Iraq's rocky transition

Insurgents may try to stop the Arab summit in Baghdad by raising fear and concerns about stability and security, but their efforts will fail to derail Iraq's progress, a reader says. Other letter topics today: punishments for rapists. FBI entrapment and mixed messages on the road.

The bombings in Iraq this week were aimed at disrupting the upcoming summit, a reader says. Khalil Al A'nei / EPA

I refer to your article Rapist who posed as modelling agent jailed (March 21). Two criminals take turns raping a woman and all they get is three years of losing their freedom of movement and then deportation to Pakistan?

Does that seem to be much of a deterrent to future rapists and what is the message being sent out? Is that all that a woman's modesty is worth today?

Or is that because a man cannot understand a crime as horrific as rape and hence passes such unfair sentences? Trust me, to those women, the pain of being sexually violated by rape is beyond imagination.

Let a woman, or better still a victim, handle laws regarding punishments for rapists. I shall eat my words if she would settle for anything less than a death penalty for this heinous crime.

Also, how safe are the poor women in Pakistan going to be once these criminals are released back there?

It would be a good move if authorities released crime figures to the public, at least it would shame people to do something about breeding such criminals within their communities.

F Basleim, Abu Dhabi

Put an end to FBI entrapment cases

I found FBI accused of entrapping the foolhardy (March 21) to be very interesting.

I am a huge fan of movies and reading your news story made me feel as if I was reading the script of a movie by some outspoken film director such as Michael Moore, David Lynch and Steven Spielberg.

The legacy of September 11 is something we have been living with and we are at times surprised by how far the US government is allowed to go.

There have been numerous stories about the FBI's controversial use of informants and of undercover agents and I simply hope that Amine El Khalifi has not been entrapped by the feds or seduced by the informants.

Ayse Arzu Caglayan, Turkey

Your news story makes me think that it is totally acceptable to arrest people who are allegedly attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction or plotting to carry out a suicide bombing against federal property. However it is insane to force people to commit these sort of criminal activities.

Psychologically unstable, jobless and homeless people are easy to deceive and it makes more sense to deport such people once their illegal status is identified.

The tiniest possibility that the man would simply have been complaining about his misfortunes in life if he had not been FBI-encouraged from January 2011 to February 2012 and destined to do evil deeds in return for martyrdom is terrifying.

Blowing up the Capitol building in Washington DC and killing thousands of innocent people is not to be tolerated or welcomed for sure but turning lunatics into extremists and giving them weapons, encouraging them and arresting them accordingly is not wise politically, financially or ethically.

Ali Sedat Budak, Abu Dhabi

Iraq violence must not stop Summit

I refer to your news story violence on the rise in Iraq ahead of summit (March 21). The attacks were not totally unexpected.

As some of my Iraqi friends have said, Al Qaeda and its Sunni sympathisers will try to stop the summit by raising fear and concerns about stability and security in Iraq.

I think that domestic and foreign officials should not be afraid of these cowardly attacks but instead contribute to the move towards normality in Iraq after years of war.

All these checkpoints, roadblocks, forced-holidays for governmental and other precautions to provide safety and security to the guests sound highly provocative and challenging for the insurgents. Gabriela Lombardi, Abu Dhabi

Mixed road signals confuse motorists

In the front page article Only one more day of wind and cold, forecasters say (March 21) reads: "Police are reminding drivers to use hazard lights ..."

I have lost count of the number of times we have all been reminded in this newspaper by various "experts" not to use hazard warning lights in foggy/reduced visibility conditions.

How about some clarity or even consistency of opinion?

It is almost universally recognised that use of hazard warning lights should be restricted to when the vehicle is stationary, or nearly so.

So where are we with this advice from "the police"? Is it correct or not?

Brian Martin, Dubai

Editor's note:The report incorrectly stated that "hazard lights" should be used in conditions of low visibility. It should have read "fog lights".