- BIG NEWS:
- Barack Obama
- |
- Dick Cheney
- |
- Terrorism
- |
- Blackwater
- |
Why No Investigation?
Read More:
Abu Ghraib, Abu Ghraib Abuse, Antonio Taguba, Bush Administration, Torture, Torture Photos,
Politics News
Last week, I blogged here on The Huffington Post with evidence
rebutting the Pentagon's denials of Taguba's confirmation to the
British newspaper the Telegraph that male-on-male rape and
male-on-female rape are pictured in the detainee abuse photos that
Obama has suddenly decided to suppress. All weekend, though, I had an
uneasy feeling -- that feeling you have when you've had a nightmare
while you were sleeping that you can't quite recall.
As I was researching this story today, I remembered what it was: think back to 2005. We were still in shock after the Abu Ghraib photos came out. The Bush White House -- oddly, it seemed to me at the time -- invited scores of lawmakers from both parties to a private screening of the abuse photos and even four videos that did not get released at that time. They emerged, to a man and a woman, shocked. They spoke in public, on the record, by name, of having witnessed scenes of rape, sodomy, and violent sexual assault against children.
I even wrote about this screening in The End of America; I had interpreted the motivation for showing these scenes as being one of intimidation.
Now I am not so sure -- now I think the motive was to implicate any potential opposition. If Bush et al showed these images, and the Congresspeople did nothing -- a damn good bet -- well, the Bush team would have taken the wind out of any prosecutorial impulses.
Why are the Congressional leadership of both parties bizarrely silent now, when the American people are demanding an investigation and prosecution of the crimes represented in just two of 87 of those scenes?
Because they were there then -- saw it -- all of it -- at a weirdly perverse, practically red-carpet, private snuff-film screening -- and they evidently went along with it. Read this quote, which appears again below, carefully:
The military later screened some of the images for lawmakers, who said they showed, among other things, attack dogs snarling at cowed prisoners, Iraqi women forced to expose their breasts, and naked prisoners forced to have sex with each other.
It would seem that the lawmakers, having personally witnessed these same images, did nothing. Pursued nothing. Investigated nothing. Accepted a whitewash. Called to prosecute nothing.
This is a news report from Editor and Publisher, July 23, 2005 called "Why the Pentagon Is Blocking Release of Remaining 87 Abu Ghraib Images":
"So what is shown on the 87 photographs and four videos from Abu Ghraib prison that the Pentagon, in an eleventh hour move, blocked from release this weekend? One clue: Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told Congress last year, after viewing a large cache of unreleased images: "I mean, I looked at them last night, and they're hard to believe." They show acts "that can only be described as blatantly sadistic, cruel and inhumane," he added. A Republican Senator suggested the same day they contained scenes of "rape and murder." No wonder Rumsfeld commented then, "If these are released to the public, obviously it's going to make matters worse."Yesterday, news emerged that lawyers for the Pentagon had refused to cooperate with a federal judge's order to release dozens of unseen photographs and videos from Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq by Saturday. The photos were among thousands turned over by the key "whistleblower" in the scandal, Specialist Joseph M. Darby. Just a few that were released to the press sparked the Abu Ghraib abuse scandal last year, and the video images are said to be even more shocking. [...] One Pentagon lawyer has argued that they should not be released because they would only add to the humiliation of the prisoners. But the ACLU has said the faces of the victims can easily be "redacted." To get a sense of what may be shown in these images, one has to go back to press reports from when the Abu Ghraib abuse scandal was still front page news.
