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New 'Prisoner Abuse' Photographs Emerge Despite US Bid to Block Publication
Graphic photographs of alleged prisoner abuse, thought to be among up to 2,000 images Barack Obama is trying to prevent from being released, emerged yesterday.
The shocking images of inmates in Iraq and Afghanistan were published just a day after the US president announced plans for a legal battle stop them ever being seen.
Images emerged from Australia yesterday where they were originally obtained by the channel SBS in 2006 in the wake of the Abu Ghraib scandal. They risked provoking renewed hostility in the Middle East as Mr Obama attempts to build bridges with the Islamic world.
He is scheduled to make a major speech in Cairo on June 4 when he will launch his version of a plan to bring peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians.
One picture showed a prisoner hung up upside down while another showed a naked man smeared in excrement standing in a corridor with a guard standing menacingly in front of him. Another prisoner is handcuffed to the window frame of his cell with underpants pulled over his head.
Others yet to be released reportedly show military guards threatening to sexually assault a detainee with a broomstick and hooded prisoners on transport planes with Playboy magazines opened to pictures of nude women on their laps.
The images emerged from Australia yesterday where they were originally obtained by the channel SBS in 2006 in the wake of the Abu Ghraib scandal. They were not distributed around the world at the time but are now believed to be among those the president is trying to block.
Mr Obama previously committed to allowing thousands of images to be published but changed his mind after senior generals warned that their publication could place US troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan in greater danger.
The president's change of heart brought bitter criticism from the left wingers and the American Civil Liberties Union, which had brought a freedom of information case against the US government applying to see the pictures.
Pledging to fight the case all the way to the Supreme Court, the ACLU accused him of betraying his principles of open government and "complicity in covering up" the "commission of torture by the Bush administration".
"It is true that these photos would be disturbing. The day we are no longer disturbed by such repugnant acts would be a sad one," said Anthony Romero, executive director.
"Only by looking squarely in the mirror, acknowledging the crimes of the past and achieving accountability can we move forward and ensure that these atrocities are not repeated."
The White House legal team was yesterday preparing for a June 9 deadline to present its case that it would be against the interests of national security to make the pictures public.
The controversy came as it was revealed that the administration is considering detaining terror suspects from Guantanamo Bay indefinitely and without trial on US soil.
Lindsey Graham, a Republican senator, said after meeting White House lawyers that terror suspects deemed too dangerous to release could be jailed permanently by a new national security court.
Other options include revising the Bush administration's military commissions for senior al-Qaeda suspects that have been criticised for relying too heavily on hearsay and uncontestable intelligence information.
When he took office on Jan 20 Mr Obama ordered that the prison at a US naval base on Cuba be closed within a year.
- Posted in
127 Comments so far
Show AllShame on us all! And without justice and exposure, the shame continues. Anyone ever consider a simple apology to begin to ease the pain of these poor people?
GAWD forbid we should show a little humility and responsibility for our WAR CRIMES! ...especially since we are learning that we tortured to justify the lies of a genocidal admin.
We so bad!! But how else can we capture the hearts and minds of those pesky Muslims?
Do you suppose we have won heart and mind of the guy in the picture or should we leave him hanging there a few more hours.
Do you suppose we have won heart and mind of the guy in the picture or should we leave him hanging there a few more hours.
All Obama has to say is, the guy was doing Yoga.
Leave him. He's not quite ripe yet.
Obama Has got to ether put up or get out of the white house. This man ran on values and now he is working for the military industrial complex. Is there any hope for this country? Might as well put we torture, next to in god we trust on the old dollar and put that right in the middle of the flag.
