Iraqis refuse to play ball with Bush

ATHENS 2004/SOCCER: US President George Bush stood accused last night of appropriating the Olympic movement for political means, amid reports he was planning to visit Athens this week to watch some events, including a potential gold-medal bid by the Iraqi soccer team.

According to unconfirmed reports in the US, the White House is examining the security implications of Bush travelling to Greece for Saturday's soccer final. Iraq, whose progress to the semi-finals has been one of the Games' most captivating stories, meet Paraguay tomorrow night for a possible place in the finals.

The Greek foreign ministry confirmed last night the US secretary of state, Colin Powell, will be in Athens for the closing ceremony. But it is the potential presidential visit that will fuel a dispute between the election campaign of Bush and the US Olympic Committee over an advert that links Iraq's and Afghanistan's participation in the Games with the US "war on terror".

The advert, broadcast in the US for the past week, begins with footage from the 1972 Olympics in Munich, during which 13 Israeli athletes were killed by terrorists, and has a narrator saying, "Freedom is spreading through the world like a sunrise. And this Olympics there will be two more free nations and two less terrorist regimes."

As the flags of Afghanistan and Iraq flutter in the breeze, it concludes: "With strength, resolve and courage, democracy will triumph over terror and hope will defeat hatred."

Under US copyright law, only the US Olympic Committee has the right to use the Olympic insignia, images and trademarks for marketing purposes. Initially, the committee reportedly called for the advert to be withdrawn, but its spokesman retreated from that last night.

The committee might want to avoid a confrontation with Bush, but it appears the objects of his affections have no such qualms.

To the embarrassment of their media handlers in Athens, members of the Iraqi soccer team have reacted furiously to the news that their efforts are being used to aid Bush's efforts to win a second term in the White House.

The team's coach, Adnan Hamd, told US-based Sports Illustrated magazine: "My problem is not with the American people. They are with what America has done; destroyed everything. The American army has killed so many people in Iraq. What is freedom when I go to the stadium and there are shootings on the road?"

The midfield player Ahmad Manajid accused Bush of "slaughtering" Iraqis.

"How will he meet his God having slaughtered so many? I want to defend my home. If a stranger invades America and the people resist, does that make them a terrorist?" he said.

Mark Clark, the spokesman for the Iraqi squad in Athens, accused journalists of taking advantage of the players. "They are not very sophisticated politically. Whoever posed these questions knew the answers would be negative. It is possible something was lost in translation. The players are entitled to their opinions but we are disappointed," he said.