New pictures reveal extent of abuse at Abu Ghraib jail

By Christopher Zinn in Sydney and Patrick Cockburn
Published: 16 February 2006

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article345692.ece

Damning new photographs and videos purporting to show
the abuse and even murder of Iraqi prisoners at the
infamous Abu Ghraib jail have been broadcast on
Australian television and picked up by Arab channels.

The images are likely to trigger outrage because they
show more graphically than before the scenes of
humiliation which took place at Abu Ghraib in late
2003.

Iraqis will be watching them on television days after
seeing film of British soldiers beating up young men
in the city of Amarah in southern Iraq and amid
continuing Muslim fury over cartoons depicting the
Prophet Mohamed.

The 60 pictures appearing to show a man with a cut
throat, another suffering from severe head injuries
and a naked man hanging upside down from a bed were
broadcast last night on the Dateline programme by the
state-owned Special Broadcasting Service.

SBS said in a statement: "The extent of the abuse
shown in the photos suggests that the torture and
abuse that occurred at Abu Ghraib in 2004 is much
worse than is currently understood."

They include photos of six corpses and injuries which
could have been caused by shotguns. One reveals a
prisoner with apparent burn marks on his left forearm
and another shows a bound man in an orange jumpsuit
being menaced by a dog.

Video broadcast by Dateline appears to show prisoners
being forced to masturbate to the camera with another
showing a man hitting his head against a wall. The
still images show soldiers who have already been
prosecuted for their part in the abuse, including Pte
Lynndie England and Spc Charles Graner.

An SBS spokeswoman declined to reveal how the images
were obtained but said that the programme, which
specialises in low-budget reports from around the
world, was confident in the credibility of the source.

"When the original Abu Ghraib photographs were leaked
to the press, members of Congress were given a private
viewing of photographs including the images which
appear in this Dateline programme," said SBS. "They
were shocked by what these extra images revealed of
the full horror of the abuses taking place at Abu
Ghraib."

The new pictures, broadcast at a time when
anti-Western feeling is running high among Muslims
across the world over the publication of the cartoons
depicting the Prophet Mohamed, may finally torpedo the
reputation of the US occupation in the eyes of Iraqis.
The pictures were among dozens at the centre of a
legal battle in the US to block their publication.
They are among more than 100 stills and four videos
taken at the Baghdad prison which the US
administration is fighting to keep secret in a court
case with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

A New York judge granted a freedom-of-information
request to the ACLU last year for access to 87 of the
unseen images but the administration has appealed
against the decision, saying their release would fuel
anti-American sentiment.

An ACLU lawyer, Amrit Singh, told Dateline: "The
photographs have to be released so the public have
some idea of what happened at Abu Ghraib. It is for
the public to decide on looking at them what needs to
be done."

The pictures show guards smiling as they stand beside
blood-soaked and hooded prisoners, some of whom are
tied to an unidentified apparatus. The release of
further pictures of torture will make it more
difficult for the US to claim that what happened in
Abu Ghraib in 2003 and 2004 was isolated and the work
of low-level guards acting on their own initiative. Mr
Singh said the images were evidence of "systematic and
widespread abuse" of prisoners by US soldiers.

The impact of the Danish cartoons of the Prophet
Mohamed, the video of British soldiers beating up
Iraqi youths and now pictures of further abuse at Abu
Ghraib are likely to have a serious cumulative impact
on Iraqis, accustomed though they are to acts of
violence by the state.

The photos were being broadcast by Arab television
stations yesterday evening.

Opinion polls have shown since the middle of 2003 that
all Arab Iraqis, both Sunni and Shia, want the US-led
occupation to end and foreign troops to leave the
country.

A problem now facing the US and Britain is that one of
the most powerful groups within the Shia United Iraqi
Alliance, with 128 seats in the 275 seat parliament,
wants foreign forces to leave. This is the party
following Muqtada al-Sadr, the radical nationalist
cleric, which is staunchly anti-occupation.

The provincial council in Basra has voted to maintain
a boycott of British forces which are supposedly in
Iraq only to support local security forces, though
some of these are now refusing to have anything to do
with the British Army.

Denmark yesterday said it wanted a clear declaration
of support for its troops from the Iraqi government.
The Iraqi Ministry of Transport, under the control of
followers of Mr Sadr, has frozen all contracts with
Danish and Norwegian companies in protest at the
publication of the cartoons.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

TV says new images show abuse at Abu Ghraib jail

Michael Perry, Reuters in Sydney
Thursday February 16, 2006
The Guardian

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,1710718,00.html

An Australian television station broadcast yesterday
what it said were previously unpublished images of
abuse of Iraqi prisoners in Abu Ghraib prison.
The Special Broadcasting Service's Dateline current
affairs programme said the images had been recorded at
the same time as those of US soldiers abusing
detainees in the Iraqi prison that caused outrage in
2004. Some suggest further abuse such as killing,
torture and sexual humiliation, it said.

