Abuse Photos Include Images Of Rape And Sexual Assault: Report

The Pentagon on Thursday denied the Daily Telegraph report that photographs of Iraqi prisoner abuse, whose release U.S. President Obama wants to block, include images of apparent rape and sexual abuse.

Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said the newspaper had shown "an inability to get the facts right."

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs also dismissed the report.

"I want to speak generally about some reports I've witnessed over the past few years in the British media. And in some ways, I'm surprised it filtered down," Gibbs said. "Let's just say if I wanted to look up -- if I wanted to read a writeup today of how Manchester United fared last night in the Champion's League cup, I might open up a British newspaper. If I was looking for something that bordered on truthful news, I'm not entirely sure it'd be in the first pack of clips I'd pick up."

* * * * *

LONDON (AP) -- A former U.S. general said graphic images of rape and torture are among the photos of Iraqi prisoner abuse that President Obama's administration does not want released.

Retired Major Gen. Antonio Taguba, who oversaw the U.S. investigation into the abuses at Abu Ghraib prison, told Britain's Daily Telegraph in an article published Wednesday that he agreed with Obama's decision not to release the pictures.

"I am not sure what purpose their release would serve other than a legal one and the consequence would be to imperil our troops, the only protectors of our foreign policy, when we most need them," Taguba was quoted by the Daily Telegraph. "The mere description of these pictures is horrendous enough, take my word for it."

Two Obama administration officials didn't immediately respond to e-mail requests for comment Wednesday night.

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The prisoner abuse scandal at Abu Ghraib exploded after photos taken by soldiers appeared in 2004.

According to the Telegraph, the new photos depicted much more serious abuses than previously documented.

One photo reportedly showed an American soldier apparently raping a female prisoner and another was said to show a male translator raping a male detainee, the Telegraph reported.

It was not immediately clear from the report who had seen the photos or how they might have been obtained.

The Telegraph said the photos relate to 400 cases of alleged abuse between 2001 and 2005 at Abu Ghraib and six other prisons.

The newspaper said the images in the photos were backed up by statements from Taguba's report into prisoner abuses at Abu Ghraib obtained under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act.

Comments

[conniedogs]

YES WE CAN.......­but it doesn't mean we're going to! Now that's change we can believe in.

[ChelseaC]

Connie,
I hope not but you might be right.....­..........­...

[Mollabaji]

Pentagon lies, as usual. I saw the photos of rapes of men and a woman by Ameican soldiers. You can see them too. go to Press Tv and watch American "values" and "way of life" at work! Aren't we all soooooo proud of our soldiers fighting for freedom _to rape and torture_?

[sisterdebmac]

They claim all that stuff you saw is a hoax.

[ChelseaC]

Careful. Don't lump all soldiers in with these dirtbags.

[confidance government]

This is intolerable; not whether the photos are being publicly released (I have no desire to see that those twisted scene), but rather that there is no push for any type of investigation into these abuses with appropriate legal action taken to root out and punish these practices. If we hold nobody to account, these abuses will only become more widespread and frequent. I don't want a kangaroo court, but this is an affront both to justice and to every American.

Obama, stop covering for your predecessors. Bipartisanship is great, but the demands of justice are more pressing.

[ReedYoung]

A Google search for "petition torture prosecute" just returned 563,000 results and ACLU reported on April 23, a "quarter million" signatures to their petition to Eric Holder to appoint a special prosecutor.
http://www.aclu.org/safefree/torture/39446prs20090423.html

Also, I urge you to be very skeptical of corporatist, old media claims that the public does not strongly support torture investigations. In truth, they found the support quite strong in February, then started asking overly specific questions, and returning only partial results, whose effect is to deceptively and falsely dishearten supporters of justice.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/28/bush-defends-torture-the-_n_208912.html?show_comment_id=24915406#comment_24915406

First, the CNN and CBS stories claim broadly that the public does not support investigations, implying we do not support *any* investigations. Several sentences or even paragraphs into their disingenuous stories, they do finally specify *Congressional* investigations, but publish no data on public opinion about any other kind of investigations, such as by a special prosecutor, which is really what the law prescribes.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/04/27/opinion/polls/main4972844.shtml http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/05/06/poll-dont-investigate-torture-techniques/]

[Quattro]

Can anyone tell me any difference between Bush and Obama? I voted for Obama because he promised transparency. Now its same old same old. Money for union contributors, wall street, and now hiding the truth. Change m_Y a_ s.

