Publish to Newswire
Add an EventFrom the Open-Publishing Calendar
From the Open-Publishing Newswire
Indybay Feature
US probes Iraq abuse pictures
The pictures were handed over to officials by an Associated Press news agency reporter who found them on a commercial photo-sharing website.
The photographs, posted by a woman who said her husband brought them home from Iraq, appear to show the aftermath of raids on civilian homes, the Associated Press reported.
The photographs, posted by a woman who said her husband brought them home from Iraq, appear to show the aftermath of raids on civilian homes, the Associated Press reported.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4067775.stm
Photos that appear to show commandos in Iraq sitting on hooded and handcuffed detainees are seen on a commercial photo-sharing Web site operated by a woman who said her husband brought the photos from Iraq after his tour of duty. The Navy SEALs have launched a criminal investigation into the photographs. Date stamps on some photos suggest they were made in May 2003, which could make them the earliest evidence of possible abuse of prisoners in Iraq. (AP Photo)
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?g=events/ts/042904iraqprison&a=&tmpl=sl&ns=&l=1&e=3&a=0&printer=
An Associated Press reporter found more than 40 of the pictures among hundreds in an album posted on a commercial photo-sharing website by a woman who said her husband brought them from Iraq after his tour of duty. It is unclear who took the pictures, which the Navy said it was investigating after the news agency handed over copies.
These and other photos found by AP appear to show the immediate aftermath of raids on civilian homes. One man is lying on his back with a boot on his chest. A “mug shot” shows a man with an automatic weapon pointed at his head and a gloved thumb jabbed into his throat. In many photos, faces have been blacked out.
“These photographs raise a number of important questions regarding the treatment of prisoners of war and detainees,” Navy Cmdr Jeff Bender, a spokesman for the Naval Special Warfare Command in Coronado, California, said in a written response to questions.
“I can assure you that the matter will be thoroughly investigated.”
The photos were turned over to the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, which instructed the SEAL command to determine whether they showed any serious crimes, Bender said last night.
That investigation will determine the identities of the troops and what they were doing in the photos.
Some of the photos recall aspects of the images from Abu Ghraib, which led to charges against seven soldiers accused of humiliating and assaulting prisoners. In several of the photos obtained by AP, grinning men wearing US flags on their uniforms, and one with a tattoo of a SEAL trident, take turns sitting or lying atop what appear to be three hooded and handcuffed men in the bed of a pick-up truck.
A reporter found the photos, which since have since been removed from public view, while researching the prosecution of a group of SEALs who allegedly beat prisoners and photographed one of them in degrading positions. Those photos, taken with a SEAL’s personal camera, have not been publicly released.
Though they have alarmed SEAL commanders, the photographs found by AP do not necessarily show anything illegal, according to experts in the laws of war who reviewed them at AP’s request.
Gary Solis, a former Marine Corps prosecutor and judge who teaches at the United States Military Academy, said the images showed “stupid” and “juvenile” behaviour – but not necessarily a crime.
John Hutson, a retired rear admiral who served as the Navy’s judge advocate general from 1997 to 2000, said they suggested possible Geneva Convention violations. Those international laws prohibit souvenir photos of prisoners of war.
“It’s pretty obvious that these pictures were taken largely as war trophies,” Hutson said. “Once you start allowing that kind of behaviour, the next step is to start posing the POWs in order to get even better pictures.”
At a minimum, the pictures breach Navy regulations that forbid photographing prisoners other than for intelligence or administrative purposes, according to Bender, the SEALs spokesman.
All Naval Special Warfare personnel were told that prior to deployment, he said, but “it is obvious from some of the photographs that this policy was not adhered to”.
The images were posted to the Internet site Smugmug.com. The woman who posted them told AP they were on the camera her husband brought back from Iraq. She said her husband, who does not appear in photos with prisoners, had returned to Iraq.
The US Navy goes to great lengths to protect the identities and whereabouts of its 2,400 SEALs – which stands for Navy Sea, Air, Land – many of whom have classified counter-terrorist missions around the globe.
