Arab networks to interview Bush over Iraqi prisoners abuses

US President George W. Bush will give two Arab networks an interview during which he will condemn the abuses of Iraqi prisoners as "shameless and unacceptable," the White House spokesman Scott McClellan said on Tuesday.

"This is an opportunity for the president to speak directly to the people in Arab nations and let them know that the images that we all have seen are shameless and unacceptable," McClellan said.

"These images do not represent what America stands for, nor do they represent the high standards of conduct that our military is committed to upholding. What occurred was wrong, and it will not be tolerated by America," McClellan said.

McClellan said Bush would conduct two 10-minute interviews with the Al-Hurra television network and the Arab network Al Arabiya.

In a bid to prevent the political fallout of the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by US soldiers in the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad, Bush and other senior US officials have condemned the scandal and said those responsible would be brought to justice.

The New Yorker magazine reported on Saturday that it had obtained a US Army report that Iraqi detainees were subjected to "sadistic, blatant and wanton criminal abuses" at the Abu Ghraib prison.

Those abuses included threats of rape and the pouring of water and liquid from chemical lights on detainees, the report said.

Source: Xinhua