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US Probes Fresh Iraqi Prisoners’ Abuse Photos
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An apparently blackedout Iraqi prisoner with blood dripping from his head. |
WASHINGTON,
December 4 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – The Iraqi abuse
scandal deepened Saturday, December 4, as the US navy said it was
investigating new photos posted on the internet, showing bloodied
Iraqi prisoners being abused by its special forces after their capture
in May 2003.
A
number of navy SEALs, which stands for Sea, Air, Land, were seen
holding a gun to a detainee's bloodied head, and placing a boot on the
chest of a prone man, the BBC News Online reported.
Several
of the photos, found by an Associated Press reporter on a commercial
photo-sharing Web site, show grinning men wearing US flags on their
uniforms, and one with a SEAL tattoo, take turns sitting or lying atop
what appear to be three hooded and handcuffed men in the bed of a
pickup truck.
The
reporters handed them over to officials at the Naval Special Warfare
Command (NSWC) at Coronado, California.
“I
can assure you that the matter will be thoroughly investigated,”
Navy Cmdr. Jeff Bender, a spokesman for the NSWC, said in a written
response to questions.
The
AP reporter found more than 40 of the pictures among hundreds in an
album posted on Smugmug.com Web page by a woman who said her husband
brought them from Iraq after his tour of duty.
The
images were found through the online search engine Google. The same
search today leads to the Web page, which now prompts the user for a
password.
Before
the site was password protected, the AP purchased reprints for 29
cents each.
The
Earliest
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Detainees held in the back of a truck with a foot atop one of them.
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Some
of the photos have date stamps suggesting they were taken in May 2003,
which could make them the earliest evidence of prisoners’ abuse in
Iraq.
These
and other photos appear to show the immediate aftermath of raids on
civilian homes, the AP said.
The
far more brutal practices photographed in Abu Ghraib prison broke
into public view in April.
In
one shocking image, a US private was
pictured holding a leash attached to the neck of a naked detainee
who was sprawling on the floor of a cell block.
Other
photographs showed piles of naked detainees forced into human pyramids
and forced to defile themselves.
Convicted
private Lynndie England, who made her presence in most of the Iraqi
abuse photos, had said it was all “a big joke” and had been “just
for fun”.
Seven
US military police reservists have been charged in the Abu Ghraib
abuse scandal.
The
Washington Post reported Wednesday, December 1, that senior US Army
generals in Iraq were told in December 2003 that special operations
troops and CIA personnel were suspected of abusing Iraqi prisoners --
four months before the scale of prisoner abuse shocked the world.
The
paper said that the US leadership in Iraq had clues about prisoner
mistreatment.
The
New Yorker reported on May 16 that the abuse was Okayed
by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld himself.
The
Washington Post said Saturday, June 12, that former top US commander
in Iraq, Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, gave
free reign to US officers in charge of Abu Ghraib to
adopt various torture and abuse tactics used at the infamous
Guantanamo detention camp.
The
New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), an American
human rights group, filed war
crimes charges in Germany on Tuesday, November 30, against
Rumsfeld, Sanchez and other senior officials involved in the Abu
Ghraib scandal.
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