Letters to the Editor

Why we're publishing the new Abu Ghraib photos America -- and the world -- has the right to know what was done in our name. By Walter Shapiro [2006-02-16]

• Where are the rape torture videos?

  As everyone in Hollywood knows, you need to ratchet up the violence in the sequel to get the attention of people after the first show.

  I don't think these photos will move needle in terms of people's outrage, they will be dismissed and downplayed as before by Hannity, Rush and lesser hosts like San Francisco's own pro-torture theocon, Brian Sussman on KSFO. (http://s88172659.onlinehome.us/2005/06/brian-sussman-why-dont-you-want-to.html) In fact, the very act of showing them will be seen as treasonous by the likes of O'Rielly. Instead of asking why did this happen they will blame YOU for fanning the flames.

  I think it will take the videos of boys being raped (which we were told existed.)to make people readdress this issue. To stand up against the torture apologists (and there are a lot of them, sadly) we need to point out the number of people who should NEVER have EVEN been in Abu Ghraib. I think that for every radio host that jokes and says that they are all terrorists who are trying to kill us, we need to identify the non-terrorists who DIED from TORTURE. Yes almost two dozen Iraqis were TORTURED to DEATH. Somehow that little statistic seems to get ignored when shown photos of "harmless" stress positions and men with underwear on their heads. According to the army's own reports

  "There were five cases of detainee deaths as a result of abuse by U.S. personnel during interrogations... There are 23 cases of detainee deaths still under investigation..."

  --The Schlesinger Report, August 2004

  Based on the Taguba report, the Red Cross report and yes even the photographs themselves, clearly more than seven military police were involved.

  "The new reports not only decisively prove what was long known, widening the circle of direct blame for what happened at Abu Ghraib to nearly fifty people, including military intelligence soldier and officers (although subsequent disclosures suggest that the number is at least twice that.)"

  --Mark Danner, Torture and Truth America, Abu Ghraib, and the War on Terror. p. 27

  The fact that this was tamped down to a few people convicted "on the night shift" is astonishing. Photographic evidence PROVES and signed documents SHOW that more were involved than were ever punished.

  Must we have a notarized photo of Donald Rumsfeld raping, torturing and killing an Iraq who was rounded up by mistake to get people to take this seriously? Because by signing the military orders and putting in place his policies, he is responsible for those actions as surely as if he committed them himself. To state otherwise is to deny the existance of the military command structure.

  -- spocko
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