The photographs and video images, which were
rebroadcast by Arab television stations, show
prisoners, some bleeding or hooded, bound to beds and
doors, sometimes with a smiling guard beside them.
They include a pile of five naked detainees
photographed from the rear, and a dog straining at a
leash close to the face of a crouching man wearing a
bright orange jumpsuit.

The pictures stirred up more anger among Arabs,
already incensed by the publication of images of
British soldiers apparently beating Iraqi youths and
by cartoons of the prophet Muhammad.

"This is truly American ugliness that no other country
in the world can compete with," a Yemeni journalist,
Saleh al-Humaidi, said. "The Americans ought to
apologise for their government's lie to the world that
it is fighting for freedom and that it came to Iraq to
save it from Saddam Hussein's oppression."

The programme's executive producer, Mike Carey, said
Dateline had obtained a file containing hundreds of
pictures, including some that had been seen before. He
declined to say where or how it got hold of them.

Several appear to show Charles Graner, a soldier who
was jailed in January for 10 years for his role in the
Abu Ghraib abuse.

Some of the video footage apparently shows one
prisoner banging his head against a wall, while some
photographs appear to show corpses, and others feature
sexually humiliating acts too graphic to broadcast, Mr
Carey said.

The programme said some prisoners at Abu Ghraib had
been killed when US soldiers ran out of plastic
bullets as they tried to quell a jail riot, and
resorted to using live rounds.

One picture showed what looked like cigarette burns on
a man's buttocks.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has been
granted access to the images under US freedom of
information laws, but the US government is appealing,
Dateline said. An ACLU lawyer, Amrit Singh, told
Dateline the images were evidence of "systemic and
widespread abuse" by American soldiers.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

America's Long War

Last week US defence chiefs unveiled their plan for
battling global Islamist extremism. They envisage a
conflict fought in dozens of countries and for decades
to come. Today we look in detail at this seismic shift
in strategic thinking, and what it will mean for
Britain

Simon Tisdall and Ewen MacAskill
Wednesday February 15, 2006
The Guardian

http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,1710062,00.html

The message from General Peter Pace, the chairman of
the US joint chiefs of staff, was apocalyptic. "We are
at a critical time in the history of this great
country and find ourselves challenged in ways we did
not expect. We face a ruthless enemy intent on
destroying our way of life and an uncertain future."

Gen Pace was endorsing the Pentagon's four-yearly
strategy review, presented to Congress last week. The
report sets out a plan for prosecuting what the the
Pentagon describes in the preface as "The Long War",
which replaces the "war on terror". The long war
represents more than just a linguistic shift: it
reflects the ongoing development of US strategic
thinking since the September 11 attacks.

Looking beyond the Iraq and Afghan battlefields, US
commanders envisage a war unlimited in time and space
against global Islamist extremism. "The struggle ...
may well be fought in dozens of other countries
simultaneously and for many years to come," the report
says. The emphasis switches from large-scale,
conventional military operations, such as the 2003
invasion of Iraq, towards a rapid deployment of highly
mobile, often covert, counter-terrorist forces.
Among specific measures proposed are: an increase in
special operations forces by 15%; an extra 3,700
personnel in psychological operations and civil
affairs units - an increase of 33%; nearly double the
number of unmanned aerial drones; the conversion of
submarine-launched Trident nuclear missiles for use in
conventional strikes; new close-to-shore, high-speed
naval capabilities; special teams trained to detect
and render safe nuclear weapons quickly anywhere in
the world; and a new long-range bomber force.

The Pentagon does not pinpoint the countries it sees
as future areas of operations but they will stretch
beyond the Middle East to the Horn of Africa, north
Africa, central and south-east Asia and the northern
Caucasus.

The cold war dominated the world from 1946 to 1991:
the long war could determine the shape of the world
for decades to come. The plan rests heavily on a much
higher level of cooperation and integration with
Britain and other Nato allies, and the increased
recruitment of regional governments through the use of
economic, political, military and security means. It
calls on allies to build their capacity "to share the
risks and responsibilities of today's complex
challenges".

The Pentagon must become adept at working with
interior ministries as well as defence ministries, the
report says. It describes this as "a substantial shift
in emphasis that demands broader and more flexible
legal authorities and cooperative mechanisms ...
Bringing all the elements of US power to bear to win
the long war requires overhauling traditional foreign
assistance and export control activities and laws."

