New 'prisoner abuse' photographs emerge despite US bid to block publication

Source: Telegraph UK

New 'prisoner abuse' photographs emerge despite US bid to block publication
Graphic photographs of alleged prisoner abuse, thought to be among up to 2,000 images Barack Obama is trying to prevent from being released, emerged yesterday.


By Alex Spillius in Washington
Last Updated: 10:21PM BST 14 May 2009


The shocking images of inmates in Iraq and Afghanistan were published just a day after the US president announced plans for a legal battle stop them ever being seen.

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One picture showed a prisoner hung up upside down while another showed a naked man smeared in excrement standing in a corridor with a guard standing menacingly in front of him. Another prisoner is handcuffed to the window frame of his cell with underpants pulled over his head.

Others yet to be released reportedly show military guards threatening to sexually assault a detainee with a broomstick and hooded prisoners on transport planes with Playboy magazines opened to pictures of nude women on their laps.

The images emerged from Australia yesterday where they were originally obtained by the channel SBS in 2006 in the wake of the Abu Ghraib scandal. They were not distributed around the world at the time but are now believed to be among those the president is trying to block.

Read more: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/barackobama/5325444/New-prisoner-abuse-photographs-emerge-despite-US-bid-to-block-publication.html

And Obama is off the hook. He wouldn't let the US government release the pictures, but somehow the pictures come out for all to see.

His hands are clean. He can't be attacked for the truth being seen. Good work.

Cheney attacked him for possibly not protecting the troops so Obama did all he could to protect the troops. Cheney failed.

People, this is a damn good lesson in real politics. Don't you people who knee-jerked against Obama feel pretty stupid about now?

It's really not a very good idea to combine name-calling with knee-jerking; you run the risk of looking ridiculous.

Another small piece of advice... don't follow ANY politician blindly. You will likely be disappointed.

I looked downthread and while we of course talked about these photos in 2006,
we hadn't necessarily SEEN those pics. So take your advice and stick it...

ETA: We know there are pics we haven't seen. So this little debate is about whether Obama is as smart a politician as I think he is or whether he isn't and should I support him. We know the answer to that.

And we should all know that, if not now, eventually the pics will come out. Obama knows that. So why would he force the issue? Why force it when he can use the whole process to cut cheney?

the photos referenced in this article have been out there for some time.

This is the first I have heard of these. Haven't seem them yet and may never, but I did follow the release several years ago.

Anyway, the point is that the photos will most surely BE released whether Obama does so or not. So Obama doesn't have to do anything. And that's what he's doing, or, rather, what he's not doing is playing into cheney's hand.

to show how the US has changed under his administration, display the new transparency, and chose not to do so.

The pictures will come out eventually, either legally or illegally, but not because Obama chose to make them public--and talking about how our president is a brazillion moves ahead in the chess game will not impress those who wonder why the administration chose to suppress the photos.

The White House now appears to have engages in a failed attempt to protect Torturers and War Criminals. The TRUTH OUTED despite the White House efforts to hide it.

I really don't get the point of that incredible ignorance.

These don't sound like new photos to me. I could swear they were part of the original release.

they are part of the original release. I have seen the ones they described.

What was the purpose of that exercise?

I think the intention was to spread these pictures around for all potential future detainees to see, in order to make them tremble in their boots. That's the only explanation I can see.

that the pictures coming out now are not even in the hands of the US goverment but previously unknown ones from the camera phones of those involved ? :shrug:

http://www.salon.com/news/abu_ghraib/2006/03/14/chapter_9/index.html



"Today Salon presents an archive of 279 photos and 19 videos of Abu Ghraib abuse first gathered by the CID, along with information drawn from the CID's own timeline of the events depicted. As we reported Feb. 16, Salon's Mark Benjamin recently acquired extensive documentation of the CID investigation -- including this photo archive and timeline -- from a military source who spent time at Abu Ghraib and who is familiar with the Army probe.

Shortly after we published "The Abu Ghraib Files," the Pentagon released much of the same material to the ACLU.
"

This is the same picture being used on the telegraph site...except the picture I posted came from the Salon Abu Ghraib Files.

I knew I had seen those photos but when you get old the memory goes and I just couldn't remember where,

but I've been expecting something like this. It's difficult to censor information these days.

see post 7 by Solly Mack.

sooner or later. Someone has 'em and will leak them. This is why it's best to just release them and deal with the monsters responsible. I fear Obama will learn this the hard way.

DU is ahead of the curve. We here saw these "new" pictures that they are talking about back in 2006, I know the link to Salon and these pics was here on DU because at the time this was the only web site I knew about. DU is great.


edited for spelling

htp://www . thewednesdayreport . com/ twr/ twr-v18/ 19/ Abu_Ghraib_prison# . jpg

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http://www.antiwar.com/news/?articleid=8560

Also: http://www.salon.com/news/abu_ghraib/2006/03/14/introduction/

I can't imagine what they must be like if they would inflame people beyond what these already-released photos would.