This is how CNN reported it on May 8, 2004, in a typical account that day:
"U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld revealed Friday that videos and 'a lot more pictures' exist of the abuse of Iraqis held at Abu Ghraib prison. [...] "The embattled defense secretary fielded sharp and skeptical questions from lawmakers as he testified about the growing prisoner abuse scandal. A military report about that abuse describes detainees being threatened, sodomized with a chemical light and forced into sexually humiliating poses. [...] "'The American public needs to understand we're talking about rape and murder here. We're not just talking about giving people a humiliating experience,' Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina told reporters after Rumsfeld testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee. 'We're talking about rape and murder -- and some very serious charges.' "A report by Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba on the abuse at the prison outside Baghdad says videotapes and photographs show naked detainees, and that groups of men were forced to masturbate while being photographed and videotaped. Taguba also found evidence of a 'male MP guard having sex with a female detainee.' "Rumsfeld told Congress the unrevealed photos and videos contain acts 'that can only be described as blatantly sadistic, cruel and inhuman.'" [...] The military later screened some of the images for lawmakers, who said they showed, among other things, attack dogs snarling at cowed prisoners, Iraqi women forced to expose their breasts, and naked prisoners forced to have sex with each other. [...] "Basically what happened is that those women who were arrested with young boys/children in cases that have been recorded. The boys were sodomized with the cameras rolling. The worst about all of them is the soundtrack of the boys shrieking that your government has. They are in total terror it's going to come out."
Loading comments…
Most Popular on HuffingtonPost
b%2F07pnqL9vIQgy98UjW8EjTlPcR8D1QENB83SAUeB0cwkpi41C6y5O8umcxlwSGNuznIHiAtOZENc%2BlgX%2F4AAA%3D%3D
ewd0bS2xfllFvOxk5TbgBsLRXxSGtJrHIwgmc5slxdGymFmk8W%2FSEFm0ZSg4%2FTU1uokat0V1ks1TCq0ANa6P9g%3D%3D
1 of 2
HuffingtonPost Reporters
lGalTQX%2FW%2BYo%2BVzkhe4JnT9RxkUDPOI8
rp9ykyUYbbG8tsjFRRh4M63V7elYoKoW
1 of 2
Don't Miss HuffPost Bloggers
1 of 2
Huffington Post Apps and Feeds
Want to reply to a comment? Hint: Click "Reply" at the bottom of the comment; after being approved your comment will appear directly underneath the comment you replied to
God bless America, the bright shining city on a hill. How much of our history is a Parson Weems whitewash? The enslavement of Africans, the genocide of the indigenous, the destruction of other nations from 35,000 feet, assassination, unwarranted detention, extraordinary rendition, rape torture and murder. Well, this is the promised land. We are the chosen people. So what? Who cares? We would prefer not to talk or think about that stuff. It is antichristian and unpatriotic. It isn't God's blessing we ned. It is God's forgiveness. I doubt God cares anymore about America then last weeks ballgame.
The United States of America, from world power to rogue nation in just eight years.
I suspect the problem lies in the Bush court, having a supreme court that seated Bush with two new members appointed by Bush makes the prosecution of members of his administration difficult.
These war crimes should be tried in an international court, if necessary in abstencia (Cheney, Rumsfield and that lot can be represented by empty chairs, Bush can be represented by an empty high-chair).
"from world power to rogue nation in just eight years"
You think they didn't use torture in Vietnam? They just didn't brag about it.
Yes, Nuremberg trials should have been held after Vietnam. They still can be held. There is no statute of limitations on war crimes.
It is the right thing to do. If you want to go back to that, I think we should. But lets not get off track here. If it was done in Vietnam..t
Well we always had one foot in the "rogue nation" category. It really kicked off 30 years ago with Iran Contra. That's when the right discovered the left had no stomach to prosecute. Since then it's been a free for all.
Why No Investigation?
To protect criminals and nothing more.
That's how I see it. I've got a feeling that aside from not wanting to spend his entire first term investigating Bush President Obama is desperately trying not to decapitate the pentagon and the intelligence services for complicity in torture.
Thats the problem with.....Y
Now is allways the time for truth.
Harry Shearer (Le Show) had an outstanding take this weekend on the failure at Gitmo and how absurd it is for the GOP to continue to hang onto the Bush /Cheney torture tactics.
The Dems should use it to hammer the GOP into the ground on this one. Newt, Rush and Dick can ride this one out of town. But it takes a sharp and eloquent thinker and only Obama seems to get it. And it takes guts too.