Unconventional approach

The report, whose consequences are still being
assessed in European capitals, states: "This war
requires the US military to adopt unconventional and
indirect approaches." It adds: "We have been adjusting
the US global force posture, making long overdue
adjustments to US basing by moving away from a static
defence in obsolete cold war garrisons, and placing
emphasis on the ability to surge quickly to
troublespots across the globe."

The strategy mirrors in some respects a recent
readjustment in British strategic thinking but it is
on a vastly greater scale, funded by an overall 2007
US defence spending request of more than $513bn.

As well as big expenditure projects, the report calls
for: investments in signals and human intelligence
gathering - spies on the ground; funding for the Nato
intelligence fusion centre; increased space radar
capability; the expansion of the global information
grid (a protected information network); and an
information-sharing strategy "to guide operations with
federal, state, local and coalition partners". A push
will also be made to improve forces' linguistic
skills, with an emphasis on Arabic, Chinese and Farsi.

The US plan, developed by military and civilian staff
at the Pentagon in concert with other branches of the
US government, will raise concerns about exacerbating
the "clash of civilisations" and about the respect
accorded to international law and human rights. To
wage the long war, the report urges Congress to grant
the Pentagon and its agencies expanded permanent legal
authority of the kind used in Iraq, which may give US
commanders greatly extended powers.

"Long duration, complex operations involving the US
military, other government agencies and international
partners will be waged simultaneously in multiple
countries round the world, relying on a combination of
direct (visible) and indirect (clandestine)
approaches," the report says. "Above all they will
require persistent surveillance and vastly better
intelligence to locate enemy capabilities and
personnel. They will also require global mobility,
rapid strike, sustained unconventional warfare,
foreign internal defence, counter-terrorism and
counter-insurgency capabilities. Maintaining a
long-term, low-visibility presence in many areas of
the world where US forces do not traditionally operate
will be required."

The report exposes the sheer ambition of the US
attempt to mastermind global security. "The US will
work to ensure that all major and emerging powers are
integrated as constructive actors and stakeholders
into the international system. It will also seek to
ensure that no foreign power can dictate the terms of
regional or global security.

Building partnerships

"It will attempt to dissuade any military competitor
from developing disruptive capabilities that could
enable regional hegemony or hostile action against the
US and friendly countries."

Briefing reporters in Washington, Ryan Henry, a
Pentagon policy official, said: "When we refer to the
long war, that is the war against terrorist extremists
and the ideology that feeds it, and that is something
that we do see going on for decades." He added that
the strategy was aimed at responding to the
"uncertainty and unpredictability" of this conflict.
"We in the defence department feel fairly confident
that our forces will be called on to be engaged
somewhere in the world in the next decade where
they're currently not engaged, but we have no idea
whatsoever where that might be, when that might be or
in what circumstances that they might be engaged.

"We realise that almost in all circumstances others
will be able to do the job less expensively than we
can because we tend to have a very cost-intensive
force. But many times they'll be able to do it more
effectively too because they'll understand the local
language, the local customs, they'll be culturally
adept and be able to get things accomplished that we
can't do. So building a partnership capability is a
critical lesson learned.

"The operational realm for that will not necessarily
be Afghanistan and Iraq; rather, that there are large
swaths of the world that that's involved in and we are
engaged today. We are engaged in things in the
Philippines, in the Horn of Africa. There are issues
in the pan-Sahel region of north Africa.

"There's a number of different places where there are
activities where terrorist elements are out there and
that we need to counter them, we need to be able to
attack and disrupt their networks."

Priorities

The report identifies four priority areas

· Defeating terrorist networks

· Defending the homeland in depth

· Shaping the choices of countries at strategic
crossroads

· Preventing hostile states and non-state actors from
acquiring or using weapons of mass destruction

Lawrence's legacy

The Pentagon planners who drew up the long war
strategy had a host of experts to draw on for
inspiration. But they credit only one in the report:
Lawrence of Arabia.

The authors anticipate US forces being engaged in
irregular warfare around the world. They advocate "an
indirect approach", building and working with others,
and seeking "to unbalance adversaries physically and
psychologically, rather than attacking them where they
are strongest or in the manner they expect to be
attacked.

They write: "One historical example that illustrates
both concepts comes from the Arab revolt in 1917 in a
distant theatre of the first world war, when British
Colonel TE Lawrence and a group of lightly armed
Bedouin tribesmen seized the Ottoman port city of
Aqaba by attacking from an undefended desert side,
rather than confronting the garrison's coastal
artillery by attacking from the sea."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

New video footage of abuse in Abu Ghraib
By Anton La Guardia, Diplomatic Editor
(Filed: 16/02/2006)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/02/16/wtort16.xml&sShe\
et=/news/2006/02/16/ixnewstop.html

Fresh photographs and video footage of prisoner abuse
at the Abu Ghraib jail in Iraq were broadcast
yesterday by an Australian television channel, raising
fears that the revelations could further stoke Muslim
fury.