We should vote him out of office for being a deceitful liar. Then we should attack the elites with all of the rage we can muster. We need pictures! Lots and lots of gruesome war pictures. Pictures of the hungry, homeless families in the U.S. that are suffering because our government let the economy slip into the shitter for the benefit of a few aholes at the top. Documentation of the truth of what war is and what our military does is what people need to see on a widespread basis. Imagine if the bloody corpses of every one of the U.S. soldiers killed in the middle east within the past 15 years had been photographed and distributed through the media. Imagine if people in the United States, with their sterile manners, and their sterile standards, and their cloudy notion of the truth was each submerged in a real time virtual reality bomb attack, or a real time white phosphorus bombing, or a real time slaughter and rape fest, or forced to watch people starving or dehydrating to death, or being killed by uranium poisoning in time lapse> Do you think they would be so damn philosophical about the details of whether waterboarding is torture when they have actually seen a five year old girl's guts falling out of her little body? If average people were exposed to the truth that Obama is still trying to "protect" the world from, and if people actually knew that we have been lied to and turned into wage slaves in a debt based economy, we would probably have the raid on Washington that we need. It wouldn't take much, just to unseat the corporations and take back our country, that's all. Let's start with the bogus media and work our way to the corrupt and bogus "representatives" in the state capitals and in Washington. We are being subjected to a hostile takeover. The police have us on lockdown, the government is telling our people a load of crap, and it is making us look like a bunch of pompous, greedy, ignorant, stupid morons to the rest of the world. Go to work, go home, watch t.v., go to work, go home, watch t.v., go to work, go home... when do people even have time to pay attention to what the government is doing, or whether or not they are really actually shredding the constitution and declaring martial law behind our backs? Do us all a favor, teach someone to read, study, and investigate today.
"....when do people even have time to pay attention to what the government is doing".
It's not Shock Doctrine (Naomi Klein) anymore, is it?
It's a Doctrine of Attrition.
And if you want to "Do us all a favor, teach someone to read, study, and investigate today", then I urge you to read “Collateral Damage” part I and II.
>>> www.scribd.com/people/documents/2169400-ep-heidner <<<
It will change the way you look at history, politics, finance, war and terrorism.
The details are well researched and referenced. The consequences are BEYOND BELIEF.
I guess - steeped as they were in their own times -- Even Thomas Jefferson -- who probably knew, if only at an intellectual level , how wrong SLAVERY was to build a nation's power and wealth --
said something that - as of today - is the VERY thing that he feared : that of a nation that has grown so arrogant that it DOES continue what was the USA generations ago:
a country that -- according to the Former CIA "economic hitman" , John Perkins:
"we are a nation with a VERy, VERY VICIOUS system of exploitation that Dehumanizes and Enslaves people everywhere....to build our Empire".
and waht jefferson said was:
"IF There truly is a God of Justice....i TREMBLE for our nation".
Then Jefferson didn't believe in a God. No evidence of trembling.
Good point George.
I get the sense he was a closet atheist in a world manipulated by the priesthood. Christians had terrorized Europe for centuries and he wanted no part of that in America. Hence his aversion to getting sucked into European holy wars as president, and his recognition of separation of church and state as essential.
teddy's quoted comment, I believe is out of context. The fear of a just god comment, was a letter to John Adams who Jefferson knew was a God-fearing Puritan. Jefferson, ever the diplomat, would always avoid conflict in his conversations. John Adams on the other hand was a forthright "volcano" as he described himself. This scholars believe is what made their "opposites attract" friendship work.
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"It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no God ." - Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia, 1782
"...to build our Empire"
It is not my/our Empire.
It is THEIR Empire.
>>> www.scribd.com/people/documents/2169400-ep-heidner <<<
Read “Collateral Damage” part I and II.
It will change the way you look at history, politics, finance, war and terrorism.
The details are well researched and referenced. The consequences are BEYOND BELIEF.
More photos: http://dahrjamailiraq.com
/wpg2?g2_itemId=11676
Found in a Google search of "SBS detainee photos".
Zmann,
Thank you for posting the location of these very disturbing images. If any nation state did this to me (Or any member of my family) I can assure you that I would become the enemy they so desire.....
No matter how horrifying, we must know what has been done to ensure it will never happen again. It's that simple. Same logic behind Germany's law that denying the Holocaust, isn't it?
Copy pictures on post cards & mail to flag waving 'christians'
or to Crime Stoppers and your local DA.
Maybe reprint them on posters for protests on Memorial Day?
Nice try, ACLU, but the Supreme Court? What do you expect will happen there? Rendition of Cheney and his neocon flying monkeys to the Hague is apparently not on the table, nor is prsecution at home.
As to Lindsey Graham, he needs to reexamine his definition of "terrorist."
If you want to re-define Terrorism read “Collateral Damage” part I and II.
>>> www.scribd.com/people/documents/2169400-ep-heidner <<<
It will change the way you look at history, politics, finance, war and terrorism.
