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May 06, 2004, 8:34 a.m.Not UnfamiliarImages of sexual abuse and humiliation in Abu Ghraib. http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/hughes200405060834.aspBy Donna M. HughesThe photographs of sexual abuse and humiliation of Iraqi prisoners in Abu Ghraib prison are shocking and disgusting. They are also familiar. I have seen images like these before in other places and contexts.The Taguba Report on the abuses at Abu Ghraib prison found that "numerous incidents of sadistic, blatant, and wanton criminal abuses were inflicted on several detainees." Credible evidence was found that Iraqi detainees had been subjected to acts such as: Videotaping and photographing naked male and female detainees; Forcibly arranging...

Ex-Officer Faces Legal Action for Photos 06:58 AM EST - May 08, 2004 The Associated Press WALNUT CREEK, Calif. A former National Guard commander accused of photographing naked female U.S. soldiers as they showered at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison faces legal proceedings, officials said.Capt. Leo V. Merck, 32, of Fremont, Calif., allegedly took the photos Nov. 12 and was turned in the next day by the three women.Merck and the women were part of the 870th Military Police Company of Pittsburg, which patrolled parts of the same prison where other U.S. soldiers photographed their humiliating treatment of naked Iraqi prisoners.Soldiers...

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) — The commander of U.S. detention facilities in Iraq said Saturday the military will continue to operate the Abu Ghraib prison despite calls from some U.S. lawmakers to close it because of a scandal over the abuse of Iraqi inmates. However, Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller said the United States plans to reduce the prison population. He said 300 inmates had been released last week and about 350 will be released next week. "Currently we will continue to operate at the Abu Ghraib facility," Miller told reporters, adding that interrogations at the prison will also continue. He said...

May 6, 2004 Inspector says he warned U.S. officials of Iraqi prisoner abuse By BOB GIBSON Media General News Service CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. -- David Kay, the man who led the U.S. search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, says he repeatedly told people about problems with the interrogation of prisoners, but the military ignored him. "I was there and I kept saying the interrogation process is broken. The prison process is broken. And no one wanted to deal with it," Kay said. "It was too, too distasteful. This is a known problem, and the military refuses to deal with...

This is part of a lead story in a major US daily newspaper. Feel free to freepmail me if you need to know which one. Commander: No plans yet to close Abu Ghraib — The commander of U.S. detention facilities in Iraq said Saturday the military will continue to operate the Abu Ghraib prison despite calls from some U.S. lawmakers to close it because of a scandal over the abuse of Iraqi inmates.

At the center of the Iraqi prisoner controversy, stand six individuals accused of abusing approximately 20 detainees at Saddam’s infamous Abu Ghraib jail in Baghdad. These six have already been reprimanded by the US military, another six are currently under investigation for having possibly participated in the incidents, all of which seem to have occurred in November and December of 2003. Brigadier General Janis Karpinski, was the head of the 800th Military Police Brigade and in charge of the entire Iraqi prison system which includes the Abu Ghraib jail. She was also in command of the 3,400 National Guard troops...

January 17, 2004 Inquiry Ordered Into Reports of Prisoner AbuseBy ERIC SCHMITT ASHINGTON, Jan. 16 — The top American commander in Iraq has ordered a criminal investigation into allegations that detainees at the sprawling Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad have been abused by American forces, military officials said Friday. A statement by the military command in Baghdad gave no details about the scope or severity of the incidents, saying only that Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, the senior American officer in Iraq, had directed an inquiry into the latest in a string of reported abuses of prisoners. "The release...

Collins: Stay Focused on Winning the War Against Terrorism WASHINGTON, D.C. (May 7) - In response to the news during the past two weeks centering on the on-going prisoner abuse investigations at the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad, and Friday's testimony by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Congressman Mac Collins (R-Georgia), a Member of the House Select Committee on Intelligence, called on all sides to quit the prejudging and stay focused on the most important issue facing America and the world - winning the war against terrorism. "Let the investigations of what happened at Abu Ghraib prison go forward. Let our...

<p>They make you want to turn away, those awful pictures of naked men piled into human pyramids while smirking American soldiers give the thumbs-up sign or grin inanely into the camera. Then you look closer, not at the humiliating jumble of naked flesh but at the American soldiers, and you realize that some of them are women. What is already a shocking tale becomes even more obscene and unsettling.</p>

The sexual humiliation of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison was not an invention of maverick guards, but part of a system of ill-treatment and degradation used by special forces soldiers that is now being disseminated among ordinary troops and contractors who do not know what they are doing, according to British military sources. The techniques devised in the system, called R2I - resistance to interrogation - match the crude exploitation and abuse of prisoners at the Abu Ghraib jail in Baghdad. One former British special forces officer who returned last week from Iraq, said: "It was clear from discussions...

