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Iran`s Rafsanjani: Humanity is ashamed by US crimes in Iraq

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Tehran, May 9, IRNA -- Chairman of Iran`s Expediency Council and 
former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani added his voice Sunday to 
the international outcry against a prisoner abuse scandal by US troops
in Iraq, describing their taunting behavior as `abominable`. 
"Humanity feels ashamed by all the corruption, chaos and 
bloodshed, even though boasts of freedom (by US are still there)," the
chairman of the arbitrative Expediency Council said. 
Rafsanjani criticized the International Committee of the Red Cross
(ICRC) for failing to take `appropriate measures against these 
sinister incidents` while being aware of them. 
An ICRC spokesperson has admitted that the committee knew about 
the widespread prisoner abuse by US soldiers at the notorious Abu 
Ghraib jail several months before they were made public. 
"These inhumane methods are among the occupying military`s drills 
in order to crush the morale of the people under occupation," 
Rafsanjani said. 
The gruesome images, picturing US troops obscenely taunting Iraqi 
prisoners were first released by CBS news network in its `60 Minutes 
II` program. 
US President George W. Bush has called the scandal a taint on `US 
honor and dignity`, while stressing that it would not deter the United
States from its mission to establish `democracy` in Iraq. 
The Bush administration and the Pentagon, after keeping silent on 
the disturbing images of abuse being broadcast and printed throughout 
the world`s media, now acknowledge that the worse is yet to come. 
According to Sunday Herald, new, unpublished photographs of 
prisoner abuse in Iraq are believed to include horrific images - this 
time of US male guard having sex with a female detainee and sexual 
abuse of Iraqi detainees. 
"Both the White House and the Pentagon are said to be in a state 
of severe crisis and believe the Bush administration is facing its 
bleakest hours yet, if the images are published," it said on its 
website. 
Irene Khan, the secretary general of Amnesty International, wrote 
to Bush this week, stating that `your government`s record in the 
context of `war on terror` only gives cause for concern as fundamental
principles of law and human rights continue to be violated`. 
BH/AH/210