Free Republic

TONIGHT'S FOCUS: The abuses committed by American soldiers at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison have prompted a storm of outrage. Especially disturbing are late breaking reports this afternoon that an American may have been murdered in retaliation for those abuses. Today, a tense Senate hearing considered the Army's own internal report of these abuses. And despite the enormity of the criticism, both at home and around the world, some are starting to say there has already been too much hand wringing. link to send your message directly to the "Nightline" staff:

So now we’re told that it doesn’t matter whether or not the Iraqi torture pictures are fakes. What’s important is that British soldiers are mistreating prisoners. And if the phoney photos have drawn attention to this greater evil, then so well and good. Yeah, right. Curious how those putting forward this argument have always been first to scream “fit-up” when police are accused of fabricating evidence against known criminals and terrorists. How many cases have collapsed because detectives have over-egged the case against villains they insisted were guilty? How many guilty men have walked free because their “confessions” have been...

The pictures which sparked claims UK soldiers abused Iraqis were staged at a British barracks by Territorial Army (TA) members, it has been reported. Sources told the Daily Telegraph the photographs were set up in a Bedford MK lorry at Kimberley TA base in Preston. Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon said it was likely the pictures were a hoax. The regiment accused of the abuse has demanded an apology from the Daily Mirror for publishing the images, but the paper has stood by their accuracy. The photographs appeared to show soldiers from the Queen's Lancashire Regiment urinating on a prisoner and...

TA members to be questioned over 'faked' torture photos By Chris Boffey and Nigel Bunyan (Filed: 04/05/2004) The Army investigation into photographs that purport to show soldiers torturing an Iraqi prisoner is close to concluding that the pictures were faked by soldiers trying to cash in on rumours of brutality. The Ministry of Defence said last night that the Royal Military Police would seek this week to question Piers Morgan, the editor of the Daily Mirror, which first published the photographs, and other senior staff. Members of the Territorial Army who served with the Queen's Lancashire Regiment in Iraq last...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - President George W. Bush (news - web sites) was shown a "representative sample" Monday of the hundreds of photographs of abuses of Iraqi prisoners by US soldiers that have not yet been seen by the US public, a senior defense official said. More than a dozen large, color prints of photographs of abuse taken at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq (news - web sites) were shown to Bush in Rumsfeld's office after an hour-long briefing at the Pentagon (news - web sites) on the situation in Iraq, the officials said. "The president's reaction was one of deep...

Bush's Backing of Rumsfeld Shocks and Angers Arabs Mon May 10, 4:52 PM ET Add World - Reuters to My Yahoo! By Firouz Sedarat DUBAI (Reuters) - Arab commentators reacted with shock and disbelief on Monday over President Bush (news - web sites)'s robust backing of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld against calls for his resignation. Critics had called for him to quit after the furor over the abuse of Iraqi prisoners but analysts, editors and ordinary Arabs were united in their condemnation of Bush who said the United States owed Rumsfeld a "debt of gratitude." "After the torture and vile...

ABDUL QADIR, his arms bandaged, had a tale of abuse at the hands of American forces that shocked even the most hard-bitten. Standing before a packed human rights groups press conference in Baghdad on Sunday morning, Mr Qadir began a dramatic account of his experiences that began with a beating and had reached the point whereby he was tied to a tree and sodomised by the Americans when one of the conference organisers interrupted him. “You’re a liar!” shouted Jabar al-Agaili, secretary-general to the Free Iraq Society, which was hosting the event. “His documents looked fake when we examined them...

The horror of Abu Ghraib should not be used to unedrmine Western resolve THE whole world has been horrified by the pictures from Abu Ghraib. The sense of horror in Arab countries has been particularly acute. Understandably so, for torture is a reality which impinges on citizens of Arab nations in a way it does not directly on us. The systematic abuse of prisoners is a weapon of domestic political control in Arab nations, from Baathist Syria to Wahhabi Saudi Arabia. The citizens of those nations know that the torture chamber is only a knock in the night away but,...

There are "strong indications" that a vehicle shown in Daily Mirror photos of alleged abuse of prisoners was not in Iraq, Geoff Hoon has said. The Defence Secretary told MPs that a Special Investigation Branch inquiry into photos of PoW abuse by UK troops indicated the vehicle was not in Iraq. The photo showing an inmate in a vehicle is said to come from soldiers from the Queen's Lancashire Regiment. The Daily Mirror issued a statement in response to the Defence Secretary's comments: "Mr Hoon's comments about the photographs we published were obviously designed to divert attention from the much...