"The Daily Beast has since corrected its Friday story to say that none of the 44 photos "subject to the ACLU lawsuit and reviewed by President Obama" are sexually explicit."
http://www
Once again: Detainee rape photos do exist but they are not among the 44 that the White House possesses.
If Salon can walk back this claim, why do you still insist there is "male-on-male rape and male-on-female rape are pictured in the detainee abuse photos that Obama has suddenly decided to suppress?"
This is inaccurate.
It's also irrelevant to the argument so most haven't mentioned it.
When your lead paragraph is a falsehood that's relevant.
Thank you for the clarification. The photos in the ACLU lawsuit case are 44 photos. However, Obama, is blocking the release of 2000 photos.
Taguba, however, now says that the photos he saw are not part of the ones at the center of an ACLU lawsuit. So where are the ‘rape’ photos Taguba described?
continued:
By Jeremy Scahill
Just a day after White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs smeared the entire British media over a damning report in one British paper, Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba says that Britain’s Daily Telegraph quoted him correctly when he told the paper last week he had seen pictures depicting heinous acts commited against prisoners by US personnel that “show torture, abuse, rape and every indecency.
While standing by his on-the-record remarks to the Telegraph, Taguba, however, now says that the photos to which he was referring were not among 44 pictures the ACLU is fighting to have released but which the Obama administration has blocked. He told Salon’s Mark Benjamin Friday night, “The photographs in that lawsuit, I have not seen. According to Benjamin, “The actual quote in the Telegraph was accurate, Taguba said — but he was referring to the hundreds of images he reviewed as an investigator of the abuse at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq — not the photos of abuse that Obama is seeking to suppress.”
At present, the Obama administration is blocking the release of some 2,000 photos allegedly depicting prisoner abuse and torture. While many horrifying photos have been published over the years by various media outlets (including Salon), it does not seem that the ones exactly matching Taguba’s descriptions have been publicly revealed. This is what the Telegraph reported: ... http://reb
There was much confusion over these photo batches, with many assertions and later retractions, but one thing is clear: rape photos exist. Because our servicepeople, and subcontractors hired on our behalf, raped people as part of "enhanced interrogation". We know this because they took the same type of photos of it as they did the other techniques used, like waterboarding. These photos have leaked to the internet and are widely available to anyone who seeks them out. A General has confirmed their authenticity.
Regardless of what's in the ACLU photo set, the proof of the ultimate war crime exists. Let's not waste our efforts nitpicking exactly which prison each abuse happened at, and which photo set the abuse pics ended up in. The memos prove that wherever and whenever these rapes happened, they were sanctioned by President Bush and his cronies, so now they all have to go to jail. As soon as possible, please!
Agreed! And I don't think that Sen. Lindsay Graham would have made the statement that the pictures he saw depicted these awful crimes if they didn't. That horrible torture and rape occurred is not up for discussion at this point. We're just talking about different batches of pictures.
Cheney should be in prison...e
ObamacratInCA, you go right ahead and keep on parsing this thing so that you can excuse Pres Obama for not being the change agent he professed to be, much less operate the transparent government he assured us he would have. Parsing torture does seem rather tortured to me, though.
Thanks for the great article, Ms. Wolf.
I've got more alarming news. There's a Bill that's already passed the Senate and is heading to the House (where it will be snuck into another Bill in Conference) concerning RETROACTIVE immunity on past photos and power to refuse to show ANY photos in the future. If this passes, we're through with "transparency" that was promised.
Obama's support for the new Graham-Lieberman secrecy law
http://www
Barack has now exceeded even Bush's wildest dreams of executive power if this passes. Truly alarming.
See, you all should have voted for Kucinich with me in the Primary. I was glad O won, but knew he was a conservative at heart. This is shocking, however. Leave it to the simpering grahamlieberman to come up with this.
In other words, we have seen the enemy, and he is us.
Time to wake up. The American dream is over. Our government has been corrupted by War Inc.
