Thursday, February 16, 2006

The Photos BushCo Doesn't Want You to See

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More horrifying photographs of Iraqi citizens tortured by US soldiers at Abu Ghraib prison have been leaked to and published by The Sydney Morning Herald.

The photo above is one of the least offensive. If you intend to view the others, a word of caution: they are more than a little disturbing and could conceivably cause you to lose your lunch.

Last night, SBS Dateline "broadcast about 60 previously unpublished photos that the US Government has been fighting to keep secret in a court case with the American Civil Liberties Union."

While I don't relish the possibility of these photos stirring up more hatred for the United States, unless the truth comes out, the abuses will never stop. The United States still has not investigated and assigned responsibility at the highest government levels for the policies fostering these attrocities. Until they do, they will never succeed in calming the world's outrage. Nor should they.

The worse thing the United States could do is what BushCo is currently doing: attempting to hide the truth and lie about the administration's responsibility in promoting such practices, virtually ensuring more protests against the United States--peaceful or otherwise--around the world.

Which begs the real question: where is our own outrage over these actions? Why aren't millions of Americans peacefully marching on the White House and Congress and demanding accountability?

Have we really sunk to such moral lows?

Matthew Moore, for The Sydney Morning Herald:
Although a US judge last year granted the union access to the photographs following a freedom-of-information request, the US Administration has appealed against the decision on the grounds their release would fuel anti-American sentiment.

Some of the photos are similar to those published in 2004, others are different. They include photographs of six corpses, although the circumstances of their deaths are not clear. There are also pictures of what appear to be burns and wounds from shotgun pellets.

The executive producer of Dateline, Mike Carey, said he was showing the pictures leaked to his program because it was important people understood what had happened at Abu Ghraib.

Seven US guards were jailed following publication of the first batch of Abu Ghraib photographs in April 2004.

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."

■ The Daily Telegraph, London reports: A British soldier who is believed to have filmed fellow troops assaulting Iraqi civilians has been arrested, the Ministry of Defence said on Monday. The ministry had not confirmed whether he was being questioned as a witness or a suspect.

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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sydney Morning Herald, not Sidney.

Anonymous said...

i saw a series of these photos on BBC the other night--just fucking awful. as i've said before, bu$hCo has PLENTY to answer for.

personally, i don't know how much angrier i could be...it just gets worse and worse.

The Unknown Candidate said...

You said it, Rimone. Angry, depressed, dumbfounded, incensed, enraged, frustrated, appalled, disgusted....