The head of the U.S. interest section in Baghdad urged Iraq to free two Americans convicted of illegally entering the country and insisted on his right to visit them in prison in the meantime.
The men are "absolutely innocent," Polish diplomat Ryszard Krystosik asserted in an exclusive interview with Associated Press Television. Poland represents the United States in dealings with the Iraqi government.Krystosik said his office "will spare no effort to have their release. We request their release to be immediate."
Iraq was silent Sunday on the eight-year prison sentences imposed on the two men, but Iraqi media carried a barrage of criticism of the United States.
One Iraqi newspaper blasted what it called American "cowboy" foreign policy, and the deputy prime minister rejected a U.S.-backed proposal to permit Iraq to sell more oil to generate revenues to feed its people.
U.S. officials fear that Iraq may view the Americans as bargaining chips in its campaign to end crippling U.N. economic sanctions.
The United States insists the issues are separate, and officials have said they are working hard to gain the men's release.
"We've made very clear that there's no justification for the sentences that were imposed on these two: These were innocent mistakes that were involved here," White House Chief of Staff Leon Panetta said on NBC's "Meet the Press."
David Daliberti, 41, of Jacksonville, Florida, and William Barloon, 39, of New Hampton, Iowa, were detained by Iraqi police on March 13 after crossing the border from Kuwait. Western officials say the men, employees of defense contractors in Kuwait, were trying to visit a friend in the U.N. force that monitors the frontier.
Barloon's wife, Linda, in an interview with The Associated Press in Kuwait, also called on Iraq to release the men.
She said their three children - Bill, 13; Brian, 11; and Becky, nine - "question why their father is being held as a criminal" when his detention was the result of a series of mistakes.
"I'm praying they keep the strength up to deal with it," she said.
Prior to Saturday's court decision, Iraqi officials had linked the Americans' detention to the severe hardships facing Iraq's 18 million people because of the U.N. sanctions, which bar Baghdad from selling oil, its economic mainstay.
The United States and Britain have blocked efforts to lift the sanctions, insisting Iraq must first comply fully with all U.N. Security Council resolutions, including dismantling its weapons programs.
Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz on Sunday rejected a new U.S.-backed proposal which would allow Iraq to sell $4 billion worth of oil annually. Iraq would be permitted to spend half the money on food and medicine, but 30 percent would be earmarked for war reparations to Kuwait and 20 percent for U.N. humanitarian work with Iraqi Kurds.
"This new American project is nothing but a maneuver to deceive international opinion and prolong the embargo," Aziz said in a statement, the official Iraqi News Agency reported.
The Babil newspaper, published by Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's eldest son Odai, on Sunday blasted what it termed a U.S. foreign policy "based . . . on the insight of a cowboy looking out for his own narrow interests."
It repeated Iraq's contention that America wants to prevent Iraq from selling oil as long as possible so that U.S. allies such as Saudi Arabia and Kuwait can market more of their own.
Iraq insists it has complied with resolutions laid down in the 1991 Gulf War cease-fire, and therefore the sanctions should be lifted. The United States maintains Iraq still hides information about its weaponry.
Panetta refused to discuss any conditions that Iraq might attach to the two men's freedom.
"We have made a very firm request that they be released immediately on humanitarian grounds, and we are pursuing a variety of diplomatic channels to ensure that they are released quickly," he said.
Krystosik, the Polish diplomat, told APTV that his office will ask "to extend consular protection to assist them and support" the two Americans.
The action would give the Polish diplomats regular access to the prisoners. If denied, the United States likely would ask a nongovernmental humanitarian group to look after them.
Diplomatic ties between the United States and Iraq were cut after Iraq's August 1990 invasion of Kuwait, and Poland has represented U.S. interests here since then.
Krystosik declined to give any details about the trial Saturday, which he and another Polish diplomat attended as observers.