"The American public needs to understand we're talking about rape and murder here."

[BlueJessamine]

"The American public needs to understand we're talking about rape and murder here."

-Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham

Excerpts from the Editor & Publisher article Judge Orders Release of Abu Ghraib Photos

Published: September 29, 2005

Judge rules to release graphic pictures:

NEW YORK A federal judge ruled today that graphic pictures of detainee abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison must be released over government claims that they could damage America's image. Last year a Republican senator conceded that they contained scenes of "rape and murder" and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said they included acts that were "blatantly sadistic."


Rumsfeld gives a clue to the images of the sadistic and shocking acts :

What is shown on the photographs and videos from Abu Ghraib prison that the Pentagon has blocked from release? One clue: Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told Congress last year, after viewing a large cache of unreleased images, "I mean, I looked at them last night, and they're hard to believe." They show acts "that can only be described as blatantly sadistic, cruel and inhumane," he added.

A Republican Senator suggested the same day they contained scenes of "rape and murder." Rumsfeld then commented, "If these are released to the public, obviously it's going to make matters worse."



America, accountability and the ACLU:

“Today's historic ruling is a step toward ensuring that our government's leaders are held accountable for the abuse and torture that happened on their watch,” said ACLU Executive Director Anthony D. Romero. “The American public has a right to know what happened in American detention centers, and how our leaders let it occur."


CNN reporting it on May 8, 2004:

"U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld revealed Friday that videos and 'a lot more pictures' exist of the abuse of Iraqis held at Abu Ghraib prison.

"'If these are released to the public, obviously it's going to make matters worse,' Rumsfeld told the Senate Armed Services Committee. 'I mean, I looked at them last night, and they're hard to believe.'

"The embattled defense secretary fielded sharp and skeptical questions from lawmakers as he testified about the growing prisoner abuse scandal. A military report about that abuse describes detainees being threatened, sodomized with a chemical light and forced into sexually humiliating poses.

"Charges have been brought against seven service members, and investigations into events at the prison continue.


Murder in our name:

"Military investigators have looked into -- or are continuing to investigate -- 35 cases of alleged abuse or deaths of prisoners in detention facilities in the Central Command theater, according to Army Secretary Les Brownlee. Two of those cases were deemed homicides, he said.

"'The American public needs to understand we're talking about rape and murder here. We're not just talking about giving people a humiliating experience,' Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina told reporters after Rumsfeld testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee. 'We're talking about rape and murder -- and some very serious charges.'

"A report by Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba on the abuse at the prison outside Baghdad says videotapes and photographs show naked detainees, and that groups of men were forced to masturbate while being photographed and videotaped. Taguba also found evidence of a 'male MP guard having sex with a female detainee.'


The children ... with the cameras rolling ...the terror:

In the same period, reporter Seymour Hersh, who helped uncover the scandal, said in a speech before an ACLU convention: "Some of the worse that happened that you don't know about, ok? Videos, there are women there. Some of you may have read they were passing letters, communications out to their men ... . The women were passing messages saying 'Please come and kill me, because of what's happened.'

"Basically what happened is that those women who were arrested with young boys/children in cases that have been recorded. The boys were sodomized with the cameras rolling. The worst about all of them is the soundtrack of the boys shrieking that your government has. They are in total terror it's going to come out."

The full artcile is here:
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001218842



Lies and complicity

“The American people have been lied to, and government officials who authorized and justified abusive policies have been given a pass,” said Amnesty International’s Larry Cox today.

The ACLU’s Anthony Romero said that ultimately, Team Obama would end up linking itself to the Bush policies.

“In America, every fact and document gets known - whether now or years from now,” Romero said. “And when these photos do see the light of day, the outrage will focus not only on the commission of torture by the Bush administration but on the Obama administration’s complicity in covering them up.”



Read more: "Mouth Of The Potomac - NY Daily News" - http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dc/2009/05/torture-flashback.html#ixzz0FREI39dy&A

[KansDem]

1. K&R

This article is dated September 29, 2005; Rumsfeld resigned on December 18, 2006.

Maybe he saw the handwriting on the wall...(?)

[MasonJar]

2. Obama is becoming more culpable by the day and there seems no

reason for it. Who knows what threat he has had or what they have on him from eavesdropping. No other explanation makes sense. He clearly has said no one is above the law, but his actions belie his pretty words. The generals are trying to save their own hides, not the troops. If they had cared about the troops, this war would have never occurred.

[slay]

3. K&R - "the Obama administration’s complicity in covering them up"

That is EXACTLY the problem, right there.