The details are well researched and referenced. The consequences are BEYOND BELIEF.
Political coverups just don't work, and they always backfire. The Obama Administration needs to find out who is the idiot in the West Wing or at the Pentagon who really really likes coverups, because someone is damaging the Administration's efforts badly.
I am afraid that the stakes are even higher than that. To make innocent statements like that is to forget who "really holds the power". If you think 911 was about 19 crazy Arabs, think again. It was a demonstration of "RAW POWER", when the face of Evil decided to give a little demo. And just in case the Dems didn't get the point, a few dozen anthrax letters were sent exclusively to them to drive the point home. You see what I mean, your coming from the assumption that there is an actual Democracy and Government, when the reality is much scarier. This is to understand the true meaning of 911.
Obama knows that he is pushing his luck and I think is starting to figure out the "Big picture" and I think NOW realizes the whole shebang......wow..what a wake up shock that must have been to him. Now he is asked to "Play the Game" if not...... it will be very easy for an "White nutcase extremist" to "get through" ..or should I say for the CIA to "stand down" and "allow it to happen.
Obama is at a very dangerous pass right now, he needs our prayers and support and give him the benefit of the doubt...look what he is up against.....would you want to be in the White House right now?
You can't keep a good picture down!!!
But I doubt the sheepies will be amused or convinced of the ongoing 'man's inhumanity to man' policy carried out by the U.S. military and other representatives.
We, as taxpayers are footing the bill - we are to blame. We have not held any of our leaders accountable for our despicable and inhumane actions.
My question is what kind of sick mind would take photos of these atrocities in the first place? It is the same sickness that got the Nazis to document their horrendous crimes. Prosecution is easy when the criminals document their crimes, well, except in the case of an empire that refuses to admit and punish wrongdoing. Maybe looking forward won't be so easy now that the evidence is there for all to see. This is not a new thing folks - the US has been training torturers for years and using it as a weapon against those who are perceived to stand in the way of US capitalist/imperialist interests. Maybe now, we can push for a closure of the School of the Americas and other torture-training centers.
Excellent comment and reminder that this sort of thing is not a new practice at all for the U.S.! What is new, however, is that we now have photographic evidence of this criminal behavior. And we know that photographic evidence counts as evidence in a court of law (where it is constantly being used as such).
odoco
Read the first 100 pages of Naomi Klein's "The Shock Doctrine" for a history of US torture dating back to post-WWII days, then applied throughout Latin America during the 70s and 80s. John Perkins is another excellent source of information on similar topics.
I've called and written to everyone I know and can think of - including local universities and ministerial alliance in my home town. Now, I see that such organizations as Vets for Peace will be taking to the streets in an effort to stop this madness and depravity. I will be there with them.
Enough is enough, and once was too many.
"My question is what kind of sick mind would take photos of these atrocities in the first place?"
The taking of pictures is a part of the torture process. For people who believe nudity is for only a spouse to see, imagine knowing the whole world will now see your nudity.
Aside from that, there's the human nature thing of wanting to have a record of our "creativity."
"...what kind of sick mind would take photos of these atrocities in the first place?"
Common soldiers who have a porn turn of mind, and are arrogant enough to think they will never be raked over the coals. Just like at Nuremberg, when ordinary, 'decent' Germans cried "We just did what we were told". What scares me is that these soldiers have come or are coming back to us. What is really scary is that the people who ordered or condoned this behavior are models that we are supposed to look up to. The message for the next generation, "don't take picture, don't get caught".
Note the phrase 'alleged prisoner abuse' in the subtitle of the article.
I suppose the man in the above photograph was practicing for his new nudist circus act.
Maybe we should bring down the capitalist/imperialist interest, instead.
Maybe it is time to change the system!!!
I'm sure that the rest of the world would help if we try to throw off the shackles.
free2bee
If our interrogators were trying to inject fear in the enemy
they failed, they injected DISGUST.
Thanks to Common Dreams and all of the posts.
Anthony Romero, executive director of the ACLU, speaks for me: "Only by looking squarely in the mirror, acknowledging the crimes of the past and achieving accountability can we move forward and ensure that these atrocities are not repeated."
The world is seeing the disturbing photos of these repugnant and in some cases fatal tortures. How do we respond?
