Iraq torture pics: authenticity issues clarified

There's a ton of confusion on TV and everywhere else about reports that the Iraq torture pics are fake. This confusion arises because there are two (at least!) completely unrelated sets of pictures.

There are the 60 Minutes pictures--the nude human pyramids, sexual humiliation, etc. with the thumbs-up grinning idiots. Those are the American pictures and they are absolutely real. No credible person anywhere has even questioned their authenticity.

There is also a set of BRITISH pictures published in the Daily Mirror in the UK, and those pictures may well turn out to be fake, though the Mirror is standing by them. (There's no more respectably center-left source in the UK than The Guardian, and even they don't think the Mirror photos are real.) Here's an excellent overview of those UK pix:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/gall/0,8542,1208623,00.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1208629,00.html

I hope this clears up what is becoming a confusing case of people talking past each other, not realizing they are referring to two entirely different sets of pics.

may have released the fake pictures to confuse people and plant doubts about all the pictures authenticity.

When most people hear the stories about the Mirror pics possibly being fake, they will assume that all the other pictures are fake, too. It gives the freeper types just the excuse they need to claim the whole story is made up or that it's just a handful of bad apples that are involved.