Abu Ghraib abuse photos 'show rape'
By Duncan Gardham, Security Correspondent and Paul Cruickshank
Last Updated: 8:21AM BST 28 May 2009
At least one picture shows an American soldier apparently raping a female prisoner while another is said to show a male translator raping a male detainee.
Further photographs are said to depict sexual assaults on prisoners with objects including a truncheon, wire and a phosphorescent tube.
Another apparently shows a female prisoner having her clothing forcibly removed to expose her breasts.
Detail of the content emerged from Major General Antonio Taguba, the former army officer who conducted an inquiry into the Abu Ghraib jail in Iraq.
Allegations of rape and abuse were included in his 2004 report but the fact there were photographs was never revealed. He has now confirmed their existence in an interview with the Daily Telegraph.
The graphic nature of some of the images may explain the US President’s attempts to block the release of an estimated 2,000 photographs from prisons in Iraq and Afghanistan despite an earlier promise to allow them to be published.
Maj Gen Taguba, who retired in January 2007, said he supported the President’s decision, adding: “These pictures show torture, abuse, rape and every indecency.
“I am not sure what purpose their release would serve other than a legal one and the consequence would be to imperil our troops, the only protectors of our foreign policy, when we most need them, and British troops who are trying to build security in Afghanistan.
“The mere description of these pictures is horrendous enough, take my word for it.”
In April, Mr Obama’s administration said the photographs would be released and it would be “pointless to appeal” against a court judgment in favour of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
But after lobbying from senior military figures, Mr Obama changed his mind saying they could put the safety of troops at risk.
Earlier this month, he said: “The most direct consequence of releasing them, I believe, would be to inflame anti-American public opinion and to put our troops in greater danger.”
It was thought the images were similar to those leaked five years ago, which showed naked and bloody prisoners being intimidated by dogs, dragged around on a leash, piled into a human pyramid and hooded and attached to wires.
Mr Obama seemed to reinforce that view by adding: “I want to emphasise that these photos that were requested in this case are not particularly sensational, especially when compared to the painful images that we remember from Abu Ghraib.”
The latest photographs relate to 400 cases of alleged abuse between 2001 and 2005 in Abu Ghraib and six other prisons. Mr Obama said the individuals involved had been “identified, and appropriate actions” taken.
Maj Gen Taguba’s internal inquiry into the abuse at Abu Ghraib, included sworn statements by 13 detainees, which, he said in the report, he found “credible based on the clarity of their statements and supporting evidence provided by other witnesses.”
Among the graphic statements, which were later released under US freedom of information laws, is that of Kasim Mehaddi Hilas in which he says: “I saw [name of a translator] ******* a kid, his age would be about 15 to 18 years. The kid was hurting very bad and they covered all the doors with sheets. Then when I heard screaming I climbed the door because on top it wasn’t covered and I saw [name] who was wearing the military uniform, putting his **** in the little kid’s ***…. and the female soldier was taking pictures.”
The translator was an American Egyptian who is now the subject of a civil court case in the US.
Three detainees, including the alleged victim, refer to the use of a phosphorescent tube in the sexual abuse and another to the use of wire, while the victim also refers to part of a policeman’s “stick” all of which were apparently photographed.
صحيفة بريطانية تنشر صور انتهاكات جنسية واغتصاب فى سجون عراقية
المحيط - لندن: نشرت صحيفة "ديلي تليجراف البريطانية" اليوم الخميس صورا لما تعرض له سجناء عراقيون من اساءات والتي لا يريد الرئيس الامريكي باراك أوباما نشرها، وتتضمن مشاهد لوقائع اغتصاب وانتهاكات جنسية.
وذكرت وكالة "رويترز" للانباء أن هذه المشاهد تعتبر جزء من صور فوتوغرافية تضمنها تقرير أعده عام 2004 الميجر جنرال الامريكي انطونيو تاجوبا عن الاساءات التي تعرض لها السجناء في سجن ابو غريب.
وضمَن تاجوبا تقريره مزاعم عن حوادث اغتصاب وانتهاكات جنسية وأكد يوم الاربعاء لصحيفة ديلي تليجراف ان الملف يشتمل على صور تدعم تلك المزاعم.
وقال تاجوبا الذي احيل الى التقاعد في يناير/ كانون الثاني عام 2007 للصحيفة "تعرض هذه الصور مشاهد التعذيب والاساءة والاغتصاب وكل سلوك شائن".
وقال انه يؤيد اوباما في قراره عدم نشر الصور مع ان اوباما كان قد تعهد من قبل بنشر كل الصور المتصلة بوقائع الاساءة في ابو غريب وغيره من السجون التي تديرها القوات الامريكية في العراق.
وقال تاجوبا "لا ادرى ما الغرض الذي سيحققه نشرها سوى الغرض القانوني، وستكون العاقبة تعريض قواتنا للخطر وهم حماة سياستنا الخارجية في وقت تشتد فيه حاجتنا اليهم والقوات البريطانية التي تحاول بناء الامن في افغانستان."
وقالت الصحيفة ان صورة واحدة على الاقل تعرض جنديا امريكيا يغتصب فيما يبدو سجينة واخرى يقال انها تعرض مترجما رجلا يغتصب سجينا ذكرا.
وقالت الصحيفة ان صورا اخرى تتضمن انتهاكات جنسية باشياء مثل عصا وسلك وأنبوب فوسفوري. وتتعلق الصور الفوتوغرافية بأربعمائة حالة انتهاك مزعومة حدثت في ابو غريب وستة سجون اخرى بين عامي 2001 و2005
Torture Photos: US Soldiers Raped,Sodomized Iraqi Prisoners.WSWS.org
However, the central reason Obama has chosen to fight the photos’ release is that top US generals announced their opposition to their publication. The generals’ intervention came in the midst of increasingly open dissension from the ranks of the military-intelligence apparatus over Obama’s handling of “the war on terror.” After Obama released four Bush administration legal memos justifying torture, a campaign, spearheaded by Bush Vice President Dick Cheney, was launched, appealing to the military brass and spies. Obama responded by promising he would block any investigation of the previous administration’s carefully crafted and controlled torture policies. He then reversed an earlier decision to not appeal a judge’s ruling in response to an American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) freedom of information lawsuit launched in 2004, which demanded the release of dozens of the torture photos.
An Obama Pentagon spokesman denied that the suppressed images depict rape, while a carefully worded statement seemed to indicate other photos depict precisely such actions. Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said the Telegraph “has completely mischaracterized the images.... None of the photos in question depict the images that are described in that article.” Whitman did not specifically deny Taguba’s claims.
Obama claims that the torture depicted in the photographs was committed by “a small number of individuals,” and that those “involved have been identified, and appropriate actions have been taken.” Here we may safely assume Obama is referring to a small handful of rank-and-file soldiers.
But what of the high-ranking officers who oversaw, endorsed and most likely ordered the torture and rape of prisoners? If there are 2,000 photographs of prisoner torture that fell under the control of the Pentagon, how many more cases were not photographed? It is clear that the torture and rape of prisoners went far beyond the actions of “a few bad apples.” This torture and sexual humiliation of prisoners—up to and including rape—can only be described as the systematic policy of the US military and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), sanctioned at the highest levels of government. Indeed, the generals’ opposition to further publication of the photos is likely based in part on their own association with the crimes.
