"Dr. Jai Maharaj" <usenet@mantra.com> wrote in message
news:IkgQ7sKp8El6AV@FED5n2Vfmmp7FV5MfO5...
US military confirms existence of horrific pictures and video
http://tinyurl.com/2na82
Or,
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x541460
Jai Maharaj
http://www.mantra.com/jai
Om Shanti
This is regarding the pictures of the troops raping women, sodomizing young
boys and fucking corpses:
US military confirms existence of horrific pictures and video
By Andrew Buncombe in Washington
09 May 2004
The Bush administration was bracing itself last night for the release of new
pictures and video footage from Abu Ghraib which show US soldiers having sex
with an Iraqi woman prisoner, troops almost beating a prisoner to death, and
the rape of young boys by Iraqi guards at the jail.
Senior officials have warned that the new images and details of the abuse
and torture at the prison west of Baghdad will be even more shocking than
those already released. They will undoubtedly place even more pressure on
President George Bush and his beleaguered Defence Secretary, Donald
Rumsfeld, as they desperately try to limit the political damage from the
growing scandal.
NBC News has quoted military officials as saying that the new
photographsalso show US soldiers "acting inappropriately with a dead body".
This may refer to a picture, which The Washington Post described but did not
publish, of Sabrina Harman, one of seven reservists charged with abuses,
posing with thumbs up next to a decaying corpse.
NBC also reported that the rape of young boys by Iraqi guards, apparently in
a special section of the prison, had been filmed by US soldiers.
There are even suggestions that the murder of a prisoner has been recorded.
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham from South Carolina questioned Mr Rumsfeld
on Friday about why the abuse had not been detected earlier. "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."
The new images will further rock the Bush administration, suffering its
worst crisis yet after photographs showing US army reservists abusing and
sexually humiliating prisoners caused international revulsion and outrage.
But the knowledge that the abuse was much more widespread, and that there
are more shocking images to come, is threatening even more problems for Mr
Bush as he prepares to hand over sovereignty to an Iraqi government on 30
June.
Further evidence emerged, meanwhile, that the abuse of prisoners by military
police reservists was ordered by military intelligence officers, CIA
operatives or even by privately hired civilian interrogators. Ms Harman said
they were told to break the prisoners down in preparation for questioning.
"They would bring in one or several prisoners at a time already hooded and
cuffed. The job of the MP [military police] was to keep them awake, make it
hell so they would talk," Ms Harman, 26, from northern Virginia, told The
Washington Post. "The person who brought them in would set the standards on
whether or not to 'be nice'."
A total of seven reservists from the 372nd Military Police Company based in
Cumberland, Maryland, have now been charged over the abuse, including
Lynndie England, 21, who was photographed with a prisoner on a leash. Seven
other soldiers have been reprimanded, and several relieved of command.
Rumours of the existence of more pictures have been circulating in
Washington for days and were confirmed on Friday by Mr Rumsfeld, who said
they were "sadistic, cruel and inhuman".
The investigative journalist Seymour Hersh, who revealed the extent of the
abuse, warned earlier last week: "It's going to get much worse. This kind of
stuff was much more widespread.
"There are videotapes of stuff that you wouldn't want to mention on national
television ... There were things done to young boys."
President Bush insisted that while the abuse of Iraqi prisoners was "a stain
on our country's honour and reputation", it would not deflect his mission in
Iraq.
"[The photographs] do not reflect our values," he said.
--
"To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we
are to stand by the president right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and
servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public." - Theodore
Roosevelt
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