Websites call for revenge after Iraqi jail abuse

Jordan Times, Thursday, May 6, 2004

DUBAI (AFP) — Islamic websites were being flooded Wednesday with reports on the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by US guards, with many people calling for revenge against the "new Crusaders." "The Crusaders are back. Where are you Saladin?" asked Khaled Hammam from Chechnya on the site www.ansar.biz , in reference to the 12th century Muslim leader who defeated Europe's Christian invaders.

Internet sites continued to reproduce graphic pictures of prisoners shown naked and in humiliating positions at the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad which were first published April 28 by CBS television.

The pictures are shown with fiery remarks calling for "cleansing the honour" of Muslims.

"The new conservatives, and particularly the gang of (US President George W.) Bush, are enjoying the humiliation of the Muslims," wrote Kuwaiti Islamist Sheikh Hamed Ben Abdallah Ali on www.qal3ah.net.

"You real fighters who are leading the jihad (holy war), continue on the same path, unite under this banner and fight the enemies of Islam," said the Salafist religious leader known for his anti-American stands.

The two sites also published an editorial by the London-based daily Quds Arabi denouncing "the scandalous aggression against Iraqi detainees ... which shows the contempt of the US administration for all Arabs and Muslims."

One internet user, presenting himself on www.alsaha.net as a "resistance" fighter in Iraq, said "our anger and revenge will not be appeased until we pierce the eyes which saw the sexual organs of the Iraqis and until the Americans, British and Israelis are castrated on the banks of the Tigris and Euphratus rivers."

Some users said prisoners were abused to deliver a message to Muslims seeking to take part in the resistance against the United States.

"Publishing these pictures is part of the psychological warfare against Muslims ... just like pictures of Saddam" Hussein, the ousted Iraqi president who was shown on television after his capture in December, said a user on www.ansar.biz.

President Bush was expected to appear on Arab television later Wednesday in an interview with Dubai-based Arabiya, the satellite broadcaster said.

The Washington Times said Bush would give two interviews on Arab television networks to denounce the abuse of Iraqi detainees by US troops.

"This is an opportunity for the president to speak directly to the people in Arab nations and let them know that the images that we all have seen are shameless and unacceptable," the daily quoted White House spokesman Scott McClellan as saying.

Earth, a planet hungry for peace

The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03).

The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers in the West Bank, like a Python (Alquds, 1/25/03.

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