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16-02-2006 Scotsman Disturbing new Abu Ghraib abuse photos harden Iraqis against US By Chief News Correspondent Gethin Chamberlain THE publication of graphic new photographs and video clips of abuse at Abu Ghraib prison yesterday threatened to further fan the flames of public anger in Iraq. The pictures were more disturbing than those previously published, showing what appear to be dead bodies, as well as wounded people and prisoners performing sex acts. Several photographs appear to feature Charles Graner, the former US corporal who was jailed for ten years for abusing Iraqi captives. Others, unpublished, show him having sex with Lynndie England, the soldier serving three years for her part in the scandal. Australia's Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) also showed an image of a bloodied cell block and a corpse, on its Dateline programme. The public broadcaster said the man had been killed during a CIA interrogation. The release of the images comes just days after footage was broadcast of British soldiers attacking Iraqi youths who had been seized during two days of rioting in the town of Al Amarah in January 2004. Iraqi authorities in Basra, the main city in southern Iraq, responded to the publication of those images by withdrawing co-operation with the British military. The Muslim world had already been outraged by the publication of Danish cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad. Now the revisiting of the Abu Ghraib scandal will worsen relations between coalition forces and the public in Iraq. Mouwafak al-Rubaie, Iraq's national security adviser, said the publication of the new pictures would hinder US efforts to build closer relations with Iraqis. "They don't help in forming a good relationship between the multinational forces and the Iraqi citizens," he admitted. He said he would raise the alleged abuse captured in the new images at an Iraqi ministerial meeting for national security. "We condemn and denounce any kind of abuse of human rights," said Aayda Asran, the deputy human rights minister. But Labeed Abbawi, an adviser to Iraq's foreign minister, questioned the benefit of airing footage of events for which US soldiers had already been punished and said he feared it would only lead to more condemnation of British and US forces. "I feel bringing up these issues is only going to add heat to an already fragile situation in Iraq and they don't help anybody at all," he said. SBS refused to give details of the source of the photographs. "Dateline is confident in the credibility of the source of these new photographs and videos," the SBS statement said. "They are entirely consistent with descriptions of the unreleased photographs and videos from various US army reports into the abuses." The images are similar to the earlier photographs of abuse by US soldiers which triggered outrage in the Middle East and prompted a US congressional investigation and military trials for some soldiers involved. They were taken at Abu Ghraib in late 2003 at about the same time as previously published photographs of Iraqi prisoner abuse. One of the video clips shown by SBS was of a group of naked men with bags over their heads standing together and masturbating. Another video showed a mentally ill man repeatedly beating himself against a wall. Among the photographs, one showed a man with a deep cut on his neck. Another picture was of the same man surrounded by men dressed in khaki shirts and trousers, with one of the men pointing at the wound. The SBS programme said many of the new photos showed Graner having sex with England, the 22-year-old reservist who was jailed for abusing detainees. England said Graner fathered her young son. Those photos were not shown. At a Senate armed services committee inquiry in May 2004, Donald Rumsfeld, the US Secretary of Defence, testified that not all known photographs of the abuses at Abu Ghraib had been publicly released. "Beyond abuse of prisoners, there are other photos that depict incidents of physical violence toward prisoners, acts that can only be described as blatantly sadistic, cruel and inhuman," he said then. The US has attempted to put behind it the scandal which erupted when the first images emerged of US soldiers abusing Iraqi detainees in Abu Ghraib, the notorious detention facility in western Baghdad. The Pentagon deplored publication of the pictures. Bryan Whitman, a spokesman, said the defence department believed the release of additional images of prisoner abuse was harmful and "could only further inflame and possibly incite unnecessary violence in the world". SBS said the images it showed were among photographs the American Civil Liberties Union was trying to obtain from the US government under a Freedom of Information request. In September, a US district court upheld that request in a ruling covering scores of photographs and several videotapes. Government lawyers then said they were considering an appeal, and the images were not immediately released.
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................................................................................................................. Copyright ©2004 Gethin Chamberlain. All rights reserved. |
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