Fresh photos showing American soldiers brutalizing Iraqi
prisoners with snarling dogs or forced sex left members of Congress
angry and disgusted, but apparently with few new clues about how
widespread the abuse was and who ultimately should be held
accountable.?
In separate private screenings on Capitol Hill, House and Senate
members saw photos and video Wednesday of Iraqi corpses, military
dogs menacing cowering Iraqi prisoners, Iraqi women forced to
expose themselves and other sexual abuses.
Some lawmakers said the pictures included forced homosexual sex;
others said the quality of the photos were too poor to discern what
was happening.
The 1,600-plus photos, which included scenes of abuse mixed in
with travelogue-type snapshots, were in addition to those that
already surfaced publicly depicting abuse and sexual humiliation at
Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad. The photos have created
international condemnation and threatened to undermine US military
and rebuilding efforts in Iraq.
Lawmakers differed over whether the new batch of photos should
be released -- a decision likely will be left up to the Bush
administration. Some said they feared releasing photos would only
further inflame international passions; others argued it would
demonstrate the openness of American society and limit the damage
caused by the gradual leaking of photos to media outlets.
They also disagreed about whether the photos they saw were much
worse than the ones already made public.
Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said, "It was significantly worse than
anything that I had anticipated. Take the worst case and multiply
it several times over."
But Sen. Jim Talent, R-Mo., said, "Anything like this is
shocking ... but it's generally the same as what's in the public
domain -- no huge surprises."
The viewing came a day after Islamic militants, in a video,
showed the beheading of an American in Iraq to avenge the prison
abuse. US President Bush said "there's no justification" for the
killing of Nicholas Berg, 26, and that it would not shake US
resolve to bring democracy to Iraq.
The private Capitol Hill screening marked the latest turn in a
scandal that has prompted Bush to apologize to the victims and
Democrats to demand the dismissal of Defense Secretary Donald H.
Rumsfeld.
The Senate Armed Services Committee has been holding hearings to
determine whether prisoner abuses were limited to the Abu Ghraib
facility. The committee also wants to see whether responsibility
went beyond a small group of enlisted soldiers and their immediate
supervisors, who the Army says provided inadequate training and
supervision.
Among the uncertainties is whether military intelligence
officials directly or indirectly encouraged the abuse in order to
"soften up" detainees for interrogations.
The Defense Department is investigating the abuse, and the
courts-martial of three military police guards have been
ordered.
Lawmakers said the new photos showed small groups of soldiers --
fewer than a dozen -- abusing the prisoners. Many of the soldiers'
faces were already familiar from photos published worldwide. It
wasn't clear whether all the abuse took place at Abu Ghraib or at
other locations, they said.
Senators said the photographs were presented as a rapid slide
show on a screen in the classified hearing room. Pentagon officials
were present, but did not answer questions about the pictures,
apparently fearing they might interfere with the any
prosecutions.
The photos were seized from service members and included many
shots unrelated to the investigation, such as pictures of historic
sites. Some photos showed what appeared to be soldiers having sex.
Because of the vast number of photos -- and members coming and
going -- not all saw the same slides, and impressions varied.
"I saw cruel, sadistic torture," said Rep. Jane Harman,
D-Calif., who added that some of the images were of male prisoners
masturbating. She said she saw a man hitting himself against a wall
as though to knock himself unconscious.
Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., said he did not see acts of violence,
but what appeared to be "results of acts of violence."
He said he saw people in body bags and a person with a face
"virtually gone." He saw "people being stitched up above the
eyebrow apparently unconscious."
Rep. Gary Ackerman, D-N.Y., said, "There were people who were
forced to have sex with each other."
Rep. Trent Franks, R-Ariz., said, "There were some pictures
where it looked like a prisoner was sodomizing himself" with an
object. He said blood was visible in the photograph.
But House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, said he thought
"some people are overreacting."
"The people who are against the war are using this to their
political ends," he said.
At a Senate hearing earlier Wednesday, Rumsfeld said Pentagon
lawyers had approved methods such as sleep deprivation and dietary
changes as well as rules permitting prisoners to be made to assume
stressful positions.
Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told
senators the military has taken steps to correct the problems that
led to abuses, including replacing the military police unit that
took some of the photos.
(China Daily May 13, 2004)