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Iraqi children raped in Abu Ghraib

.. | 29.07.2005 11:28 | Anti-militarism | Repression | World

Seymour Hersh says the US government has videotapes of boys being sodomized at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

""The worst is the soundtrack of the boys shrieking," the reporter told an ACLU convention last week. Hersh says there was "a massive amount of criminal wrongdoing that was covered up at the highest command out there, and higher."

(I transcribed some of his speech from this streaming site. Hersh starts at about 1:07:50.)

He called the prison scene "a series of massive crimes, criminal activity by the president and the vice president, by this administration anyway?war crimes."

The outrages have cost us the support of moderate Arabs, says Hersh. "They see us as a sexually perverse society."

Hersh describes a Pentagon in crisis. The defense department budget is ?in incredible chaos,? he says, with large sums of cash missing, including something like $1 billion that was supposed to be in Iraq.

"The disaffection inside the Pentagon is extremely accute," Hersh says. He tells the story of an officer telling Rumsfeld how bad things are, and Rummy turning to a ranking general yes-man who reassured him that things are just fine. Says Hersh, "The Secretary of Defense is simply incapable of hearing what he doesn?t want to hear."

The Iraqi insurgency, he says,was operating in 1-to-3 man cells a year ago, now in 10-15 man cells, and despite the harsh questioning, "we still know nothing about them...we have no tactical information.?

He says the foreign element among insurgents is overstated, and that bogeyman Zarqawi is "a composite figure" hyped by our government.

The war, he says, has escalated to "fullscale, increasingly intense military activity."

Hersh described the folks in charge of US policy as "neoconservative cultists" who have taken the government over, and show "how fragile our democracy is."

He ripped the supine US press, pledged to bring home all the facts he could, said he was not sure he could deliver all the damning info he suspects about Bush administration responsibility for Abu Ghraib."


..
- Homepage: http://radio.weblogs.com/0107946/2004/07/14.html#a1922

Comments

Hide the following 6 comments

No proof

29.07.2005 14:33

There is not proof of what you are saying if you had any you already would have passed it on to the prosecutors in the USA or here and they would take action.

But I can give you a real proof of child rape, in some Islamic countries it is legal to marry an 11 year old girl, that is child rape with proof but nobody can do nothing against it as it is legal.

Abramonich


re: No proof

29.07.2005 15:54

A Judge in the US has already seen the tapes and ordered them to be released publicly. The Pentagon lawyers have refused to do so, saying that they don't want the prisoners to undergo 'further humiliation' by making the tapes public.

So: there is proof. Video tapes have been passed to the prosecutors in the USA and they have taken action (ordering them to be made public). The Pentagon has refused to obey the court order, therefore the proof that you are demanding is not publicly available because the Pentagon don't want it to be.

Toby


"Rape and murder", says conservative US Senator

29.07.2005 16:18

Pentagon Blocks Release of Abu Ghraib Images: Here's Why

By Greg Mitchell

Published: July 23, 2005 6:00 PM ET

NEW YORK So what is shown on the 87 photographs and four videos from Abu Ghraib prison that the Pentagon, in an eleventh hour move, blocked from release this weekend? One clue: Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told Congress last year, after viewing a large cache of unreleased images: "I mean, I looked at them last night, and they're hard to believe." They show acts "that can only be described as blatantly sadistic, cruel and inhumane," he added.

A Republican Senator suggested the same day they contained scenes of "rape and murder." No wonder Rumsfeld commented then, "If these are released to the public, obviously it's going to make matters worse."

Yesterday, news emerged that lawyers for the Pentagon had refused to cooperate with a federal judge's order to release dozens of unseen photographs and videos from Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq by Saturday. The photos were among thousands turned over by the key “whistleblower” in the scandal, Specialist Joseph M. Darby. Just a few that were released to the press sparked the Abu Ghraib abuse scandal last year, and the video images are said to be even more shocking.

The Pentagon lawyers said in a letter sent to the federal court in Manhattan that they would file a sealed brief explaining their reasons for not turning over the material. They had been ordered to do so by a federal judge in response to a FOIA lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union. The ACLU accused the government Friday of putting another legal roadblock in the way of its bid to allow the public to see the images of the prisoner abuse scandal.

