New Iraq abuse pictures surface
A fresh batch of photographs obtained by The Washington Post includes more graphic images of apparent abuse of prisoners at a US military jail in Iraq.
The photographs are similar to those broadcast on CBS’s 60 Minutes II and published by the New Yorker magazine showing Iraqi prisoners in various images of humiliation, The Washington Post reported on Thursday.
The new collection includes more than 1000 digital images ranging from scenes of mundane military life to pictures showing crude simulations of sex among soldiers.
Some of the pictures also appear to show US soldiers abusing prisoners, many of whom wear ID bands. However, The Post said that it could not eliminate the possibility that some of those images were staged.
The article said the photographs, taken from the summer of 2003 through the winter, were passed around among military police who served at the Abu Ghuraib prison west of Baghdad.
Images
 |
|
US guards brutalised Iraqi |
Among the images is a picture of a soldier holding a leash tied around a man’s neck in an Iraqi prison.
The man is naked, grimacing and lying on a floor. There are photographs of naked men, apparently prisoners, sprawled on top of one another while soldiers stand around them.
In London, British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s human rights envoy to Iraq made fresh allegations on Wednesday about prisoner brutality, accusing US occupation troops of mistreating an elderly Iraqi woman.
“The case involves allegations of mistreatment, such as making her go on the floor and be told she was a donkey and a man getting on her back,” Ann Clwyd, told BBC News 24.
In San Francisco, a former US military commander in Baghdad‘s Abu Ghraib prison described on Wednesday a chaotic atmosphere of disdain for Iraqi prisoners in which US guards killed at least four during two riots.
Forceful
|
“…you knew what the lines were, you knew you couldn’t do it” Lt. Michael Drayton |
Army National Guard Lt. Michael Drayton worked from November to March at the prison.
“You got to understand, although it seems harsh, the Iraqis they only understand force,” he said. “If you try to talk to them one on one as a normal person, they won’t respect you, they won’t do what you want, prisoner or just normal person on the street.”
“So you’ve got to be forceful with them in some ways.”
“But you knew what the lines were, you knew you couldn’t do it,” he said.