Reply #9: Do we understand what these pictures are of? (Not for the squeamish)

[TayTay]

Those with weak stomachs or strong consciences warned about reading this. I am discussing what is on some of those pictures being released.

In Seymour Hersh's 2004 book about the abuses at Abu Ghraib, he talks about the pictures that were withheld from the media because of the fear that they would inflame even more passion against the US.

Donald Rumsfeld finally went to see these pictures in 2004, after the press had released some of the more TV-ready prints. Hersh writes that Rumsfeld found the pictures, "hard to believe. There are other photos that depict ... acts that can only be described as blatantly sadistic, cruel, and inhuman." (OMG, Rumsfeld the stoic actually might have had a conscience, who knew?)

Read this horrific and terribly, terribly graphic account and then tell me Sen. Kerry's press release isn't remarkably even-handed:

Seymour M. Hersh, Chain of Command, page 44 (hardcover)

"In my initial reporting, I saw more than fifty photographs depicting the abuses at Abu Ghraib. In the weeks that followed, other new organizations, notably the Washington Post, obtained and published more. An attorney involved in the case told me in July 2004 that one of the witness statements he had read described the rape of a boy by a foreign contract employee who served as an interpreter at Abu Ghraib. In his statement, which had not been made public, the lawyer told me, a prisoner stated that he was a witness to the rape, and that a woman was taking pictures. The witness further stated, according to the lawyer, that "the kid was making a lot of noise." In his report, General Taguba noted that the evidence he had assembled included videotapes as well as photographs. He also commented that certain members of the Iraqi work force "demonstrate questionable work ethics and loyalties, and are a potentially dangerous contingent within the Hard Site."

There is a more about the rape and abuse of women and other equally ugly things. This is what is on these pictures that the ACLU sued to get released. How this can not end up being used against the US is beyond me. That we have to get at the truth about what happened should also be a given.