One Pentagon lawyer has argued that they should not be released because they would only add to the humiliation of the prisoners. But the ACLU has said the faces of the victims can easily be "redacted."

[NOTE: The New York Times on Tuesday ran a somewhat confusing correction on its story about this episode: "An article on Saturday about a federal judge's order regarding photographs and videotapes related to the Abu Ghraib prison scandal misstated a deadline and the response by Defense Department lawyers. The government was given until Friday to black out some identifying details in the material, not to release it. Defense Department lawyers met that deadline, but asked the court to block the public release of the materials. They did not refuse to cooperate with an order for the materials' release."]

To get a sense of what may be shown in these images, one has to go back to press reports from when the Abu Ghraib abuse scandal was still front page news.

This is how CNN reported it on May 8, 2004, in a typical account that day:

"U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld revealed Friday that videos and 'a lot more pictures' exist of the abuse of Iraqis held at Abu Ghraib prison.

"’If these are released to the public, obviously it's going to make matters worse,’ Rumsfeld told the Senate Armed Services Committee. ‘I mean, I looked at them last night, and they're hard to believe.’

"The embattled defense secretary fielded sharp and skeptical questions from lawmakers as he testified about the growing prisoner abuse scandal. A military report about that abuse describes detainees being threatened, sodomized with a chemical light and forced into sexually humiliating poses.

"Charges have been brought against seven service members, and investigations into events at the prison continue.

"Military investigators have looked into -- or are continuing to investigate -- 35 cases of alleged abuse or deaths of prisoners in detention facilities in the Central Command theater, according to Army Secretary Les Brownlee. Two of those cases were deemed homicides, he said.

"'The American public needs to understand we're talking about rape and murder here. We're not just talking about giving people a humiliating experience,' Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina told reporters after Rumsfeld testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee. 'We're talking about rape and murder -- and some very serious charges.'

"A report by Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba on the abuse at the prison outside Baghdad says videotapes and photographs show naked detainees, and that groups of men were forced to masturbate while being photographed and videotaped. Taguba also found evidence of a 'male MP guard having sex with a female detainee.'

"Rumsfeld told Congress the unrevealed photos and videos contain acts 'that can only be described as blatantly sadistic, cruel and inhuman.’"

The military later screened some of the images for lawmakers, who said they showed, among other things, attack dogs snarling at cowed prisoners, Iraqi women forced to expose their breasts, and naked prisoners forced to have sex with each other.

In the same period, reporter Seymour Hersh, who helped uncover the scandal, said in a speech before an ACLU convention: "Some of the worse that happened that you don't know about, ok? Videos, there are women there. Some of you may have read they were passing letters, communications out to their men….The women were passing messages saying 'Please come and kill me, because of what's happened.'

"Basically what happened is that those women who were arrested with young boys/children in cases that have been recorded. The boys were sodomized with the cameras rolling. The worst about all of them is the soundtrack of the boys shrieking that your government has. They are in total terror it's going to come out."

The Ghost of Vietnam
- Homepage: http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000990590


worraller

29.07.2005 16:58

These photos and videos are part of the evidence gathered for the US Army investigation into Abu Ghraib. They have been seen by Senators, Representatives, journalists (including Hersch) and Bush admin officials.

Some were released last year and led to the convictions of Grainer and England. The set in dispute at the moment are being held back by the White House, against the orders of the court, after the American Civil Liberties Union were granted the release under the Freedom of Info Act. They were due for release at the beginning of July, I think, but were initially held back for 'redaction' until the 22nd or 23rd of July. Since then they have been in breach of the court order.

mike


Focus Is Interesting

30.07.2005 07:08

Imagine the blanket coverage if it was disclosed that "ze terrorists" were raping children ... or attacked a country in violation of International Law, slaughtering thousands upon thousands of innocent men, women, and children, then illegally occupied the country, killing vastly more?

Mainstream Media Dead


In other words the Geoffrey Dahmer "society" goes to Iraq

31.07.2005 23:46

In other words the Geoffrey Dahmer "society" goes to Iraq ...

'Nuff said

Dennis Revell
mail e-mail: dennisrevellATatt.net
- Homepage: http://dennisrevell.home.att.net/Politico/TITLE_ONLY_Open_letter_to_Prime_Minister_Tony_BlairTXT.htm


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