You are both exactly right. And the sooner we face these hard Truths, then like the German People have, WE can take action to prevent them ever happening again.
There must be an investigation so we can finally put to rest all of the rumors and half-truths out there. If we cannot do this, I am sure there are member nations of the UN which would see justice done.
I personally would rather like to have us handle this ourselves, face our own mistakes and correct them accordingly.
Following are links to various articles related to this subject matter:
http://www
http://www
http://www
http://www
Raymond Gellner – Charlotte Liberal Examiner at Examiner.c
http://www
Let me see... no one cares.
Come on... killing babies by the millions has all but destroyed any sense of right and wrong in this country.
Torture is ok... killing babies is ok... whatever happens is ok as long as it happens to someone else!!!
Fertilized eggs are not people, you fruitbat. I resent your equating me with an egg! Eggs are not babies! You probably eat them every day, and don't consider yourself eating an entire chicken.
Grow up, learn some science, and come back when you find the part of the Bible that describes a fetus as anything other than a woman's "fruit." In fact, find a place in the Bible that contradicts the assertion that God made it perfectly clear things are not independently alive until they take their first Breath. Until then, they are only potential life, like clay figures. Abortion was widely available in liberal Egypt when Christ was alive, yet he never thought to mention any prohibition of it in all of his teachings.
You guys have been duped by megapreachers who were after your wallets. You follow a false god and don't even know your own scriptures. Stop listening to hucksters and actually READ THE BIBLE. ALL OF IT, not just the sections Preacher said. And make up your own mind, don't look up anything but translation differences, not commentaries and explanations given by the publicly pious over the years. Use your God-given brains to figure it out and stop being a hater!
Except only the right wing is okay with killing babies and only the right wing is okay with torture. I guess we can conclude that only the right wing is what's wrong with this country.
Thank you for your support.
I never thought I'd see the day when government ordered rape, sodomy,torture, water torture ( i'm done with the euphemism waterboarding) would be the vocabulary words in current events.
It all started with the killing of millions of babies.
Relying on the legal reproductive choice of women to exonerate every depraved act your
extreme coaltion of conservatives can perpetrate on others who do not believe as you do is not an excuse.You can't exonerate breaking the law because you don't agree with the legal right to abortion.
George W Bush quotes:
Referring to torture and rape in Iraq, the president said, "If this is not evil, then evil has no meaning," telling the Iraqi people, "Your enemy is not surrounding your country; your enemy is ruling your country."
"Who can possibly think that the world would be better off with Saddam Hussein still in power? Surely not the dissidents who would be in his prisons or end up in his mass graves. Surely not the men and women who would fill Saddam's torture chambers or rape rooms. Surely not the families of victims he murdered with poison gas. Surely not anyone who cares about human rights and democracy and stability in the Middle East."
George Bush just before invasion of Iraq, March 17: "We will help you build a new Iraq that is prosperous and free. In a free Iraq, there will be no more wars of aggression against your neighbors, no more poison factories, no more executions of dissidents, no more torture chambers and rape rooms."
"Saddam Hussein's monuments have been removed and not only his statues. The true monuments of his rule and his character, the torture chambers and the rape rooms and the prison cells for innocent children, are closed. And as we discover the killing fields and mass graves of Iraq, the true scale of Saddam's cruelty is being revealed.”
Because we acted, torture rooms are closed, rape rooms no longer exist,"
No one believes you.
It is a matter of record.
Yes, torture and rape rooms no longer exist. Now we have enhanced interrogation sites.
It is really quite simple. For all the talk to defer and delay action, only one action is correct.
There are photos that show that the Geneva Convention was broken under the Administration of George W Bush who executed the order to violate the Geneva Convention.
How can there be any other recourse that is seen as just to the world at large..oth
Exactly. And even if you were some kind of isolationist America-first kook who doesn't believe in obeying treaties with foreigners (even though the Constitution says Treaties shall be equal to it in authority), even THEN you should still be fired up to prosecute these war crimes, because the 8th Amendment of our Constitution forbids cruel and unusual punishment! All the treaties and other laws we've made about torture are just codifications of that absolute prohibition, which has been clearly violated.