[sofeisty]

Obama becomes complicit in the cover-up. These are being covered up not to protect the troops or the country but to protect the powers that be. First, to protect the Bush administration from possible war crime tribunals or investigations not only in the US but in world courts as well. The Obama administration does not want to be in the position of deciding whether or not to investigate and/or prosecute the Bush Administration. It would rather take the hit for perpetuating the cover up rather than open the pandora's box that would be the aftermath of the truth becoming known.

Frankly, the crimes are horrific enough but I find the cover-up and refusal to hold the guilty accountable reprehensible. After all, we Democrats were outraged when the Republicans pushed and pushed and eventually succeeded in impeaching the President over something so pointless as a stained dress and a lie...

and yet, we are going to allow a Democratic president to sit on the truth about a previous administration's war crimes? How hypocritical are we? We are complicit as well if we do not demand that the president Democrats elected find out the truth and respond accordingly in a transparent and authentic manner.

[C65]

I too,was appauled that a President was impeached on personal behavior,that
had nothing to dfo with his duties,but I am in agreement with the President,I
had a grandson who was recently discharged from his service to his country
and If he were to return,as there are so many of our serviceman/woman,I
would hate for him to be in DANGER,if captured of such retaliation by his
capturers.­As God said;"there is a time and season".No­w is not the time,nor
the season,WHILE WE HAVE OUR YOUNG MEN/WOMEN FIGHTING A WAR
OF CHOICE.
Please PRAY!!!

[Chace Haynes]

Sorry...bu­t the danger is withholding info that we already know exists. Obama is putting the troops at more risk by denying the transparency, he promised to bring. The entire middle East is quit aware, and daily sees on its news the horrific things we are doing. This war is ILLEGAL and everything we do there is born of that crime. Americans just do not want to be confronted by a reality that would force them to take action in their own lives.

[Chace Haynes]

Well said!

[ChelseaC]

It crazy we are not having a special investigator look into these crimes and prosecute. I think what's going on here is Obama is afraid Dems are involved too--well, TOO BAD!
Look at the way Republicans went after Clinton for lying under oath!They didn't back down and if the shoe were on the other foot the Repugs would nail Dems to the wall on this.

Was Clinton wrong? Yes. He should have never lied--just admit to the affair and shrug it off. But his lying under oath is NOTHING compared to what Bush and company has done.

When are the Dems going to grow some balls and stand up for justice?

[rabiddog6708]

The US Constitution 1787 - 2009 R.I.P.

[confidance government]

I think it actually died with the Patriot Act; this is just confirmation that the flowers at the tombstone have wilted.

[Byrd8]

The military police or MPs running these prisons and committing these abuses today will be the police officers patrolling your streets tomorrow. That's a fairly standard career path for these people. Good luck to any civilian who encounters one of these sadistic criminals. These people committing atrocoties need to be identified and incarcerated, else their actions along with their superiority attitudes will carry forward when they return to civilian life.

[Chace Haynes]

Let us remember that these men are acting out a much bigger policy, that starts at the top, and trickles down. Top brass bear the weight of the responsibility, and they must be held to account.

[Byrd8]

Every soldier, Marine, airman or sailor has an obligation and duty to disobey unlawful orders. Those who go along with this torture are obviously lacking in their sense of morality and are just as guilty as those who gave the orders in the first place. The soldiers in Viet Nam who killed civilians at Me Lai on the orders of Calley were equally guilty of murder. Those who actually perform the tortures need to be identified and purged from the armed forces. They should never again be allowed to serve in an occupation that gives them control over others, especially as police or corrections officers.

[confidance government]

Trickle Down Justice?

[ChelseaC]

Byrd,
Good point.