RedTide May 15th, 2009 11:21 am..................."Shame on us all? I object! Do you blame all Germans for thr Nazi madness? This current mess the responsibility of the Republican and Democratic parties, which are the tools of imperialism. It is people who support those parties that are guilty of mass murder and torture."
You contradict yourself right in this paragraph.
I do not know if Communism or Socialism is the answer. At this point, I have come to trust NO form of leadership, since it constantly seems to be corrupted with the desire for power and wealth.
Further, I do not know what responsibility looks like in the case of the genocide we have committed, but an apology and some reparations would be a first step.
I admit to not having the answers....since you seem to, go ahead and start to initiate your program. I wish you the best of luck and fortune.
Where and how did RT contradict himself...?
Please enlighten us...
"Do you blame all Germans for Nazi madness"......yes, I do....and the same here, whether you voted fort a dem or a repub. The contradiction is that you cannot sever your responsibility because you didn't vote for either party. Personally, I voted for Nader, but I still feel the shame of being an American and allowing these atrocities.
Every one of us, whether or not we voted for the dems or repubs are responsible for torture that is being carried out in our name. Each of us, unless we have had the courage to give up our citizenship, must take responsibility and shame for what has been committed in our name............and that certainly includes myself. The Germans were in the same position and they chose to do nothing. We have the numbers and refuse to use those numbers to rebel against the monsters that have hijacked our country. We may not be a quilty as the actual perpetrators, but as American citizens, we must take some responsibility and shame. Are we to accept the benefits of living in this country, but not shoulder the shame and responsibility for the torture, genocide, murder AND torture of children in OUR NAME? We accept the flowers and not the crap? IMHO, that's pretty much the height of arrogance.
I have a different take on things...
I identify more with universal justice and international solidarity than I do with any particular nation-state...
If I am a citizen of a nation-state that invades other countries and kills millions of people, I will choose to have no part of it...
I won't pay income taxes or accept tax rebates... I won't serve in the military or work for a military contractor... I will boycott compamies providing goods and services for the war and support cottage industries that do not exploit others... I will salvage, harvest, barter, trade, & gift my services instead of paying business taxes... I will go to demonstrations, write letters, & talk to anyone who will listen about the war, and what we can do to stop it... And the only way that will happen is through a long term general strike and boycott of the private MIC...
That being said, just because they are killing in our name doesn't mean we should internalize the blame and feel shame for another's crime...
Since many tens of thousands of the soldiers serving and contractors working in Iraq and Afghanistan are not even US citizens (but are doing it for the promise of US citizenship), and many of them are doing the raping, torture, and killing as well (special forces and mercs from Latin American paramilitaries, etc)... Should we blame all the citizens of Latin America as well...? What about all the coalition troops and their countries of origin... Guilty too...?
I think that the only ones to blame for the killing and torture are those
Individuals who carry out the violence, gave & followed the orders, profited from it, tried to cover it up or justify it, or supported it with their taxes, cheerleading, voting, or silence... A vote for Dems & repubes is a vote for war and torture for profit... If more people voted their conscience (or had one to begin with) then we can elect candidates who will introduce legislation and caucus and vote to end war & torture...
I understand your viewpoint. We will never regain the country we never had through the elective process. Strikes, boycotts, civil dis-obedience, and MASSIVE marches are the ONLY answer. But,
quite simply, there are not enough Americans who have the courage, circumstance (at least that's what they believe)or awareness to make a move off the couch. I keep saying, that if they did not do it in the last eight years, where's the incentive now with the new, improved version of Bush??
Very nicely put, but i have to disagree with that last part,
[If more people voted their conscience (or had one to begin with) then we can elect candidates who will introduce legislation and caucus and vote to end war & torture...]