Australia's Special Broadcasting Service showed the
disturbing footage as Pakistani rioters attacked
western businesses in Peshawar, spurred by the
publication of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed in
Europe.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Abu Ghraib Abuse Violates International Law: ICRC

http://www.islamonline.net/English/News/2006-02/16/article04.shtml

WORLD CAPITALS, February 16, 2006 (IslamOnline.net &
News Agencies) – The International Committee of the
Red Cross (ICRC) on Thursday, February 16, branded the
latest horrific images of abuse of Iraqi prisoners by
US jailers at Abu Ghraib prison as a clear violation
of international humanitarian law, while Iraqis
reacted with disgust to torture images as symbolizing
the occupation of their country.

"The type of treatment in these images -- video or
photos -- very clearly violates the rules of
international humanitarian law which are designed to
protect people detained in the context of armed
conflict," IRCR spokeswoman Dorothea Krimitsas told
Reuters.

"We are shocked and dismayed at the mistreatment and
abuse displayed in these images," she added.

An Australian television station broadcast on
Wednesday, February 15, previously unpublished images
of abuse of Iraqi prisoners at the notorious US-run
jail.

The latest grainy, still photographs and video images
show prisoners, some bleeding or hooded, bound to beds
and doors, sometimes with a smiling American guard
beside them.

They include two naked men handcuffed together, a pile
of five naked detainees photographed from the rear,
and a dog straining at a leash close to the face of a
crouching man wearing a bright orange jumpsuit.

The Australian broadcaster said the images were
recorded at the same time as the now-infamous pictures
of US soldiers abusing Abu Ghraib detainees which
sparked international outrage in 2004.

"Disturbed"

The United Nations on Wednesday described the Abu
Ghraib pictures as "deeply disturbing," reported
Agence France-Presse (AFP).

"We would hope they are investigated as soon as
possible," UN chief Kofi Annan's spokesman Stephane
Dujarric told reporters.

In Washington, a Pentagon official said the
photographs are authentic but had been investigated
previously by the US military.

"The (pictures) can be matched to a CID photo log and
are authentic," the official, who spoke on condition
of anonymity, said.

The CID is the army criminal investigation unit that
probed the abuse scandal.

Three of the photographs were from a batch of 70
images whose release had been ordered by a US court in
response to a lawsuit by a group of human rights
organizations, the official said.

The Justice Department has appealed the court ruling
on the grounds that their release could inflame
violence in the Muslim world.

The images have surfaced at a time when tensions in
the Muslim world are already high over cartoons
published in a Danish newspaper and reprinted in other
European newspapers satirizing Prophet Muhammad (peace
and blessings be upon him).

Iraqis Disgusted

Iraqis reacted with disgust to the new images, with
many saying they symbolize the occupation of their
country.

"I felt disgusted when I saw those pictures and I felt
at the same time how weak our government is that it
can't help its own people," said Sadun Mohammed.

"The government pretends there's sovereignty but they
are powerless in the face of what the foreign forces
do," he added.

Outside the Justice Ministry in central Baghdad, civil
servant Jenan Abed Mohammed expressed her anger over
the images.

"This is a massive insult for all Iraqis and Muslims,"
she said.

"The occupier doesn't understand the true meaning of
freedom, which is what they claim they came to Iraq
for."

For traffic policeman Raad Saadi the images as well as
the video broadcast over the weekend of British forces
beating up Iraqis, are all indications of the
arrogance of the foreign forces.

"If a US or British soldier drives down this street
now, he can stop even the convoy of a minister and the
minister himself can't say a thing," he said.

"They don't respect the system or order and they don't
respect the citizen in the street."

Sunni politician Adnan Al-Dulaimi, of the National
Concord Front which competed in elections for the
first time in December, also expressed shock.

"These images are painful and shocking for every
Iraqi," he said.

"All must respect human rights, even those of
criminals in prison."

Fadel Al-Sharaa, a representative of firebrand Shiite
leader Moqtada Sadr's political movement, expected the
photographs to inflame popular sentiment.

"It seems that the occupier still doesn't understand
the nature of the Iraqi people," he said.

"The Iraqi people cannot be insulted, and this will
create massive hostility against the occupier."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

More about Iraq Prisoner Abuse at:
http://www.islamawareness.net/Persecution/Iraq/
More about American War Crimes at:
http://www.islamawareness.net/WarCrimes/American/