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AP: Navy Probes New Iraq Prisoner Photos
AP ^ | Dec 3 | SETH HETTENA

Posted on 12/03/2004 2:08:59 PM PST by West Coast Conservative

The U.S. military has launched a criminal investigation into photographs that appear to show Navy SEALs in Iraq sitting on hooded and handcuffed detainees, and photos of what appear to be bloodied prisoners, one with a gun to his head.

Some of the photos have date stamps suggesting they were taken in May 2003, which could make them the earliest evidence of possible abuse of prisoners in Iraq. The far more brutal practices photographed in Abu Ghraib prison occurred months later.

An Associated Press reporter found more than 40 of the pictures among hundreds in an album posted on a commercial photo-sharing Web site 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 AP furnished copies to get comment for this story.

These and other photos found by the 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. What appears to be blood drips from the heads of some. A family huddles in a room in one photo and others show debris and upturned furniture.

"These photographs raise a number of important questions regarding the treatment of prisoners of war (POWs) and detainees," Navy Cmdr. Jeff Bender, a spokesman for the Naval Special Warfare Command in Coronado, 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 show any serious crimes, Bender said Friday. 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 the AP, grinning men wearing U.S. 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 pickup 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, haven't been publicly released.

Though they have alarmed SEAL commanders, the photographs found by the AP do not necessarily show anything illegal, according to experts in the laws of war who reviewed photos 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" behavior - but not necessarily a crime.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Front Page News; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: detainees; iraqiprisoners; navy; photos
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To: Auntie Dem

Except for Timothy Mc Veigh, Bader Meinhoff, the people who used Sarin in the Japanese subway and Basque Sepratists,.


81 posted on 12/03/2004 4:07:32 PM PST by tiamat ("Just a Bronze-Age Gal, Trapped in a Techno-World!")
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To: RandallFlagg

I know, it's just sad, though.


82 posted on 12/03/2004 4:10:40 PM PST by highlandbreeze
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To: gov_bean_ counter
Used to work with a Vietnam Era Marine, Force Recon. He used to say, "We didn't take prisoners".

I bet they didn't take pictures, either.

83 posted on 12/03/2004 4:21:46 PM PST by EricT. (Join the Soylent Green Party...We recycle dead environmentalists.)
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To: theDentist

Look at how small these rat boy terrorists are compared to the US soldiers. They are the quintessential 90 pound nerd just begging to get his head flushed down the toilet. Wo cares if these animals die? They are worthless as shiite.


84 posted on 12/03/2004 5:58:32 PM PST by NotchJohnson
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To: Howlin; JohnHuang2; Miss Marple; Always Right; ken5050; kristinn; ClancyJ; deport; blam; ...

Your bet on the extent of the media feeding frenzy this time?


85 posted on 12/03/2004 6:22:42 PM PST by anniegetyourgun
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To: dead

ROFL!


86 posted on 12/03/2004 6:36:36 PM PST by Fester Chugabrew
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To: West Coast Conservative

Two things :

1) From the photos, and from the description of the photos, it is pretty obvious that this is much ado about nothing. So what, a bunch of guys took pictures of themselves with some insurgents they just captured. To me, this story is just such a waste of bloody time.

2) The woman who posted these pictures is a total MORON. Not because she gave some stupid journalist a flimsy reason to bash the troops again, but because the photos had the SEAL's faces and friggin' names in them. What utter stupidity!


87 posted on 12/03/2004 6:40:13 PM PST by Trippin
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To: West Coast Conservative

I wouldn't believe much of anything from the AP until the facts come out. I don't think we'll get them from the AP.


88 posted on 12/03/2004 7:55:40 PM PST by dr_who_2
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Comment #89 Removed by Moderator

To: West Coast Conservative

This is nothing....having been pressed into service on occasion with field interogation teams run by 'civilian contractors'....I can restate this is nothing....

And as far as Christians 'calling for blood' of terrorists, rapists, and murderers of the worst sort? absolutely...Rock On SEALS....GET SOME

Though I suppose critics of same also did not care for the Almighty having taking out most of the world in a most cruel flood...or taken down a few thousand prophets of Baal....or burned alive the populations of Sodom and Gommorah's gay crowd...and not to mention what His plans are for those who are not saved after judgement day....eternal torture in the Lake of Fire...

Showing no mercy to unrepentant terrorists or rabid animals dying to bite you or yours.. is not necessarily anti Christ in practice...or theory

imo


90 posted on 12/03/2004 9:28:40 PM PST by joesnuffy ("The merit of our Constitution was, not that it promotes democracy, but checks it." Horatio Seymour)
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To: dead

The Great Satan sends Iraqi prisoners to Disney World. How cruel.


91 posted on 12/03/2004 9:54:55 PM PST by Jorge
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To: West Coast Conservative

For more contrast, look at this picture. This little boy is not a terrorist. There was no media outcry over this picture. Just to put media pix in perspective. Post the jumpers, post the beheadings, and post the families of our soldiers lost.

92 posted on 12/04/2004 6:13:16 AM PST by World'sGoneInsane (LET NO ONE BE FORGOTTEN, LET NO ONE FORGET)
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To: West Coast Conservative

All troops need to be trained. No photos.


93 posted on 12/04/2004 6:14:10 AM PST by Max Combined (Clinton is "the notorious Oval Office onanist ")
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To: tiamat

"What was the guy's wife THINKING?"

Women.


94 posted on 12/04/2004 6:27:29 AM PST by Max Combined (Clinton is "the notorious Oval Office onanist ")
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To: tiamat
"A lot of them won't."

You and Chemist_Geek are superior, eh?

Attitude noted.
95 posted on 12/04/2004 6:29:44 AM PST by Max Combined (Clinton is "the notorious Oval Office onanist ")
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To: tiamat

"A lot of people here assume ALL Muslims are inheritently evil"

All Muslims do belong to an evil cult.


96 posted on 12/04/2004 6:30:52 AM PST by Max Combined (Clinton is "the notorious Oval Office onanist ")
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To: West Coast Conservative

This is all the fault of Rumsfeld and Alberto Gonzales. /SARCASM


97 posted on 12/04/2004 6:36:46 AM PST by Norman Arbuthnot
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To: Chemist_Geek
"And when are FReepers going to learn that harming prisoners is an Evil Thing?"

What makes you think that FReepers don't already understand this?
98 posted on 12/04/2004 6:41:19 AM PST by Max Combined (Clinton is "the notorious Oval Office onanist ")
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To: joesnuffy

"This is nothing....having been pressed into service on occasion with field interogation teams run by 'civilian contractors'....I can restate this is nothing.... "

This is good to know. This can be a tough world and thank goodness we have tough men willing to do the dirty work necessary to protect this country and our people.


99 posted on 12/04/2004 7:24:04 AM PST by Max Combined (Clinton is "the notorious Oval Office onanist ")
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To: Chemist_Geek
And when are FReepers going to learn that harming prisoners is an Evil Thing?

Get a life.

Murdering civilians by blowing up the World Trade Center (twice), blowing up trains in Spain, blowing up hotels in Egypt, the Bali Bombings, the beheadings, etc., etc., etc.

These are evil things.
100 posted on 12/04/2004 7:29:24 AM PST by Beckwith (John Kerry is now a kept man . . .)
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