New Video Of Abu Ghraib Abuse
Video clips believed aired for the first time Wednesday showing Iraqi prisoners being abused in Abu Ghraib prison in 2003 were condemned by Iraqi officials, including one who complained that the footage would only enflame tensions in the war-ravaged country.
The images follow the recent release of footage of British soldiers allegedly beating and kicking Iraqi males in the southern city of Amarah in 2003 and American efforts to put behind the scandal of the U.S. military abuse of Iraqi detainees in Abu Ghraib, the notorious detention facility in western Baghdad.
Australian public network, the Special Broadcasting Service, broadcast photographs and video clips Wednesday that it said were previously unpublished images of the abuse of Iraqis held at Abu Ghraib.
Labeed Abbawi, an adviser to Iraq's foreign minister, criticized such abuses but questioned the benefit of airing footage of events for which American soldiers had already been punished.
"I feel bringing up these issues is only going to add to heat to an already fragile situation in Iraq and they don't help anybody at all," said Abbawi. "It will only lead to extra condemnation of Americans, British and later Iraqis in the situation of Jadriyah."
Abbawi was referring to an Iraqi Interior Ministry detention facility in Baghdad's Jadriyah neighborhood where Sunni Arabs accused Shiite-led security forces of torturing Sunni detainees.
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The images shown on SBS's "Dateline" program were consistent with the earlier photographs of abuse by American soldiers, which triggered outrage in the Middle East and prompted a U.S. congressional investigation and military trials for some soldiers involved.
The network did not identify anyone shown in the images, nor say how it obtained the images, the authenticity of which could not be immediately verified.
Several photos appear to show former Cpl. Charles Graner, Jr., who is serving a 10-year prison term at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., after being convicted of abusing Iraqi captives.
Many of the images broadcast Wednesday were more graphic than those previously published, showing what appear to be dead bodies, as well as wounded people and prisoners performing sex acts. SBS said the photographs of the dead bodies were of people who had died at the prison.
The SBS showed photographs of a bloodied cell block and a corpse, and said the man had been killed during a CIA interrogation.
Iraq's national security adviser, Mouwafak al-Rubaie, said he had not seen the footage yet, but added that such images hindered U.S. efforts to building closer relations with Iraqis.
"They don't help in forming a good relationship between the Multi-national Forces and the Iraqi citizens," al-Rubaie said.
Al-Rubaie said he would raise the alleged abuse captured in the new images at an Iraqi ministerial council for national security meeting later Wednesday.
The images were taken at Abu Ghraib at about the same time as previously published photographs of Iraqi prisoner abuse, SBS reported. Men wearing combat-style uniforms and holding dogs on leashes appear in at least one image.
One clip broadcast showed a group of naked men with bags over their heads standing together, masturbating. The network said the masturbation had been forced. Another video, shot from several angles, showed a man described as mentally disturbed repeatedly beating his head against a wall.
A photograph showed a man with a deep cut on his neck, and another of the same man surrounded by men dressed in khaki shirts and pants, with one man pointing at the wound.
The Arab satellite station Al-Jazeera broadcast brief excerpts of the Australian footage, including the face of an Iraqi prisoner in agony, a hooded Iraqi male in his underwear, a naked figure lying on the floor next to what appeared to be a pool of blood and another with a man who appeared to be Graner smiling as he held one male prisoner.
The SBS broadcast said many of the new photos showed Graner having sex with Lynndie England, a 22-year-old reservist from Fort Ashby, West Virginia, serving a three-year prison term for abusing detainees. England said Graner fathered her young son. Those photos were not shown.
In Washington, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said he did not know whether U.S. officials had reviewed the photos and video clips or whether they were among images the Pentagon has been withholding from public release since 2004.
"The abuses at Abu Ghraib have been fully investigated," Whitman said, adding that it is U.S. policy to treat all detainees humanely.
SBS said the images it showed were among photographs the American Civil Liberties Union was trying to obtain from the U.S. government under a Freedom of Information request.
A U.S. district court in September upheld the request in a ruling covering scores of photographs and several videotapes. Government lawyers said it was considering an appeal, and the images were not immediately released.