[AsianAfricanAMERICAN]

test

[Angelic11]

massive censoring today

[ash711]

As a lifelong democrat, now independent, all this torture talk and do-gooder ideas about coming clean is so much BULLSHIT. I want all those who talk about AIRING OUR DIRTY LAUNDRY to realize that a million mom's and dad's have sent their 18-22 year old children to fight this war and you want to do more to enrage the Muslim population with this stuff. Their are so many uneducated people who are going to join the fight and get more of our troops killed. I think we should reinstitute THE DRAFT and get all TORTURE MORALIST TO VOLUNTEER. Suicides of soldiers is going thru the roof, PTSD and alcoholism is rampant, jobs are scarce, and we want to COME CLEAN. Please send your son or daughter to Iraq and Afganistan for 6 months and see if you want to push for openness about Abi-Garib and torture. We are just increasing the recruitment of new Muslims to the cause and we will NEVER WIN. Obama needs to get out of Irag now, do more to stabilize Pakistan so the NUKES are protected, but don't have too many boots on the ground that can and will be killed. We have so many big p[icture issues and we want to talk up torturing a few hundred people. The soldiers are going thru enough, so lets make their life easier. I know that if a draft was in place, the troops would be home very soon.

[realpolitic]

What is increasing the recruitment of new Muslims to the cause of extremism is the fact that we torture and mistreat prisoners and not the subsequent photos of it.

[QUO-VADIS]

Bull, their were many extremists before and there will be more in the future with or without photos. You can blame a few on the photos but who's to say That was the only reason. There were no pictures in the 80's, 90's and into Sept 11. But there was plenty of bombings and killings and recruiting going on.

[Hopeforward]

Airing our dirty laundry? don't you realize this is already known throughout the world?

The way to STOP the madness is to show the world the United States does not condone torture and bring those that authorized and were involved, from the bottom all the way to the top to justice.

We are the United States of America, not a third world country.

[ash711]

The fact is we are worse then a third world country. We have 2.5 million people in our prisons and many are on 23 hour lockdown. We TOUTURE EVERY DAY in the prison system where prisoners are treated worse then dogs but at the same time gangs run the place so your 6 months in prison can get you KILLED. You have a corrections system that is corrupt and will LOOK THE OTHER WAY if someone wants to put a HIT ON YOU. If you think you will never end up IN THIS HELL just drive with a .08 alcohol level(3 or 4 drinks) and get into a minor accident that is not your fault, you will be charged as a hardened criminal. DUI laws, Domestic Violence laws, and Drug laws are the original TERRORIST THREATS to the American way. In California, we are spending $47,000 a year to house a inmate and 10 billion a year on the prison system, while only 12 billion is spent on 3 million students in the University system. Today the local news stated that the state run Poison Control Hotline that costs 5.5 million to run will be eliminated due to the budget deficit. While the other 49 states have a Poison Control Hotline #, California will not by September. And people want to talk about torture??

[ChelseaC]

thank you.

[Chace Haynes]

THIS IS AN ILLEGAL WAR. International law mandates that these crimes be exposed and prosecuted. Suicides are through the roof because of the policies that were instituted to torture and degrade these victims. Until this is brought to justice, these policies continue to haunt our service men and women. We are talking about precious lives, on both sides, and the future of our country and its reputation are hanging by a splintered thread.

[sisterdebmac]

Do you not understand that they've already seen these pictures? They already know the evil that was done in America's name. What they're waiting for now is to see what the American people do now that WE know. Do we demand that our squeamish government prosecute the criminals ---- no matter how high up they go --- who did these horrible things and have already inflamed their rage? Do you not understand that if we just bury this, the will bury US?

[ash711]

I want to understand what effects average Americans more:

1. The fact that every first world country has NATIONAL HEALTH CARE while we don't.

2. The fact that WHITE COLLAR CRIMINALS ON WALLSTREET have destroyed the savings of average americans and nearly destroyed the World Financial System. That these same people are being BAILED OUT to the tune of trillions of dollars and there is not enough outrage at that. Congressional democrats bailed out Goldman Sachs, JPM Chase, and Morgan Stanley.

3. What is the Government doing to reign in Hedge Funds and Investments banks manipulation of the oil market so prices went to $150/barrel. The Futures Market for oil and commodities was manipulated for obscene profits.

4. What are we going to do when Hedge Fund manager John Paulson makes 3.7 billion for himself in 2007 by Credit Default Swap bets and then only pays 15% tax due to favorable treatment with the tax code. This has nothing to do with Capitalism and everything to do with STEALING.

5. Our Education system is failing 50% of the people and I don't blame the teachers but a system where American kids are realizing that they have very little JOB OPPORTUNITIES DUE TO OUR GOVERNMENTS WAR ON THE MIDDLE CLASS.

