A new batch of horrific Abu Ghraib torture photos has turned up on Australian television and at salon.com. It's not getting much attention in the United States, but it is drawing expressions of disgust and outrage abroad. The difference is remarkable, because those were American soldiers engaged in the abuse. You'd think Americans would be most outraged of all, and would want finally to get an answer to the fundamental unanswered question: How far up the chain of command does responsibility for the Abu Ghraib torture go?
The Bush administration is both angry and nonchalant about release of these images: A State Department official said release of the photos violated the privacy of the abused and that it was likely to increase the violence spawned by cartoons of the prophet Mohammed. A Pentagon spokesman said there is "nothing new" in these images; the abuses they depict have been investigated and the perpetrators punished.
Actually, some of these photos and videos are worse than those seen previously, and the American public deserves to see them all. A spokesman for the Australian television network said the images mark a "leap in seriousness" from the previous photos. They show, the network said, "homicide, torture and sexual humiliation." Included in the salon.com set is an image of an Iraq prisoner sodomizing himself with an object that appears to be a banana. An image on another website shows a prisoner giving oral sex to another man. The setting and the photos strongly suggest both behaviors were forced.
The United Nations has said it finds these new photos disturbing; it also has demanded that the United States either charge or release the prisoners it has detained at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The International Committee of the Red Cross has denounced the behaviors recorded in the newly published photos.
As for this being a "bad time" to have the photos released, they would have been out long ago if the Pentagon hadn't tried every trick in the book to keep them under wraps. The American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Constitutional Rights sued almost a year ago to have them released under the Freedom of Information Act. A federal court judge agreed and ordered their release last fall. But the Pentagon delayed and delayed, then filed an appeal which has yet to be resolved.
It appears that someone in the military finally got fed up and sent a CD with apparently every Abu Ghraib image to salon.com. The source said he was partly motivated by resentment that only low-rank enlisted personnel were being punished.
He makes a powerful point. There has never been a full, independent investigation of how this abusive treatment came to Abu Ghraib. Did Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld authorize it? Did he know about it? Did some other senior civilian or military official order it? This has never looked like the isolated, renegade behavior of a few that the Pentagon has made it out to be.
Congress must initiate a comprehensive, independent investigation of prisoner treatment by all U.S. agencies worldwide. President Bush and his team are employees of and accountable to the American public. It's way overdue that they be held to account for abusing prisoners and violating both U.S. and international law.
http://www.startribune.com/561/story/252784.html
How come this isn't bigger news in the SCLM right now?
3 comments:
SCLM?? Maybe because it's an old story and the perps have been punsihed already?
Again, for those too slow to get it the first time...READ the story. This is not "old news". But you'd know that if you READ the information, instead of just jerking your knees to defend the administration...again.
I read it again. Like I said. Old news. The people who did it are in jail. Of course, some people can't let it go until they get their pound of flesh out of GW.
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