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| Seattle-area Iraqis "divided" over photos -- some say Sunni prisoners deserved mistreatment |
| 2004-05-09 |
| by John Iwaski, Seattle Post-Intelligencer Rather amazing to see such sentiments reported in the ultraliberal Post-Intelligencer ("As intelligent as a fence post."). EFL. Hat tip: LGF. The abuse of Iraqi prisoners at the hands of U.S. soldiers draws intense reactions from some who left Iraq to find freedom in Washington state, but prolonged outrage isn’t one of them. While some local Iraqis are bothered by the images, others welcome them. . . . Imad al-Turfy, another Everett resident, shows no sympathy for the prisoners, saying their treatment paled when compared with the horrors inflicted under Saddam Hussein’s regime. "They raped our women. They killed our kids. So there’s hatred between us, the people here, and the people in Iraq," he said, referring to the Shiite Muslims who emigrated and the Sunni Muslims who ruled Iraq under Saddam. "Anything coming to them would make me happy." . . . Al-Turfy said he could "tell a million stories" about Saddam’s abuses: the people who were blown apart by dynamite or thrown off 20-story buildings, or the family that was buried alive in a car in Baghdad. "You can’t imagine," he said. "They killed us like rats. Like anything cheap." So to view photos of prisoners in humiliating positions -- one month after seeing another chilling image, the charred and mutilated corpses of Americans hanging from a bridge over the Euphrates River -- was "worth it, because they did the same to us," al-Turfy said, a comment echoed by several other Iraqis. Mosafer Al-Yaseri, a Lynnwood resident, said that the abuse by some soldiers should not taint the overall efforts of the U.S. Army. "(The Iraqis) feel soldiers come from good families. Over there, there are 135,000 soldiers. Out of that, 10 people are bad," he said. His cousin, Salam Al-Yaseri, said that the images were "not good for the American government or the American people. ... As you know, we are Muslims. This is a very bad thing in our religion. The people that did this did not (represent) the American people." [Hussein Al-Muhanna, who came to the United States in 1993,] said the photos of prisoners were "embarrassing for me." Though at least some of those depicted were loyal to Saddam, "I still do not want the American Army to do that," he said. These people have the right perspective. I suspect, from the polling data I’ve seen reported the last few days, that most Americans do too: the abuse was wrong and should be punished, but it doesn’t taint the whole country and doesn’t mean our project in Iraq is irredeemably lost. One wonders if the media or members of a certain political party will get it eventually. |
| Posted by:Mike |
| #8 Oh, and Shipman is right. Those photos of the flowers all piled up....Sorry I still get a tear. |
| Posted by: Lucky 2004-05-09 1:59:30 PM |
| #7 Well said Badanov. Their really has been no attempt, as far as I can tell, regarding the whowhatwhenwherewhy thing on the photos. Not that any of that shit happened. If the photos were to be used in the winning of the war or to be used in the loseing of the war. A coordinated attack on Rumsfield, even before he testified, even a call for him to step down by my local paper, a Mcclatchy rag, along with calls from outraged dem-enemy congressmems and then a well planned demo at that hearing against Rums, not against the war or it's all about oil. Nope, Rumsfield. I'm not trying to be a conspiracy guy. Just have questions and I'm easily lead. |
| Posted by: Lucky 2004-05-09 1:56:58 PM |
| #6 The photos on Jihad Unspun that depicted a rape by soldiers were right off of a porn site, the rest are likely real. |
| Posted by: RussSchultz 2004-05-09 1:37:45 PM |
| #5 You just mean RC. I think the press did a bang-up job on Princess Di's funeral. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2004-05-09 1:14:23 PM |
| #4 I think in the end this will not be the American media's finest hour, especiually if we find one photo with so much as a single pixel changed. In my 30+ years, the American press has yet to have a good hour, let alone a fine one. |
| Posted by: Robert Crawford 2004-05-09 11:51:29 AM |
| #3 A distinction needs to be made. And as it is, it is not being made. The pr0n photos are released to be as real as the others we know to be real. We know now some photos are faked but we do not know which ondes. My whole argument is that there is a good probability that some of the photoes Rumsfeld is talking about are fake or at least have been planted. I don't want the Pentagon staff traipsing down a road to please American leftists if even one photo is faked or planted. And the photoes that are available that are real, the other 99.999 percent of soldiers who did not commit these crimes deserve to know who took the photos and why, why the deeds were done, who told them to do the deeds and why, and who knew about the deeds and the photos, and who did and did not inform command of these things. And you gotta admit in the passed week no one the press has been prudent about any photos, or any element in this story. They have taken the photos, published them without getting any infromation answering the above, I think, rather critically important questions, before they were published. I think in the end this will not be the American media's finest hour, especiually if we find one photo with so much as a single pixel changed. In fact, I think they need to be hauled before the bar to explain their participation in the disemination of enemy war propoganda. |
| Posted by: badanov 2004-05-09 8:58:54 AM |
| #2 When the people in the photos (the Americans) say they are real I tend to believe them. I have seen nothing to convince me they are faked, especially when Mr. Rumsfeld in his testimony on Friday said he was told back in January there were photographs. There seem to be hundreds if not thousands of photographs as well as videos. The pictures of British and American troops sexually abusing Iraqi women have been proved to be fakes. |
| Posted by: Deacon Blues 2004-05-09 8:43:04 AM |
| #1 Hello? Is anyone in there? Those photos are faked. The have been Photoshopped or run through the GIMP. These photoes appear to be part of a propoganda campaign against our troops. Do not buy into this bullsh*t, please. |
| Posted by: badanov 2004-05-09 8:08:30 AM |