War graves hit over Iraq 'abuse' Anger has flared at photos of Iraqi captives allegedly being abused Vandals have attacked more than 30 Commonwealth war graves in Gaza City in an apparent act of retaliation for the abuse of prisoners in Iraq. Some 33 graves were desecrated or destroyed in the cemetery for troops from the two world wars. Photographs of US and British soldiers allegedly abusing Iraqi prisoners were hung from some of the tombstones. The British Consulate General in Jerusalem said it was investigating the incident. Flowers were uprooted and the message "We will take revenge" was written...

<p>The shocking photos of U.S. soldiers abusing Iraqi prisoners that rocked the world were snapped by a former pizza-house manager who grew up exposed to gruesome pictures of dead people, according to a published report.</p> <p>Spc. Sabrina Harman, 26, an MP at the infamous Abu Ghraib prison, has been accused by the Army of taking pictures of a nude human pyramid.</p>

As an American citizen, I’m ashamed of the atrocities committed by Americans in Iraq. As a former professional soldier, I’m appalled not only by what has happened in the prisons there, but also by our military leadership. From the very top of the Pentagon down to the 320th Military Police Battalion, the brass have spent months covering up obscene behavior while placing the sole blame on Joe and Jill Grunt. The damage to our country and our just war on terrorism is already devastating. And these war crimes not only diminish the sacrifices of our gallant soldiers in Iraq and...

<p>U.K. Has `Indications' Iraqi Abuse Photos Are Fake (Update1) May 10 (Bloomberg) -- U.K. Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon said there are signs that photographs the Daily Mirror published purporting to show British soldiers abusing Iraqi prisoners may be fake.</p> <p>The comment casts doubt on accusations that British troops tortured Iraqis. Polls show those charges have hurt the approval rating of Prime Minister Tony Blair, who said accusations of abuse by U.K. troops are still being investigated.</p>

The day after a WorldNetDaily report revealed that photos circulating in the Middle East that depict GI's raping Iraqi women were fake and had originated from pornography sites, the U.S. Embassy in Cairo issued a statement calling on Arab news outlets to publish retractions. The embassy statement read, "We have done a thorough investigation of the origin of these photos and have conclusive evidence that they originated on a pornographic web site. They are clearly staged photos, done by actors, as the site itself states." The Al Wafd newspaper published four photographs on the top of its front page that...

The cries of Iraqi prisoners fall on deaf ears as far as Rush Limbaugh is concerned. But can he truly be faulted for that? After all, the political pundit's hearing is permanently impaired as a result of long-term OxyContin abuse. And how could a painkiller addict understand abuse to begin with? The man hasn't felt pain in years. Nevertheless, Limbaugh condoned the horrific treatment of Iraqi prisoners on his Thursday radio show, referring to it as a "brilliant maneuver" on behalf of the U.S. military. As most Daily Press readers already know, CBS recently released photographs of Iraqi prisoners being...

Much information on the Iraq prison torture story is making it's way into the major media. Most of it is confusing, if not deliberately misleading. Given the amount of information available to the average news reader, a better understanding of the situation could likely result from reviewing the events of the story in chronological order.

CUMBERLAND, Md., May 7 — Ivan Frederick was distraught. His son, an Army reservist turned prison guard in Iraq, was under investigation earlier this year for mistreating prisoners, and photographs of the abuse were beginning to circulate among soldiers and military investigators. So the father went to his brother-in-law, William Lawson, who was afraid that reservists like his nephew would end up taking the fall for what he considered command lapses, Mr. Lawson recounted in an interview on Friday. He knew whom to turn to: David Hackworth, a retired colonel and a muckraker who was always willing to take on...

The military policeman who blew the whistle on fellow soldiers who were photographed abusing Iraqi detainees has an independent streak and knew "right from wrong," say people who know him. Spc. Joe Darby was commended in a military report for promptly alerting superiors after discovering photographs of fellow 372nd Military Police Company personnel taking part in abuse of prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison. Darby, 24, who is still on duty overseas, "didn't worry about what people thought," said Robert Ewing, Darby's history teacher and football coach at North Star High in Jennings, Pa. "He wasn't one that went...

Hillary May Regret This May 7, 2004 We joined Hillary Clinton's questioning of Donald Rumsfeld during Friday's program which you can hear, along with my expert commentary, in the audio link below. In the first part of Hillary's question, right before we came out of the break, she was saying that you don't need these pictures to be revulsed. That just reading descriptions of these pictures is enough to revulse anybody. I'm going to tell you, folks. Mark the date, May 7th, 2004. She and others who say that are going to regret that they said it. I will...