6. The real terrorists is our UNJUSTICE SYSTEM and its endorsement of crazy DUI and Drug laws to fleece Americans savings. And on and on...

[Irishkali]

If you want to face what the American government is doing, watch this documentary: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5aNGsJmBWQ

I for one think that the photos should be released. Everybody needs to take a good hard look at these photos and realise that this is WRONG, since apparently there are people out there for which this is an alien concept.

*shudder*

[arvay]

The Obama administration made a very basic, naive mistake when it decided to suppress the photographs.

It created unstoppable interest in them, and gave the green light to any and all exaggerations and false versions, making the problem much worse. If this has any effect on our troops, it will increase hathred of them.

The spectacle of the press secretary blasting the "irresponsible" press is straight out of the Nixon White House. Next, they'll insist "we are not crooks."

It's elementary press relations -- you release bad news yourself so you can help shape how it's covered, and , as Richard Nixon learned -- hiding things only guarantees enhanced and unwelcome attention.

[JNagarya]

I trust Taguba's word on the issue -- he's a FORMER general BECAUSE he told the truth.

And he isn't the only credible source of the very same report: Seymour Hirsh spoke of not only such photos, but also of videotapes of the rapes of children.

[arvay]

Like you, I've learned to trust the most damaging versions of information that's being suppressed. That's not evidence, but a painfully learned lesson after decades of life in America.

[1dogs2]

I have no doubt that such photos exist, but they are NOT among the ones Obama has just refused to release. There are apparently several groups of unreleased photos. The ones the DoJ is presently trying to suppress are apparently much like those taken at Abu Ghraib that were released years ago. If that is the case, I have to agree with Arvay's comment -- the refusal to release them has stirred a controversy out of all proportion to the damage that releasing them might have done.

Worse, they have reminded us that there is another group of photos and tapes showing such horrors as the sodomizing of children in front of their mother's eyes, photos that were viewed by some members of Congress shortly after the release of the Abu Ghraib photos, which the Bush administration refused to make public and about which we heard nothing more until Obama's refusal to release this different, and less incendiary set of photos.

The political effect of Obama's decision has been, predictably, to arouse the ire of reflexive lefties who always assume the government is lying to them and who are none too good at sorting out what the facts are. Thus, they assume that Obama was lying about the nature of the photos withheld and give credence to an article in the Guardian that has apparently conflated several groups of photos.

[confidance government]

Rapes of children? I think I am going to be sick. Not to be too skeptical, but you could anybody toss a credible reference to this? Not that I am all that sure I want to read it.

[sisterdebmac]

Bravo! Well said, Arvay. And I love your av. Fanned.

[brit prof]

Let's hope that if US soldiers get caught that, for their sake, the terr-or-rists don't stoop to your level.

[JHawkKC]

Hmm i do not recall a place being set up to hold US soldiers that have been captured, most of them are dragged thru the streets with their bodies blazing or beheaded on camera for the world to watch. I think our soldiers would much rather face what the detainees are facing than what awaits them upon capture which is true tortue and in the best case scenario a quick death because death is what awaits them.

[brit prof]

Let's hope that if US soldiers get caught that, for their sake, the terrorists don't stoop to your level.

[bobbielee]

This is why I don't trust Journalism today...Th­e article is about something not being true but the headline makes you think it is true....an­d we all know (and it seems you bank on it) that a big part of America only read the headlines. I myself am appalled at what happen to these men, not that the thought wouldn't pass my mind to humiliate these murdering hate mongrals too, but our military HAS to show restraint and respect...­even for those who don't deserve it. BUT, punish the few who did it not all of us! Releasing these photos WILL incite more violence towards our country and more importantly the good soldiers who are still in enemy territories! Printing misleading headlines could also do the same. So let me ask, are you really supporting our troops?

[TekVahana]

This was reported on in 2004!. Five years later Merkins are finding out about looking in to it?

The rest of the world has known since then!

US general linked to Abu Ghraib abuse
Leaked memo reveals control of prison passed to military intelligence to 'manipulate detainees'
Julian Borger in Washington
The Guardian, Saturday 22 May 2004 02.00 BST
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2004/may/22/iraq.usa1