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abused in Afghanistan and Iraq, in the name of transparency. The ACLU felt this would be proof that the abuses that happened at abu Ghraib was not "aberrational" (what is not considered an aberration? 1 in 100,000? 1 in 10,000? 1 in 10? 100 allegations per year?). Annie Lowrey: Obama said, "I want to emphasise that these photos that were requested in this case are not particularly sensational, especially when compared to the painful images that we remember from Abu Ghraib." He also later said the small number of perpetrators were charged and tried in 2004. The administration then abruptly...

NEW YORK For the second time in less than a week, The New York Times today admitted to a serious error in a story. On Saturday it said it had misidentified a man featured in the iconic "hooded inmate" photograph from Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. Today it discloses that a woman it profiled on March 8 is not, in fact, a victim of Hurricane Katrina--and was arrested for fraud and grand larceny yesterday. As it did in the Abu Ghraib mistake, the Times ran an editors' note on page 2 of its front section, along with a lengthy news...

The story did not simply specify that there were unprotected areas of the body perceptively protected by existing body armor, but it highlighted those areas in both content and a color graphic, which illustrated in red exactly where bullets and shrapnel had previously struck and killed Marines. Certainly, any terrorist training camp where the bad guys are learning how best to kill American soldiers could make use of such a graphic.

An e-mail from Salon; Dear former Salon Premium member, Three weeks ago, Salon released 18 photos from Abu Ghraib prison that had never been publicly available, along with documentation of the Army's own investigation into the disturbing images. Reaction was swift and strong; some accused us of undermining American interests, while others took us to task for not publishing every image in our possession. Most feedback praised our decision to highlight a scandal that's been largely underreported by the mainstream media. We're planning to release hundreds more photos taken inside Abu Ghraib. Using information found in a U.S. Army Criminal...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 15, 2006 – Publicizing more images depicting alleged abuse of detainees at Iraqi's Abu Ghraib prison could bring harm to U.S. servicemembers, a senior Defense Department official said here today. The release of more Abu Ghraib images "could only further inflame and possibly incite unnecessary violence in the world and would endanger our military men and women that are serving in places around the world," DoD spokesman Bryan Whitman told Pentagon reporters. "The abuses at Abu Ghraib have been fully investigated," Whitman said. "As you know, it's been the policy of this department - it has been and...

WASHINGTON, Jan 12 (Reuters) - A U.S. Army general who rhelped set up operations at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq has asserted his right not to incriminate himself in the courts-martial of two soldiers accused of mistreating detainees there, The Washington Post reported on Thursday. The move by Major Gen. Geoffrey Miller is the first time he has indicated he might have information that could implicate him in wrongdoing, the newspaper said, citing military lawyers. Invoking the right does not legally imply guilt it said. It said the action came shortly after the commanding officer at Abu Ghraib, Col. Thomas...

Col Wilkerson has been critical of Mr Cheney in the past A top aide to former Secretary of State Colin Powell has launched a stinging attack on US Vice-President Dick Cheney over abuse of prisoners by US troops. Col Lawrence Wilkerson accused Mr Cheney of ignoring a decision by President Bush on the treatment of prisoners in the war on terror. Asked by the BBC's Today if Mr Cheney could be accused of war crimes, he said: "It's an interesting question." "Certainly it is a domestic crime to advocate terror," he added. "And I would suspect, for whatever it's worth,...

“He laughed. He was whistling. He was singing.” This was the testimony of Amin al-Sheikh in the Court’s Martial hearings against Army Spc. Charles Graner. Graner is charged with being the ringleader of a band of rogue American soldiers who forced Middle Eastern terrorists to commit humiliating acts in an effort to extract information regarding terrorist activity. Al-Sheikh is a Syrian terrorist who was captured while committing acts of terror against the Iraqi people and acts of aggression against the allies in Iraq. He is currently being detained at the Abu Ghraib prison, a facility that, until the liberation of...

