Quotes of the Morning: The Iraqi Horror Picture Show

“It's torture
But I'm almost there
It's torture
But I'm almost there”
-The Cure, Torture

“A federal judge ruled today that graphic pictures of detainee abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison must be released over government claims that they could damage America's image. Last year a Republican senator conceded that they contained scenes of ‘rape and murder’ and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said they included acts that were ‘blatantly sadistic.’ U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein ordered the release of certain pictures in a 50-page decision that said terrorists in Iraq and Afghanistan have proven they ‘do not need pretexts for their barbarism.’
The ACLU has sought the release of 87 photographs and four videotapes taken at the prison as part of an October 2003 lawsuit demanding information on the treatment of detainees in U.S. custody and the transfer of prisoners to countries known to use torture.”
-Editor & Publisher, September 29, 2005

“You see, the lawsuit was needed because the government wasn’t going to voluntarily release the images. It seems that images of this kind of abuse violate the Geneva Convention (not that the Geneva Conventions seem to be stopping the kind of things shown in the pictures and video). The ACLU had to go to court in order to show the public some of the things that are happening in their name. That being said… If these images are so bad, why aren’t they doing more about this?”
-Skippy

“The Army is investigating complaints that soldiers posted photographs of Iraqi corpses on an Internet site in exchange for access to pornographic images on the site, officials said Tuesday.”
-Associated Press, September 27, 2005

“Originally created as a site for men to share images of their sexual partners, this site has taken the concept of user-created content to a grim new low: US troops stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan are invited to display graphic battlefield photos apparently taken with their personal digital cameras. And thousands of people are logging on to take a look.
The website has become a stomach-churning showcase for the pornography of war--close-up shots of Iraqi insurgents and civilians with heads blown off, or with intestines spilling from open wounds. Sometimes photographs of mangled body parts are displayed: Part of the game is for users to guess what appendage or organ is on display.”
-The Nation, September 22, 2005

“The Army doesn’t seem to have a lot on interest in the whole thing.”
-Skippy

“An Army spokesman, Paul Boyce, later told AP that the preliminary criminal inquiry determined, based on available evidence, that felony charges could not be pursued. But the matter, including the possibility of disciplinary action, was being handled in coordination with other military services, he said.”
-Editor and Publisher, September 27, 2005

“Well, the Geneva Conventions say this..”
-Skippy

“Article 34.-Remains of deceased
1. The remains of persons who have died for reasons related to occupation or in detention resulting from occupation or hostilities and those of persons not nationals of the country in which they have died as a result of hostilities shall be respected”
-The Geneva Conventions

“And this certainly seems appropriate..”
-Skippy

“ART. 133. CONDUCT UNBECOMING AN OFFICER AND A GENTLEMAN
Any commissioned officer, cadet, or midshipman who is convicted of conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman shall be punished as a court-martial may direct.”
-Uniform Code of Military Justice

“They’ll probably do that though. I’m sure that they’ll get to it. They just don’t want to have this kind of thing too public at the moment.”
-Skippy

“Three former members of the Army's 82nd Airborne Division say soldiers in their battalion in Iraq routinely beat and abused prisoners in 2003 and 2004 to help gather intelligence on the insurgency and to amuse themselves....
The abuses reportedly took place between September 2003 and April 2004, before and during the investigations into the notorious misconduct at the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad. Senior Pentagon officials initially sought to characterize the scandal there as the work of a rogue group of military police soldiers on the prison's night shift. Since then, the Army has opened more than 400 inquiries into detainee abuse in Iraq and Afghanistan, and punished 230 enlisted soldiers and officers.”
-New York Times, September 24, 2005

“I mean, they’ll fix the problems. They won’t just brush this kind of thing under the rug..”
-Skippy

“An Army captain who reported new allegations of detainee abuse in Iraq said Tuesday that Army investigators seemed more concerned about tracking down young soldiers who reported misconduct than in following up the accusations and investigating whether higher-ranking officers knew of the abuses.
The officer, Capt. Ian Fishback, said investigators from the Criminal Investigation Command and the 18th Airborne Corps inspector general had pressed him to divulge the names of two sergeants from his former battalion who also gave accounts of abuse, which were made public in a report last Friday by the group Human Rights Watch.
Captain Fishback, speaking publicly on the matter for first time, said the investigators who have questioned him in the past 10 days seemed to be less interested in individuals he identified in his chain of command who allegedly committed the abuses.
‘I'm convinced this is going in a direction that's not consistent with why we came forward,’ Captain Fishback said in a telephone interview from Fort Bragg, N.C., where he is going through Army Special Forces training. ‘We came forward because of the larger issue that prisoner abuse is systemic in the Army. I'm concerned this will take a new twist, and they'll try to scapegoat some of the younger soldiers. This is a leadership problem.’"
-New York Times, September 28, 2005