“Some of these photos clearly depict faces and names of Naval Special Warfare personnel, which could put them or their families at risk,” Bender said.
http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=3840878
Photos that appear to show commandos in Iraq sitting on hooded and handcuffed detainees are seen on a commercial photo-sharing Web site operated by a woman who said her husband brought the photos from Iraq after his tour of duty. The Navy SEALs have launched a criminal investigation into the photographs. Date stamps on some photos suggest they were made in May 2003, which could make them the earliest evidence of possible abuse of prisoners in Iraq. (AP Photo)
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?g=events/ts/042904iraqprison&a=&tmpl=sl&ns=&l=1&e=3&a=0&printer=
An Associated Press reporter found more than 40 of the pictures among hundreds in an album posted on a commercial photo-sharing website by a woman who said her husband brought them from Iraq after his tour of duty. It is unclear who took the pictures, which the Navy said it was investigating after the news agency handed over copies.
These and other photos found by AP appear to show the immediate aftermath of raids on civilian homes. One man is lying on his back with a boot on his chest. A “mug shot” shows a man with an automatic weapon pointed at his head and a gloved thumb jabbed into his throat. In many photos, faces have been blacked out.
“These photographs raise a number of important questions regarding the treatment of prisoners of war and detainees,” Navy Cmdr Jeff Bender, a spokesman for the Naval Special Warfare Command in Coronado, California, said in a written response to questions.
“I can assure you that the matter will be thoroughly investigated.”
The photos were turned over to the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, which instructed the SEAL command to determine whether they showed any serious crimes, Bender said last night.
That investigation will determine the identities of the troops and what they were doing in the photos.
Some of the photos recall aspects of the images from Abu Ghraib, which led to charges against seven soldiers accused of humiliating and assaulting prisoners. In several of the photos obtained by AP, grinning men wearing US flags on their uniforms, and one with a tattoo of a SEAL trident, take turns sitting or lying atop what appear to be three hooded and handcuffed men in the bed of a pick-up truck.
A reporter found the photos, which since have since been removed from public view, while researching the prosecution of a group of SEALs who allegedly beat prisoners and photographed one of them in degrading positions. Those photos, taken with a SEAL’s personal camera, have not been publicly released.
Though they have alarmed SEAL commanders, the photographs found by AP do not necessarily show anything illegal, according to experts in the laws of war who reviewed them at AP’s request.
Gary Solis, a former Marine Corps prosecutor and judge who teaches at the United States Military Academy, said the images showed “stupid” and “juvenile” behaviour – but not necessarily a crime.
John Hutson, a retired rear admiral who served as the Navy’s judge advocate general from 1997 to 2000, said they suggested possible Geneva Convention violations. Those international laws prohibit souvenir photos of prisoners of war.
“It’s pretty obvious that these pictures were taken largely as war trophies,” Hutson said. “Once you start allowing that kind of behaviour, the next step is to start posing the POWs in order to get even better pictures.”
At a minimum, the pictures breach Navy regulations that forbid photographing prisoners other than for intelligence or administrative purposes, according to Bender, the SEALs spokesman.
All Naval Special Warfare personnel were told that prior to deployment, he said, but “it is obvious from some of the photographs that this policy was not adhered to”.
The images were posted to the Internet site Smugmug.com. The woman who posted them told AP they were on the camera her husband brought back from Iraq. She said her husband, who does not appear in photos with prisoners, had returned to Iraq.
The US Navy goes to great lengths to protect the identities and whereabouts of its 2,400 SEALs – which stands for Navy Sea, Air, Land – many of whom have classified counter-terrorist missions around the globe.
