UK News 21-01-2005 Britain`s Shame who: Tony Blair what: Says he is disgusted by photographs of British soldiers abusing Iraqi detainees when: This week snippet: "The vast majority of those 65,000 British soldiers who have served in Iraq have done so with distinction, with courage and with great honour to this country," Tony Blair claimed on Wednesday following the publication of harrowing photographs of British soldiers abusing prisoners in Iraq. "So whilst we express in a unified way, I know, our disgust at those pictures, I hope we do not allow that to tarnish the good name, fully deserved, of the British armed forces." That sentiment was not shared by terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who claimed responsibility on Thursday for a suicide bombing at a British army base near Basra, which injured five soldiers. "This operation is in response to the harm inflicted by British occupation forces on our brothers in prison," he claims, quoted in Friday`s Mirror. The 22 pictures came to light at a court martial hearing in in Osnabrück, Germany, where, explains The Scotsman, three soldiers went on trial "accused of degrading and humiliating suspected looters, making them simulate sex acts for the camera as well as tying them up and simulating beatings of them". "L/Cpl Mark Cooley, 25, trussed up an Iraqi man in cargo netting and dangled him from the tines of a fork-lift truck which he then drove about," says The Telegraph. The alleged crimes took place in in May 2003. "The court was told the incidents occurred following an attempt by Major Dan Taylor, the officer in charge of the men, to end an `epidemic` of looting at the end of the war. The warehouse was part of Camp Breadbasket, which was full of international food aid and a target for looters." "The three accused based their not guilty pleas on claims that they were ordered to `work the prisoners hard`," says The Independent. What they did to achieve this end came to light when a 20-year-old fusilier, who was convicted of a number of charges by a court martial last week, handed a film to shop assistant Emma Louise Blackie at a photography store in Tamworth, Staffordshire. When she saw the pictures, she called the police. Meanwhile, 36 year-old Charles Graner Jr began his ten-year sentence for the abuse of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison on Saturday at Fort Hood, Texas. "Graner was accused of stacking naked prisoners in a human pyramid," recalls The Mirror. "He allegedly punched one man in the head hard enough to knock him out, and struck an injured captive with a collapsible metal stick. He was shown in one photo giving a thumbs-up sign next to a body packed in ice." The Guardian says The Pentagon "plans to put at least 20 more US troops before military courts for abuse of detainees". In other Iraq news, the 66-year-old Archbishop of Mosul, who represents the Syrian Catholic Church, was kidnapped by insurgents on Monday but released after 24 hours. The Times says "at least eight people were killed and 38 wounded when a car bomb exploded outside a Shia Muslim mosque in Baghdad before Friday prayers"; and The Guardian reports that UN election official Carlos Valenzuela has pledged that the nationwide election will go ahead next week despite the continued violence. [... more]

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