MIDDLE EAST: Arabs were unconvinced by US President George W. Bush's televised pledge yesterday to punish Americans who abused and killed Iraqi prisoners, saying the gesture amounted to too little, too late.
Mr Edmund Ghareeb, a Middle East expert at American University, said: "The symbolism of it is devastating.
"Some of these abuses have taken place at Abu Ghraib prison where some of the worst abuses of the Saddam Hussein regime took place."
The president's Arabic TV offensive came just two days after the state department compiled a devastating survey of media coverage of the Abu Ghraib scandal.
"This Greater Middle East that Washington promises is not a recipe for democracy, openness, freedom and respect for human rights; rather, it's a new formula to guarantee US control . . . and a way to keep all Arab regimes humiliated and subjugated," a commentator in the Palestinian daily, al-Ayyam wrote.
A Syrian newspaper, meanwhile, claimed the prison atrocities represented the "democracy of missiles and the civilisation of Apaches".
The Arab League's ambassador in London, Mr Ali Muhsen Hamid, said he doubted that Mr Bush's remarks would win over Arab viewers.
"They will not be persuaded, because they don't trust the Americans," he said. "There has also been a culture of hate in America since 9/11, and we can't exclude what happened in Abu Ghraib from that attitude."
The first Arabic station to air an interview with Mr Bush yesterday was al-Hurra ("The Free"), which is usually regarded in the region as a US propaganda vehicle, though the president later spoke to al-Arabiyya, a satellite channel with more substantial audiences in the Arab world.
He did not speak to al-Jazeera, the most widely-watched Arabic channel.
US officials often appear on al-Jazeera but the Bush administration has persistently accused it of inaccurate and inflammatory coverage of Iraq. Few Iraqis appeared convinced of Mr Bush's sincerity. At the al-Amir hairdressing salon in Karrada, a busy shopping district in central Baghdad, there was stony silence among the waiting customers as the interview was broadcast.
"Maybe at the beginning some of the Iraqis said we should wait and see if the Americans are going to fulfil their promises. But now it is clear it was all lies," said Mr Mohammed Ali (30), an electrical engineer.
"These photographs of the prisoners are beyond doubt. There is no way now that we will have confidence in the Americans." Mr Dhurgan Khalid (21), an art student, said: "I don't believe what Bush has promised. I don't believe the people that did this will go to jail. I don't even believe they will face justice."
Other ordinary Arabs concurred. "The damage is done," said Palestinian Reem Hosari. "Iraqis lost confidence in the big ideas of American democracy and freedom. Under a democracy these things should not happen at all." "This is not going to wash with the Arab audience," said Mr Jawad al-Anani, former Jordanian foreign minister. "It's a good gesture but he should have publicly apologised."
"Talk is cheap. What's been done has been done and Bush's talking to an Arab network does not make it go away," said Jordanian Jumana Ahmad.