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. (Reuters) - A U.S. soldier who shot dead two Iraqis during a riot at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison and fired rubber bullets at inmates said on Friday some force was needed to run a wartime prison. "A few people would probably say that I jumped at the opportunity on taking a life," said Sgt. Terry Stowe, 44, a National Guardsman with the 870th Military Police Company. On Friday, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld apologized over Abu Ghraib prison abuses in testimony before Congress. A scandal exploded last week with the release of photographs showing abuse of Iraqi prisoners...

A corrections officer at the State Correctional Institution at Greene is reportedly one of the seven U.S. Army reservists facing court-martial for allegedly abusing Iraqi prisoners.Cpl. Charles A. Graner Jr. is facing prosecution in Iraq on charges that include conspiracy, dereliction of duty, cruelty toward prisoners, maltreatment, assault and indecent acts, according to the Washington Post. The Washington Post reported that the soldiers who are facing charges include Graner, Staff Sgt. Ivan "Chip" Frederick, Spec. Megan M. Ambuhl, Sgt. Javal S. Davis, Spec. Sabrina D. Harman and Spec. Jeremy C. Sivits. The seventh suspect, Private Lynndie England, was reassigned to...

Special to The Daily Star The mistreatment of Iraqi detainees at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison has been a rancid egg in the face of the Bush administration, the US military and those of us who have defended the Iraq war as a possible gateway to a pluralistic Iraqi political system. However, the way the prisoners' story has been conveyed has made many observers lose perspective of the implications of what happened. What did happen was that American intelligence and military police officers, in actions probably condoned (or at best criminally neglected) by their superiors, humiliated Iraqi prisoners in clear violation...

FORT BRAGG, N.C. - Army Pfc. Lynndie England, shown in photographs smiling and pointing at naked Iraqi prisoners, was charged Friday by the military with assaulting the detainees and conspiring to mistreat them. England, 21, faces four allegations, according to a statement from the XVIII Airborne Corps at Fort Bragg. She is accused of "assaulting Iraqi detainees on multiple occasions;" conspiring with another soldier, Spc. Charles Graner, to mistreat the prisoners; committing an indecent act; and committing acts "that were prejudicial to good order and discipline and were of nature to bring discredit upon the armed forces through her mistreatment...

News that U.S. soldiers had been implicated and charged in the Iraqi prison abuse scandal was announced by the U.S. military and widely reported a full seven weeks ago, despite claims from Democrats and their media water-carriers of a Bush administration "cover-up" that lasted until last week. Though Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld is now on the hotseat for not telling Congress and President Bush about the mistreatment of prisoners at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib facility, the most widely read newspaper in Washington carried a detailed report on the scandal nearly two months ago. The early and ample coverage of...

Our President has had a tough time of late. But, despite some misgivings on domestic issues, I remain a huge supporter of President Bush. I believe that he is a good man in the true sense of the word and that he understands the peril our nation finds itself. Immediately after 9/11, I believe that President Bush gathered key members of his cabinet along with his closest advisors and determined that the threat of a catastrophic repeat of 9/11 (or worse) was a clear and present danger. Accordingly, we learned of the Bush Doctrine - that not only would we...

Trailer park girl turns into torturer By Patrick Sawer, Evening Standard 6 May 2004 Lynndie England's face is displayed on the Wal-Mart supermarket's wall of honour in her home town, a place where people are proud of their soldiers serving in Iraq. At the Mineral County Courthouse in Keyser the same face appears alongside those of other local servicemen and women, under a banner declaring: "We're hometown proud." But since that same face has been beamed across the world - this time grinning at the humiliation of Iraqi prisoners - there has been incomprehension in the small towns and trailer...

Mr. Abd spoke with no particular anger at the American occupation, though he has seen it closer than most Iraqis. In six months in prisons run by American soldiers, in fact, he said most of them had treated him well and with respect. "Most of the time, they wouldn't even say, `Shut up,' " he said. That changed in November...when punishment for a prisoner fight at Abu Ghraib degenerated into torture. That night, he said, he and six other inmates were beaten... ...an American military investigator came to visit him. He showed Mr. Abd the pictures and said he needed...

<p>ABU GHRAIB, Iraq — The commander of U.S.-run prisons in Iraq apologized Wednesday for the “illegal or unauthorized acts” committed by a “small number of our soldiers” at the Abu Ghraib prison where photographs showed Iraqi prisoners were abused by smiling American guards.</p>

<p>CAN IT BE a coincidence that Margaret Tutwiler quit as the top PR agent for America the same week that photos of Iraqi prisoner abuse were beamed across the world? In one year, the president's "mission accomplished" had become her mission impossible.</p>