ATHENS, May 6 (UPI) -- The Rev. Jesse Jackson says his mission to negotiate the release of Americans held hostage in Iraq has been undermined by the maltreatment of Iraqi prisoners.
Jackson spoke by telephone to a talk-radio station Wednesday from Athens, Greece, where he is meeting with Islamic religious leaders who have contacts in Iraq. He said he had not been in contact with the U.S. State Department.
"If I were to go to directly to Baghdad I would, but meeting with these religious leaders does not require that," Jackson told Cliff Kelley in an interview on WVON-AM, Chicago.
He said photographs of U.S. troops abusing Iraqi prisoners and the presence of thousands of armed private contractors functioning as hired security in Iraq only makes the job of freeing captured Americans harder.
"They are in fact playing the role of mercenaries and soldiers of fortune, at the same time," said Jackson. They are totally unaccountable."
Jackson has won the release of U.S. captives in Syria, Cuba, Iraq and Yugoslavia in the past.
