People in Glass Houses.

international | anti-war / imperialism | opinion/analysis

Monday May 10, 2004 21:04

by Righteous Pragmatist

Arab leaders "outrage" at abuse of prisoners.

Arabs who express outrage over America's treatment of Iraqi prisoners should re-examine their own brutal tactics.

Revulsion at the revelations of prisoner abuse by American forces in Iraq has spread faster than hot sand in the dry desert wind. No one has expressed the outrage with more horror than the American people. No one, that is, except the leaders of the Arab world.

Both Americans and Arabs are fully justified in their disgust. Yet the reactions of some Arab leaders might qualify as humorous if the deeds of the jailers were not so sickening and their consequences so disastrous. Indeed, some of those expressing shock and horror at the very thought of prisoner mistreatment are governments whose use of torture is routine in countries where human rights organizations have repeatedly reported the torture of prisoners is "endemic" and "widespread."

Should the United States be held to a higher standard? You bet. This is one case where the double standard is justified because the United States entered Iraq on a mission deliberately hued with high moral goals.

And yet when dictatorships that have stayed in power for decades declare themselves shocked - shocked! - at the mere idea that a prisoner might be mistreated, there is little question that the outrage is little more than a hollow pantomime. The charade by these suddenly incensed regimes follows a familiar script: Find someone outside the regime to blame and turn the populations' attention away from the problems at home, thereby turning domestic rage away from the oppressive regime.

Throughout the Arab world, from Saudi Arabia to Egypt and Syria - countries where a call for democracy can land you in jail - government officials and regime-controlled newspapers have spoken of their deep disgust at what they have seen.
Amr Mousa, the secretary-general of the Arab League and former foreign minister of Egypt, declared his "shock and disgust" at the "shameful images" of the naked prisoners. Shock and disgust somehow eluded him during his many years of service to a dictatorship that tortures opponents of the regime, according to reports of major international human rights organizations. Some of the people subjected to detention and brutal beatings last year, as documented by Human Rights Watch and others, were opponents of the war in Iraq.
Perhaps it was the Iraqi victims' nakedness that, as we are repeatedly told, has brought so much consternation to the sensitivities of the Arab people. To be sure, there are cultural differences between the Arab world and the West: According to Human Rights Watch, for example, homosexual men have been entrapped, arrested and tortured by Egyptian security forces.

Syrian government newspapers also expressed horror at the mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners. This from a country with a decades-old dictatorship that has killed thousands upon thousands of its citizens and where, just three months ago, a local group reported that political prisoners in government custody suffer unspeakable treatment that often leads to serious injury or death.

At the United Nations, condemnation of the Iraqi prisoner abuses came from none other than the Arab-dominated government of Sudan, a genocidal regime that has made killing its own citizens state policy, slaughtering Christians in the South and aiding in massacres of non-Arab Muslims in the West.

Torture of prisoners is hardly shocking in many Arab countries, no matter what leaders with a newfound love for human rights now proclaim. In fact, the same governments that today so deeply feel the suffering of Iraqi prisoners found little to complain about in the grotesque abuses of Saddam Hussein's regime. The techniques that left hundreds of thousands of Iraqis in mass graves and kept torture chambers stained with human blood did not cause much consternation among Arab leaders.

We hold Western democracies to humanitarian and democratic principles, as we should. But regimes that use torture as a normal part of their efforts to keep their stranglehold in power, as do many in the Middle East, are highlighting their own violations by speaking out against the outrages at Abu Ghraib.

They should speak up, surely. And later, when the storm over Iraq quiets, they should examine their words as closely as their own people will.

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Comments (7 of 7)

No excuses

by kokomero

Mon May 10, 2004 21:44

Get your own American house in order before you attempt to lecture others. The comparison with other nations is irrelevant as none of them attempt to impose their systems worldwide as do the Americans. The only thing the Americans have succeeded in spreading worldwide for the past century is chaos and self-interest. The American track-record is one of never finishing a job. You've started the job of bringing democracy and self-determination to Iraq, well now you'll have to finish it. Don't bother coming back to this forum boring us until you've finished either!

by Dermot L

Mon May 10, 2004 22:30

Surely a fair enough argument? Inhumane treatment of prisoners anywhere ought to be condemned and many countries in the Arab world have horrific records of human rights abuses.

they're not in the glass house anymore.

by iosaf the ipsiphi - a la victoire toujours, toujours, tous les jours

Mon May 10, 2004 22:37

In 1791 the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizens was drafted by the French Assembly two years after the Revolution.

