Detainees were sodomized with night sticks at USA run prison

<snip>HEMMER: Want to continue on this theme now. As each new photo of Iraqi prisoner abuse makes its way into the Arab media, the image of the U.S. becoming darker. Robin Wright covers the Middle East for The Washington Post, our guest now from D.C.

Robin, welcome back here. And I know you've seen the videotape and many more of the pictures, too, on that latest disk. Your reaction to what you saw.

ROBIN WRIGHT, THE WASHINGTON POST: Well, they're horrifying pictures, but I think what is even more alarming and probably will resonate even more in the Islamic world are the accounts from the detainees. Finally, we're getting some kind of explanation of what happened, not just the images but the sequence of events and how these prisoners were treated in a general way, forced to eat pork and alcohol, which are both not acceptable in Islam, sodomized by night sticks. There are a lot of really alarming accounts that were provided to U.S. military interrogators.

HEMMER: Robin, on Wednesday, you wrote a piece in your paper, The Washington Post, talking about a growing fear of failure regarding Iraq. This coming as the meetings were held with Republicans and the president yesterday, talking about a very upbeat meeting with the president. How do we square the images that we're seeing now? WRIGHT: Well, I think it's part of the broader picture, which is one of deep concern, even alarm in Washington, about this critical juncture, less than six weeks left until the transition. And the situation appears to be crumbling in many ways, in terms of the violence, the assassination this week of the president of the Iraqi Governing Council, the escalating violence, these unraveling accounts that are undermining the U.S. image, the confrontation with a man who used to be the U.S. favorite in Iraq, among the Iraqi exiles, Ahmed Chalabi.

more

Don