Rumsfeld gave go-ahead for Abu Ghraib tactics, says general in charge By Julian Coman in Washington (Filed: 04/07/2004) The former head of the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad has for the first time accused the American Secretary of Defence, Donald Rumsfeld, of directly authorising Guantanamo Bay-style interrogation tactics. Brig-Gen Janis Karpinski, who commanded the 800th Military Police Brigade, which is at the centre of the Abu Ghraib prisoner-abuse scandal, said that documents yet to be released by the Pentagon would show that Mr Rumsfeld personally approved the introduction of harsher conditions of detention in Iraq. In an interview with The...

A couple of weeks ago San Francisco Capobianco Gallery owner Lori Haigh was beaten up because she displayed paintings by Berkeley artist Guy Colwell of US troops torturing Iraqis. Haigh's voicemail was also filled with profanity-laced threats and hateful diatribes Haigh claimed her right to free speech had been violated. It goes without saying that she is absolutely right. On the other hand, as a liberal Haigh should at least be sufficiently consistent ask the simple question: Why would anyone do that? Well, the answer is just as simple. Colwell deliberately painted American troops as a bunch of sadistic Nazis....

Appropriate Compensation?by Daniel Sargis26 May 2004Donald Rumsfeld wants to provide "appropriate compensation" to Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib, even while the State Department prevents American POW's from pursuing remuneration from the Japanese government for abuses during World War II.   Worried over his lowest approval ratings ever, President Bush asked Republicans to "keep the faith."  And...worried about the international media orgy over the Abu Ghraib fiasco, Donald Rumsfeld offered his “deepest apology” to “those Iraqis who were mistreated by members of U.S. armed forces.”  Rumsfeld also added that he (courtesy of the American taxpayer) wants to “provide appropriate compensation...

WASHINGTON -- About two months after the Red Cross warned US commanders of widespread prisoner abuses, the commanding general at the Abu Ghraib prison assured the Red Cross in a confidential letter that Iraqi detainees were being given the best treatment possible and that even more ''improvements are continually being made."

The past few weeks we were all very astounded and disgusted by the pictures and tales of abuse coming out of Iraq with regard to our U.S. forces and the treatment of Iraqi prisoners. On Friday, May 7th, the Secretary of Defense and Commander of the Joint Chiefs of Staff were hauled before two congressional committees to answer questions of accountability in this sordid scandal. On Tuesday, May 11th, General Antonio Taguba was testifying before congress regarding his report – the “15-6 Report” – and his findings. Now for the real bombshell; SFTT's website provided the conduit for the key...

Whine And Cheese Warriorsby Daniel Sargis10 May 2004Where’s the outrage over the terrorists hiding behind women and children during their roadside ambushes?   Thank God that Pearl Harbor was not an isolated declaration of war against the U.S.  At 7:53 a.m. on December 7, 1941, the first wave of Japanese assault planes attacked Hawaii.  On that same day, the Japanese simultaneously attacked the Philippines, Wake Island, Guam, Malaya, Thailand, Shanghai, and Midway.  By the time they rested their pampered little heads on soft down pillows that night...even liberals understood that America was at war.  Will it take a few...

"The authorities also executed numerous inmates at Abu Ghraib, al-Makasib, and other prisons, including long term untried political detainees and convicted prisoners. Some were apparently tortured first. Relatives reported that the body of 'Abd al-Wahed al-Rifa'i, hanged in March after two years in detention without trial, bore marks of torture when they collected it on March 26 from the General Security Directorate in Baghdad. Thirteen Abu Ghraib detainees, including students, were executed in August, and twenty-one prisoners convicted by special courts of killing several security agents were executed in October, including Falah Ahmad Hussain, Muhsin Yassin Kadhim, and Baqer Jassim...

WASHINGTON, May 6 — Grisly photographs taken at Abu Ghraib prison of two dead men may indicate that the violence at the prison went far beyond degrading treatment of detainees. The Bush administration has provided only limited information about one of the men; the other remains a mystery. The photographs come from the same collection of pictures that show military guards humiliating other detainees. All of the photographs, including those of the dead men, were taken at Abu Ghraib, according to people who provided them to The New York Times. One photograph shows the body of a man with a...