US Shrugs off Iraq Civil War, Ghraib Closure Played Down

Islam Online- News Section



"…Iraqi security forces deal with it (civil war) to the extent they're able to," Rumsfeld said. (Reuters)

WASHINGTON, March 10, 2006 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – The United States said Iraq's civil war would be the responsibility of the Iraqi security forces, not the US troops as a leading human rights group rebuked Washington for plans to shut down the notorious Abu Ghraib prison and move prisoners to other detention facilities in Iraq.

"The plan is to prevent a civil war and to the extent one were to occur to have the ... Iraqi security forces deal with it to the extent they're able to," Reuters quoted US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld as telling the Appropriations Committee on Thursday, March 9.

Rumsfeld, along with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, appeared before the Committee to defend the Bush administration's request for nearly $70 billion more for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

Last February, up to 350 people were killed in reprisal attacks on Sunni mosques and people triggered by the bombing attack that destroyed the golden dome of Imam Ali Al-Hadi shrine, one of Iraq's most celebrated Shiite religious sites.

Rumsfeld said that the Iraqi security forces will deal with the civil war once erupts.

"Senator, I can say that certainly it is not the intention of the military commanders to allow that to happen," he responded to Sen. Robert Byrd, a West Virginia Democrat, who asked for assurance that emergency war funds would not be used to put US troops "right in the middle of a full-blown Iraqi civil war."

"And ... at least thus far the situation has been such that the Iraqi security forces could for the most part deal with the problems that exist."

Analysts have questioned how capable Iraqi security forces would be without the aid of US forces and the degree to which they are loyal to the central government.

"Missteps"

"A change of scenery neglects to address the real problem -- the failure to completely safeguard detainees from arbitrary and indefinite detention," Schulz said.

Some US Senators, however, kept skeptical about the situation in the war-torn country.

"You've been telling the American people that the situation in Iraq is not that dire," said Sen. Herb Kohl of Wisconsin.

"But Mr. Secretary, with all due respect and speaking for a majority of the American people, that is hard to swallow. From the beginning, the administration's Iraq strategy has been an amalgamation of misdirection and missteps."

US President George W. President Bush, whose low job approval ratings are partly because of the Iraq war, has refused to set a timetable for the troops to come home.

He said that US forces can be withdrawn from Iraq as Iraqi security forces take over security.

Army Gen. John Abizaid, who oversees US military operations in Iraq, said the security situation in Iraq was changing "from insurgency" – a US term for the Iraqi resistance - towards "sectarian violence."

He, however, said that the situation was controllable by Iraqi security forces and US-led foreign forces.

Earlier, Rice's testimony was interrupted by a protester who shouted "blood is on your hands" and "how many of you have children going to war?"

Another protestor also shouted "Fire Rumsfeld. Fire Rumsfeld. This is an illegal and immoral war."

Three years after selling the Iraqi war to the Bush administration and American public, a number of influential neo-conservatives admitted on Thursday, March 9, Iraq was now more dangerous than before the invasion-turned-occupation.

"Change of Scenery"

Meanwhile, Amnesty International slammed the new US plans to shut down the notorious Abu Ghraib prison, saying the plans were "little more than a new paint job," Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

"A change of scenery neglects to address the real problem -- the failure to completely safeguard detainees from arbitrary and indefinite detention," William F. Schulz, executive director for Amnesty International USA said.

"Rather than being moved to a better facility, detainees held by US-led Multinational Forces (MNF) must be given an opportunity for a meaningful judicial review.

The US military said on Thursday that it plans to shut down the notorious prison and transfer prisoners to other jails in Iraq.

"We do have plans and are in the process of building other facilities to move detainees who are under US control out of Abu Ghraib," US General Peter Pace said.

Amnesty said that detainees must know why they were being held and if charged, given fair trial.

The US military is holding about 14,500 detainees in Iraq, 4,500 of whom are held at the Abu Ghraib prison.

An Amnesty report on Monday, March 6, said that the arbitrary US detention in Iraq has been a recipe for abuses against detainees.

The Abu Ghraib prison gained further notoriety under the US occupation when it was revealed that US forces had abused Iraqi detainees there in 2003.

Pictures of the abuse, including some showing bloodied and naked prisoners smeared with excrement or forced to perform sexual acts, stoked anti-US sentiment across the world.