Reports from Iraq on Lion Interrogations More Nuanced Than Rumsfeld Let On

By: Miki Johnson When he hit the press hard for its allegedly too-critical Iraq coverage this past Monday, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld cited a story covered by several U.S. papers and cable news outlets about two Iraqi businessmen who alleged they had been put in cages with lions as one of several interrogation techniques used by U.S. troops.

Rumsfeld said, "The worst about America and our military seems to so quickly be taken as truth by the press, and reported and spread around the world, often with little context and little scrutiny." As one example, he pointed to the lion-interrogation story, which he said was unsubstantiated.

The Washington Post and Reuters ran relatively short pieces Nov. 15, following a press conference held by two businessmen who alleged mistreatment at U.S. military hands, backed by the American Civil Liberties Union and Human Rights First, which are bringing a lawsuit against Rumsfeld and top military commanders in Iraq.

"I think [Rumsfeld's] right, it is unsubstantiated," Scott Vance, Washington Post national security editor, told E&P today, referring to the lion charge. "But we didn't treat it as something that was substantiated."

The Post story, "Abuse Included Use of Lions, Iraqis Allege," did not run on Page One, Vance points out, and its headline purposefully alerts readers to the still questionable status of these claims. Vance also said the reporter, Josh White, was careful to get statements from the Army and Department of Defense. One, from Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman, said in part, "it should not surprise anyone that detainees would make false allegations against their captors."

Jamil Dakwar, an attorney with the ACLU's national legal department, says the allegations are under ongoing investigation and news reports have confirmed the existence of lions as late as July 2004 at the location where the men were held. "We will continue to stand by our client's story," Dakwar said.

The New York Times included the businessmen's allegations in a Nov. 16 story after American troops discovered 173 detainees in the basement of an Interior Ministry building in a Baghdad suburb. Many smaller papers, like the Salt Lake Tribune, ran the Washington Post story, but the lawsuit and torture allegations were picked up more dramatically in the international press, such as the Xinhua in China and Daily Times in Pakistan.