With the response to those Danish cartoons and the British Army
beatings in Iraq, still running red-hot in the Islamic world,
tonight, even uglier images from Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison.
Back in 2004 when the first shocking pictures were originally
leaked, the world recoiled in horror, but since then the Bush
Administration has fought tooth and nail to prevent the American
public from seeing any new images of the treatment of Iraqi
detainees, but tonight Dateline reporter Olivia Rousset reveals
new photos and videos. Despite the currently overheated
international climate, we are showing them because they show the
extent of the horror that occurred at Abu Ghraib. A serious
warning though - some of the images you're about to see are
pretty confronting and may offend some of you.
Broadcast By SBS - Australia -
Dateline - 02/15/06
REPORTER: Olivia Rousset
These are the photos the American Government doesn't want you to
see. While researching a story on guards at Abu Ghraib, I
obtained a copy of the unreleased photographs and videos. Taken
at the same time as the photos released in 2004 and often of the
same abuses, this is the first time they have been shown to the
public.
AMRIT SINGH, LAWYER, AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION: We hope
that the release of these photographs will bring about further
pressure to hold high-ranking officials accountable for what we
now know to have been systemic and widespread abuse occurring
throughout Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay.
American Civil Liberties Union lawyer Amrit Singh has not seen
the photos. The ACLU has taken the Department of Defense to
court to force the release of these pictures under the Freedom
of Information Act.
AMRIT SINGH: The government has taken the position that the
conduct of US soldiers depicted in these photographs is so
egregious that the American public cannot have a right to it.
So it is a bizarre position, from our point of view, obviously,
because the Freedom of Information Act, under which we are
seeking these photographs, is precisely the legislation that was
enacted so that the public could find out what its government is
up to.
Last September the ACLU won its case but the government
immediately appealed, stalling the release of the photos. The
government's main argument against their release was that they
would stir up anti-American sentiment. Judge Alvin Hellerstein
directly responded to this in his decision.
JUDGE ALVIN HELLERSTEIN, STATEMENT: Our nation does not
surrender to blackmail, and fear of blackmail is not a legally
sufficient argument to prevent us from performing a statutory
command. Indeed, the freedoms that we champion are as important
to our success in Iraq and Afghanistan as the guns and missiles
with which our troops are armed.
In a stinging rebuke to the Pentagon over America's freedom of
information, Judge Hellerstein even quoted President Bush's
State of the Union speech back at them.
PRESIDENT GEORGE BUSH, STATE OF THE UNION SPEECH: The attack on
freedom in our world has reaffirmed our confidence in freedom's
power to change the world. We are all part of a great venture to
extend the promise of freedom in our country, to renew the
values that sustain our liberty and to spread the peace that
freedom brings.
What has now emerged is that well before the first pictures were
leaked and even before the abuses were photographed, the ACLU
had already filed an earlier freedom-of-information request
concerning the treatment of detainees at Abu Ghraib.
AMRIT SINGH: And the government ignored that Freedom of
Information Act request. At the time we filed our Freedom of
Information Act request policies authorising the abuse of
detainees had already been put in place, and detainees at Abu
Ghraib were being tortured as we were asking for those
documents. So it only goes to confirm that not only was what
happened at Abu Ghraib horrific for the detainees, horrific for
this nation, horrific for the American public to have on its
conscience, the government engaged in a massive cover-up of what
happened. And that is utterly astounding given that this country
is, after all, in the eyes of some, a country which believes in
the rule of law.
These are the photos that have already been seen. They were
taken within weeks of the ACLU's freedom-of-information request.
Images such as the man in the hood with wires attached to his
fingers, and Lynndie England with a detainee on a leash were
seared into the memory of the public, creating a PR nightmare
for the administration's Iraq policy.
When this original batch of photographs was leaked to the press,
members of Congress were given a private viewing of the entire
set, including the unreleased ones.
SENATOR RICHARD DURBIN: The military dogs and the victim lying
on the floor near a pool of blood, with a clear wound on his
leg, it is so graphic.
ABC NEWS REPORTER: Several described a gruesome photo of a
partially decapitated body, though no-one knew if the photo was
taken at the prison or elsewhere in Iraq.
RICHARD SHELBY, REPUBLICAN SENATOR: I saw a horrible picture, it
looked like somebody's face had been blown away or beaten away.
