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• Sunday, September 17, 2006 01:51 PM

  Torture, Cover-Up, and Media Complicity

  So, yes, now we've seen the much ballyhooed "new" photos of the abuse of prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison. We're told in the Salon article that we should be shocked and ashamed by the policies and practices of our government. But we must not overlook the willing complicity in the cover-up of these war crimes; the complicity of the news media. For months, and now years, I agonizingly sat through viewing news broadcasts, talk shows, and reading the print media, as they disingenuously asked the question of, "Were these soldiers following orders, or were they just some folks who had engaged in these bad acts on their own?". All during this time, these news organizations had the summary of Major General Taguba's report posted on their web-sites, in which the General clearly wrote that Colonel Thomas Pappas, his executive officer a Major, and two "civilian contractor" interrogators (legally defined as mercenaries under the laws of land warfare), "encouraged and directed" the abuse and mistreatment of prisoners at Abu Ghraib. Yet the news media continued to disingenuously ask the question, as though they didn't really already know the answer. A fragmentary order issued by Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez had placed Colonel Thomas Pappas (commander of an Army Intelligence Brigade) in command of Abu Ghraib prison at which time the war crimes of torture commenced; yet the news media continued to report, falsely, that General Janice Karpinski was the commander.

  And now we come to Salon's "new and shocking" photos. As if we're to be shocked. The media complicity in covering-up these crimes continues. Where are the photographs of "naked female detainess", and photographs of U.S. personnel raping Iraqi women and young girls imprisoned at Abu Ghraib? Photographs of these acts are specifically cited in Maj. Gen. Taguba's report; although he refers to the acts of rape as a photograph of a U.S. Army Military Policeman "having sex" with a female Iraqi detainee. So, Salon, where are the truly despicable photographs? The photographs showing the torture and rape of Iraqi women and children. Why do you refuse to expose the real truth? How long will the cover-up continue? How long will you continue to be complicit?

  —Willard
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