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New Iraq photos include more
disturbing images of torture
WASHINGTON -- Members of Congress viewed fresh photos and videos of Iraqi
prisoner abuse on Wednesday, and said they included disturbing images of
torture and humiliation.
"The whole thing is disgusting and it's
hard to believe that this actually is taking place in a military facility,"
said Senator Dianne Feinstein (D - Calif.) "I expected that these pictures
would be very hard on the stomach lining and it was significantly worse than
anything that I had anticipated," said Senator Ron Wyden (D - Ore.) "Take
the worst case and multiply it several times over."
Several senators, speaking on condition of
anonymity, said photos of sexual intercourse were among the images that
Pentagon officials screened for legislators in a top-secret room in the
Capitol. At least some of the photos gave the appearance of consensual sex
involving U.S. military personnel, they added.
Others showed military dogs snarling at
cowering prisoners, as well as shots of Iraqi women commanded to expose
their breasts, they said.
The private screening marked the latest
turn in a scandal that has rocked the Bush administration and apparently led
to the beheading of an American in Iraq by Islamic militants who said they
were avenging the humiliation and torture of Iraqi prisoners.
"I don't know how the hell these people got
into our army," said Ben Nighthorse Campbell (R-Colo.) after viewing the
images.
"There were several pictures of Iraqi women
who were disrobed or putting their shirts up," he said. "They were not
smiling in the pictures, that's for sure. But it didn't look like they had
been beaten or hurt."
He also said there were several pictures
with dogs. "Iraqis were against the wall and you could see that the dogs
were pretty much terrorizing them because the dogs were snarling and
crouching like they were about to attack," he added.
NOTE: These were among the 1,800 new pictures and video stills depicting
abuse at the Abu Ghraib jail shown to members of the US Congress, the U.S.
is bocking the release of these materiaal to the public.
Source: Canadian Press
- May 12, 2004 |