“Some of these photos clearly depict faces and names of Naval Special Warfare personnel, which could put them or their families at risk,” Bender said.
http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=3840878
Add Your Comments
Comments
(Hide Comments)
Images appearing to show troops posing with Iraqi detainees were found on a photo-sharing Web site.
http://edition.cnn.com/2004/US/12/03/seals.photos.iraq.ap/
http://edition.cnn.com/2004/US/12/03/seals.photos.iraq.ap/
these photos are disgusting and horrific. the geneva conventions which all canadian troops and the entire nation of canada are sign on to and expected to follow were won on a hard and necessary struggle to destroy the axis fascist powers around the world. they repesent the attempt to confine war to fewer and fewer possibilities of destruction, terror and abuse. signed in conjunction with the united nations charter and the nuremburg trials (no unjust order can be carried out, and aggressive war is most criminal activity possible) canadians have met the war criminal and illegal war practitioner bush and triumphed over his wrongheaded foreign policy. we did so in the full knowledge that he is wrong and his cabal of elected pentagon war criminals are wrong and we shall utilize every possibility to put an end to the terror war that bush has launched. he is a unilateralist war criminal, and his methods of pre-emptive war and might is right are identical with the nazis nation third reich practice and the very reason that the united nations charter was writtten. if you look at bushes ignoring of the un vote of 179- 4 of the worlds peoples in the general assembly to discontinue the blockade of cuba , you can begin to realize that the anti-fascist,democratic cause is being overthrown by bush and cabal and the un is being turned into an imperialist war mongers paraidise despite the u.n. charter requiring each countrie to end war between nations and seek negotiation, and democratic renewal practice to solve contradictions between countries. bush ignores all and is ignoring the fact that international courts have found him guilty of war crimes in afganistan, iraq, and of supporting the apartheid wall which is a israeli land grab and war crime against the sovereign countrie of palestine. he is invading countries throughout the world and doing so unilaterally. he must be brought to trial and due process be applied. if america did to canada what it has done to indo-china and afganistan, and iraq with all its disregard of world law and especially the geneva conventions, we the people would launch a peoples war till the u.s. imperialist nation is extinguished. as it stands now we have won a future and have overcome bush and his illegal use of space. it is well known in iraq that the u.s. cia put saddam in power in 1963 after saddam had assasinated the elected iraqi president kassam as the c.i.a.s president, and he tortured the trade unionists, anti-mperialist fighters, peasant leaders , womans liberation etc. for twenty-seven years he terrorized the iraqi people on the orders of the u.s. government and its c.i.a. and when the iranian revolution took back its oil fields the c.i.a. got saddam to attack iran, and they supplied them with weapons of mass destruction and the expertise to use them against the arabs. one million were killed then for u.s. oil monopolies. then by buying off the un they put sanctions against iraq causing another 1,500,000 deaths coupled to the desert storm another 275,000 dead and all for the reason and hidden agenda of taking monopoly control of middle east oil. that is too much and is opposite to the need to re-tool the entire industrial revolution to wind, tidal, and solar power so pollution of the air, land and water ends and real liberation can then begin. so since 1991-2004 2,775,000 arabs have been killed directly or indirectly in the immediate region by the u.s. imperialists for oil. solar tidal, and wind power will end oil use globally,for the most part. viva socialism.
These guys were doing nothing wrong. Hyped up from the mission and taking some pictures. No one was being tortured in these photos. Why can't you as Americans realize that the Muslim Extremist Mind Set is very different of that the protected American. This is not torture it's war and unpleasant things do happen. So why don't people here worry more about there own back yards and quit trying to dig up some bull crap on the good guys. I do not see any of you doing anything for anyones freedom except bitching.
You have what you have becasue brave men go do these things so that you can sit at home and have the freedom to complain about things that you have no valid information on, just a few pictures, Go get a life.
"for those who have fought for it have freedom has a certain taste that the protected will never know"
You have what you have becasue brave men go do these things so that you can sit at home and have the freedom to complain about things that you have no valid information on, just a few pictures, Go get a life.
"for those who have fought for it have freedom has a certain taste that the protected will never know"
We are 100% volunteer and depend on your participation to sustain our efforts!
Donate
$135.00 donated
in the past month
Get Involved
If you'd like to help with maintaining or developing the website, contact us.
Publish
Publish your stories and upcoming events on Indybay.
Topics
More
Search Indybay's Archives
Advanced Search
►
▼
IMC Network