The Eighth hasn't gotten much press in the past, like the well-known First and the Second and Fifth. It's been a long time since anyone wanted to argue whether cruelty was acceptable or not.
Umm I read others post and well ACLU V NSA, ACLU V Gonzales,ACLU V Mukasey, all those come to mind.....
All that is necessary for the triumph of ev.il is for g00d men to do nothing.
Edmund Burke
See K.J. Dwyer's Profile
It's clear that nothing short of a Nuremburg-type tribunal will be necessary to suss out this entire mess.
It is also clear that unless and until the United States commits to such action, it will have zero credibility internationally.
The unspeakable evil perpetrated over the last six years, beginning with a falsely justified war and ending (ending?) with state sponsored acts of torture, has sunk this country to a level I did not think possible. Even taking into account the more than 100 years of American sponsored subversion of democracies,
http://www
I honestly thought there was a limit to how far our government would sink. This experience of the last eight years (if you include the run up to the actual war), however, has exposed a moral deficit so deep that I'm not sure, even with an exhaustive investigation, that there's any real solution for regaining our credibility.
Americans are blissfully ignorant of their country's history, however the rest of the world is not.
If the Obama administration continues to try to "finesse" their way out of this, it will not only impede any possibility of rehabilitation, but it will assure that the next great American atrocity will be exponentially worse.
How much worse, I shudder to imagine.
Well said.
"The unspeakable evil perpetrated over the last six years, beginning with a falsely justified war and ending (ending?) with state sponsored acts of torture, has sunk this country to a level I did not think possible."
Translation: If you disagreed with the tough, decisive stand that the Bush administration took against terrorism after we were attacked, then that stand is "unspeakable evil". Yes the Bush administration was mislead by the intellegence on weapons of mass destruction, as were the Clintons and other members of congress, and other countries around the world. Then we had to make the best of it. And weren't the perpetrators at Abu Ghraib prosecuted and sent to prison. These were mostly rogue actions, not orders from Bush or state sanctioned acts. I think we all know that.
See K.J. Dwyer's Profile
Mislead?
You must be joking.
I can't believe there are still people towing the Bush line.
Astonishing.
You have missed some newsflashes lately, sounds like. Everyone now knows that the order to abuse the detainees in sadistic ways came from the White House. There is a long history of such abuse within the Republican party.
Why did baby bush attack Iraq ? They didn't do 9-11, there was no WMD.
Were the people who were prosecuted at AbuGhrib responsible for what is shown on ALL of these Photos? NO? Well theres work left to do.
Does " the perpetrators at Abu Ghraib " include those given blanket immunity.
I don't believe anyone can give anyone Immunity to a war crime.
What if Hitler had given Immunity to All.
Thank you and well said.
The longer we put this off the worse it will be. Let's lance this boil and start healing.
Nobody knows if it'll ever be enough to restore our honor, but we can make a start by first holding the tribunal as you suggest, and then also ensuring that we do everything possible to make amends to the victims. Many religions teach that forgiveness can only be earned by both repentance AND a sincere attempt to make amends to the best of your ability. It's not enough to be sorry. You have to try to fix it.
If the abuse victims must be kept imprisoned for life, because of crimes committed before they were abused, let them be imprisoned humanely at least, after a fair trial, and let their relatives receive compensation money (closely monitored in expenditure, of course). If the torture has broken their minds, let them be sent to the world's best high-security hospitals for the criminally insane, so their final days can be spent as comfortably as possible despite their condition.
If they were children, let them be freed and let a team of counselors and facilitators do our best to put their lives back together. Maybe the CIA knows some secret way to erase what happened from their memories..
I can't stand it anymore. I hate it here, I hate being an American, and I want to leave. And I will leave, as soon as I can afford to. To somewhere where I don't have to be afraid to go out, where I can maybe get a good night's sleep, for the first time in ten years.
You must be logged in to comment. Log in or connect with