Despite some American journalists having seen and referred to
these new photographs, none have so far been published.
Many of the new photos show Lynndie England and Charles Graner
having sex, but more disturbingly the new photos and video
apparently reveal more torture, sexual humiliation and killings
seemingly perpetrated by soldiers at Abu Ghraib.
This video shows naked men apparently forced to masturbate in
front of the soldiers and their camera.
Based on the American Army's own inquiry we can reveal the
following details of the new photographs and videos. This man,
listed as 'detainee 10', is thought to be an Iraqi general who
was resisting relocation from the outside camp to the cell
blocks, known as the hard site, at Abu Ghraib. The report states
that he was pushed against a wall at which point guards noticed
blood coming from underneath his hood. The 1.5-inch cut on his
chin was sutured by a medic. While an army report lists a
description of this photo as, "detainee apparently shot by MP
personnel with shotgun using less than lethal rounds", the
circumstances surrounding the incident are unknown.
An American soldier told me that this man was first held in the
camp outside the hard site at Abu Ghraib, and that after causing
problems with the other detainees, he was brought into the cells
where the high value prisoners were kept. Known to the soldiers
as 'shit boy', due to an alleged habit of covering himself in
his own faeces, he was left without psychiatric care. He
apparently became a plaything of the guards who experimented
with ways to restrain him. He's filmed here from several
different angles handcuffed to a cell, slamming his head into
the metal door. The soldiers chose to film him several times
from different angles rather than try to prevent his self-harm.
An American soldier who worked as a guard at Abu Ghraib told me
these two women were arrested for working as prostitutes and
were held in Abu Ghraib for 48 hours.
AMRIT SINGH: The government documents we have show that the
overwhelming majority of detainees held in Abu Ghraib were in
all likelihood innocent. So for people who think that, you know,
that these detainees got what they deserved and this was just a
lawful exercise of executive authority to get information -
first of all, these detainees were in all likelihood innocent
and secondly, we have documents from the FBI at Guantanamo
saying that coercive interrogation techniques are not good at
producing actionable intelligence. If anything rapport-building
techniques are much better at producing actionable intelligence
that can be used to sort of wage the so-called war on terror.
From these original photos we know that this man is Munadel al-Jumaili.
These are new photos of his corpse. I was told these two photos
were taken in the room, where he was killed whilst under CIA
interrogation.
The reason for the deaths of these men is also largely unclear,
however, the number next to the corpse of this detainee
corresponds to an entry in another army report. He is listed as
one of three men killed during a riot in the camp at Abu Ghraib.
The riot began when the detainees were protesting their living
conditions, which, according, to army reports, were filthy,
crowded and dangerous.
Two soldiers from Abu Ghraib have told me that during the riot
when the guards ran out of rubber bullets they were ordered to
use lethal rounds. The detainees were fenced in a camp compound
with nowhere to run or hide.
REPORTER: Any regrets?
SOLDIER: No, ma'am.
REPORTER: Any apologies?
Accountability for the abuses has been sheeted home to seven low
ranking guards. These 'bad apples', as Secretary of Defense
Rumsfeld called them, are serving various sentences - the
longest being 10 years for the ringleader, Charles Graner, and
three years for his then lover, Lynndie England.
There have been 10 government investigations into the abuse and
torture of detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay,
but no high ranking officials have been held accountable.
REPORTER: What do you think of what happened to those seven
soldiers who were charged when the scandal first emerged?
AMRIT SINGH: Well, I think looking at the documents that we have
received under the Freedom of Information Act so far, it is very
clear to us that the actions of these soldiers were part of a
larger program to abuse detainees that was put in place by high
ranking officials.
We have consistently called out for an independent commission to
evaluate the responsibility of high ranking officials but
nothing has been done so far. If anything, these high ranking
officials who put in place policies that resulted in the abuse
of detainees have been exonerated and promoted.
Americans pride themselves on free speech and open government.
This is why Amrit Singh and the ACLU feel these photos should be
released.
AMRIT SINGH: The photographs really have to be released so that
the public has some idea of what exactly happened at Abu Ghraib.
And it has been our position consistently through this
litigation that the subject of detainee abuse has been a matter
of intense public debate and the appropriate high ranking
officials who put the policies in place that resulted in the
abuse of detainees have not been held accountable. And it is now
for the public to decide for itself, by looking at these
documents, what needs to be done.
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