On December tenth 1948 in the Palis de Chaillot in Paris, the United Nation's General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

in 2001 on M11, the Information Office of the State Council of the People's
Republic of China issued a long list of human rights abuses by the USA in that year alone.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2002-03/11/content_310843.htm

in 2002 Mary Robinson former President of Ireland resigned as Commisioner for Human Rights of the UN on the grounds that her work was systematically hindered. (She didn't say it was the Chinese).

in 2003 Singapur tabled a motion to expel the USA a founder member from the Human Rights Council for abuses. Despite having one of the worst records in these things. It was passed (with glee).

if you goto this web page:-
http://www.un.int/usa/
you will find the office of the USA mission
to the UN. If you search human rights, you will find no mention of the US explusion, instead to match the theme of the week you will find catalogued, the human rights abuses in Cuba.
You will also see a photo of Bush (whom you will recognise) with an official (whom you might not have got used to yet). This is the man who was the responsible for designing the proposed new Iraqi flag, (illustrated in my sunday papers), he is now thought to have replaced Bremmer in all but title. (The real reason for Osama's kgs of gold taunt for Bremmer's head this last week)
But for some reason they go on referring to him as an "official" only.

Not only do they have no sense of humour in Dixie, they can't keep anything secret either.
Long past time we called in the contract and broke it up along pre-arranged lines as painlessly as possible.

eh?

by pc

Tue May 11, 2004 00:33

so america aren't in or don't abide the international declaration of human rights?

People In Glass houses Should Throw Stones

by Righteous Pragmatic

Tue May 11, 2004 05:24

I am an American and outraged at our military's actions. Before you get too comfortable slamming us look around you. For years Ireland has spent time and energy fighting each other. Torture and brutality is a way of life in some neighbor hoods. How many of you sold out to the crown? So don't hold your nose too high we all have our problems. Sweep around your own front door before you attempt to sweep around ours. You are right "people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones."

Geri McGill
USA

missing from the list

by bk

Tue May 11, 2004 07:25

the line taken in this post is becoming a common right-wing response to the charges against the american military machine: "how dare the arabs speak up against u.s. torture?" this makes sense except for three points: 1) the response from the arab regimes, and from their state media, has been notably muted, in large part, one guesses, because while they don't mind a bit of venting, they don't want to conjure up outrage that would threaten their own rule; 2) there is nowhere, never, any mention of israel among the list of middle east torturers, even though it is clearly the most obvious, habitual and unapologetic offender, and EVEN THOUGH it is beginning to emerge that israeli intelligence was directly involved at abu ghraib (see today's counterpunch); 3) the corrupt arab dictatorships, all of which have a history of brutal repression, are dependent on, have been supported financially and militarily (and one guesses, sold torture technology by) none other than the united states, for at least a half century.

"Vee haff no bananas today": Counterpunch article on Israeli involvement in Abu Ghraib

Tue May 11, 2004 09:57

The Israeli Torture Template
Rape, Feces and Urine-Dipped Cloth Sacks

By WAYNE MADSEN

With mounting evidence that a shadowy group of former Israeli Defense Force and General Security Service (Shin Bet) Arabic-speaking interrogators were hired by the Pentagon under a classified "carve out" sub-contract to brutally interrogate Iraqi prisoners at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison, one only needs to examine the record of abuse of Palestinian and Lebanese prisoners in Israel to understand what Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld meant, when referring to new, yet to be released photos and videos, he said, "if these images are released to the public, obviously its going to make matters worse."

This seems all the worse because "apparently" since 1999 such methods have been outlawed by the Israeli authorities at home:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/439554.stm

I say "apparently" because a report by Physicians for Human Rights-Israel says they were still at it in 2003:

http://www.aljazeerah.info/Opinion%20editorials/2003%20Opinion%20Editorials/November/21o/Torturing%20Palestinian%20Prisoners%20in%20The%20Russian%20Compound%20Between%20the%20Banana%20and%20a%20Night%20on%20the%20Floor.htm

Finally an Israeli soldiers testimony:

http://www.bsos.umd.edu/gvpt/oppenheimer/100/gaza.htm

It would seem that not only the US/K occupation stormtroopers should keep quiet when it comes to preaching about human rights!

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Comments (7 of 7)