the one hand, and Arabs and Muslims in the wake of the 9/11 attacks on the other," he said.

However, his Tunisian colleague, Arafawi, expected Bush to succeed in shining up his tarnished image " thanks to the pro-administration media and homeland security, the catchphrase of his re-election campaign".

"I think the beheading of Berg played well into the hands of the Bush’s lobby," he said.

Arafawi, yet, stressed that Americans should condemn the misconduct of their army as we Arabs strongly denounced the terrorist 9/11 attacks.

"Both operations are against helpless and innocent civilians. They are against humanity irrespective of race and religion.

"It is the dignity of the man, whether being Arab, Hindu, German. The scandal has indeed placed the United States in a tight corner."

On Tuesday, May 18, the U.S. military took a group of journalists on a tour inside Abu Gharib but denied them interviews with the detainees.

Public Apology

Lebanese women hold up copies of the graphic photos in a demonstration

Though Zaki, the Egyptian housewife, refused to place the American people and the administration in one basket, she said the Americans do not care whether to apologize or not.

"Every society, we have to admit, has its own social ills," she said. "But the Americans, nevertheless, know nothing about other peoples. They are indifferent."

"A telling example is the TV footage of Palestinians suffering day in and day out in occupied Palestine at the hands of the Israelis.

"Yet, the Americans don’t give a dam except for a handful of activists, like Rachel Corrie, who had seen the appalling conditions of these people," she added.

Mrs. Sherif now "hates the Americans very much" after the humiliation of the prisoners.

"Because they can topple this president as they live in a real democracy unlike the Arabs.

"There must be a massive popular action against the Bush administration, if the people there are only convinced. Silence will be understood that sodomy, homosexuality, rape, sodomy as normal and regular in their society."

But Rayan Hafez, a Saudi IT specialist, said the Arabs do not need this apology.

"We want the American people to take concrete and crucial steps to pressure their administration and decision makers into changing their aggressive policies in Iraq, Palestine and Afghanistan."

Masri, the Lebanese journalist, said the American people cannot be held accountable for the wrongdoings of members of their government.