abuses as bad as under Saddam?

After Saddam's alleged weapons of mass destruction were never found, the Bush administration defended the war in part as a move to introduce democracy and human rights in Iraq.

But photographs showing U.S. guards abusing Iraqi detainees in Iraq's infamous Abu Ghraib prison and what Iraqis see as the heavy-handed manner of American troops have made many Iraqis skeptical of Washington's goals.

Last weekend, former interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, a secular Shiite, was quoted by the British newspaper The Observer as saying that human rights abuses in Iraq were as bad as under Saddam and could get worse.

"We are hearing about secret police, secret bunkers where people are being interrogated," he said. "A lot of Iraqis are being tortured or killed in the course of interrogations."