White House Spars With British Media Over Detainee Abuse Photos

The White House apparently isn't a fan of the British press.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs attacked the British media Thursday after the Daily Telegraph reported that photographs exist of American soldiers abusing Iraqi prisoners, and that the photos include images of rape and sexual abuse.

Earlier this month, President Obama, in a sharp reversal, said he opposed the release of photos said to depict  detainee abuse, because he believes that publishing the images could put American soldiers overseas in harm's way.

The Telegraph article quoted Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba, who oversaw the Abu Ghraib investigation, as saying the photos are authentic and "show torture, abuse, rape and every indecency."

Taguba told online magazine Salon Friday night that he wasn't referring to the 44 photos that are at the center of an ongoing ACLU lawsuit that Obama is fighting but rather the hundreds of images he has reviewed as an investigator.

Gibbs, noting that the Pentagon denied Telegraph report, said, "I will speak generally about some reports I've witnessed over the past few years in the British media -- and in some ways I'm surprised it filtered down.

"Let's just say if I wanted to look up -- if I wanted to read a write-up of how Manchester United fared last night in the Champions League Cup, I might open up a British newspaper.

"If I was looking for something that bordered on truthful news, I'm not entirely sure it'd be the first stack of clips I'd pick up."

Tension between the White House and the press corps is nothing new; the back-and-forth during briefings is par for the course. But Gibbs' broadside against the British press took the animus to a new level.

The Telegraph fired back Friday with two posts, one calling on Gibbs to apologize and the other urging Obama's "attack dog" to "stop pooping on our lawn."

Nile Gardiner of the Heritage Foundation wrote in the newspaper that Gibbs' "completely unwarranted rant against the British press is an absolute disgrace, and the president should disown his views. An unreserved apology by Gibbs is also in order."

"For all its talk of 'raising America's standing' in the world after the Bush years, the Obama administration is doing a spectacularly bad job of reaching out to its allies," he added. "Congratulations Gibbs -- you've just made an enemy out of the entire British media, quite an achievement for the man in charge of selling the president's message."

Author James Delingpole wrote that Gibbs' attack reflected the Obama administration's treatment of Britian, which he says "smacks of a risible ineptitude."

"First, you let President Obama send back the Winston Churchill bust. Then you insult our visiting prime minister with a dismally low-key reception ... and shoddy gifts (those DVDs)" he wrote.

Delingpole warned that insulting the British press was a big mistake.

"So far, you've had a pretty easy ride," he wrote of Obama's treatment by the press. "The Obama Kool Aid has proved almost as popular beverage in Britian as it is in the U.S. But just you wait till we start showing our teeth."