If more people ran out onto the streets and started marching en masse from San Francisco to Washington D.C., picking up more and more folks as we go, totaling over 15 million when we arrived, and storming OUR country's Capital houses, unseating the fools sitting so comfy in their thrones, and demanded an end to the wars, demanded that all of Obama's stupidly appointed administration members are fired, demanded that we get back all of our money that they have been wasting, and allocate it in a truly responsible manner, and demanded a new and fresh start to our dealings in the world and at home, then maybe the satellites could pick up our collective illumination from space, and people around the world would see that we actually do care. It's not going to happen if we don't give of ourselves, because even though I didn't personally kill or torture anybody, now that those crazy warmongers are wreaking their violence, there is a need for widespread nurturing, and caring. We have to show the rest of humanity that we care, not just a little, but enough to clog highways and march in an army of unity and love for the world and for our own people. The rest of the world can see our apathy, and apathy is ugly. We need to show people that we are not going to let our country victimize the world and plunder resources, and waste when they have nothing! If we would send over a million troops overseas to cause a culture and society to topple, If our government is in control of our lives, and shows so little regard to our human brothers and sisters in the middle east, then our lives are in the hands of mad psychopaths. I don't know about you, but I can see a storm brewing here in the land of milk and honey, and it might mean Americans seeing and experiencing things that they never thought they would. Stop eating so many cheeseburgers, everyone, you're gonna have to be able to walk long distances soon.
Have fun storming the castle...
"It is true that these photos would be disturbing. The day we are no longer disturbed by such repugnant acts would be a sad one," said Anthony Romero, executive director.
That would make this a sad day for Obama.
It is a sad day for America that these acts of torture took place and are still taking place now,I believe! It makes me sad when I see more torture images but the truth needs to be revealed - fully.
Howard, maybe?
I found this on sbs:
--------------
Mr Carey said he could not explain why the photographs had not yet been published, as he thought it was likely that some journalists had them.
"It think it's strange, maybe they think its more of the same."
-------- I'll break the url in two as this site seems to have difficulty with them.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/the-photos-america-doesnt-want-
seen/2006/02/14/1139890737099.html
-----------------
this is from the bbc:
--------------
One of the videos broadcast on the Dateline programme appears to show prisoners being forced to masturbate for the camera.
Other video footage appears to show a prisoner hitting his head against a wall.
The channel said he was a mentally disturbed patient who became a plaything of guards who practised ways of restraining him.
Some photos are said to show corpses. There are also images of prisoners with body and head wounds.
Some of the pictures have now been re-broadcast on US networks and on Arab satellite channels al-Arabiya and al-Jazeera.
------------------------
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/
world/middle_east/4718328.stm
"One of the videos broadcast on the Dateline programme appears to show prisoners being forced to masturbate for the camera. "
This did happen, this video appears in the documentary Taxi to the Dark Side. It was pretty disturbing.
If we don't publicly fry "the Bush Six" for this, then we are as complicit as the nazis or AIPAC in Gaza. And the message that is sent to the rest of the world is "here is how to run a successful empire."
TJ
"All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent." - Thomas Jefferson
What causes a person to vote for the same party over and over again, and then Complain when that Political Party does not deliver on their promises?
I heard of an interesting experiment done by researchers where a Human was stacked up against a bird and a rat in a game.
The "game" was to hit a button corresponding to a red light that would appear on a screen. If they hit the correct button they would receive a reward. If they hit the wrong one, they could not press another.
The Bird and the Rat blew the human away. This was not because of faster reaction times. They blew the human away because they waited for the red light to "show its colors" before making their choice.
They found the human would press a button BEFORE the light appeared on the screen in the anticipation the correct one would be pressed.
Further studies showed that dopamine levels in the human test case were elevated BEFORE the button pressed rather then after the button pressed and reward won.
The human would make a choice BEFORE the light appeared in the HOPE they had selected the correct one and this anticipation was more rewarding in the way of dopamines then the reward itself.
In other words, if you truly want an INFORMED electorate who will cast a vote based upon a sober assessment of the reality of what best for them.
You would be better off were birds or rats to vote and humans left out of the equation.
Gawd. That is fascinating.
Once again we are told these sadistic acts are done by a few bad apples. These men or women who did this must have been taught to hate the victims they torture. Recently a soldier who had a comment posted called the people he was sent to fight rag heads ,They are dehumanized. The Islamic Law prohibits anyone from seeing the body of a Muslim except the Muslims spouse.This is torture that goes beyond the physical,and mental to the spiritual.
End the wars, the hate and torture and work for reconciliation, justice and peace please, President Obama.
"Once again we are told these sadistic acts are done by a few bad apples."- genie
And we've also been told in Cheney's own words that he and Bush approved it. So is this a straight up admission that THEY infact are the bad apples?
Don't you all remember, it's not torture if the President says its 'ok'.