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Lack of blood, bruises and dirt give hint that army 'abuse' pictures were staged
The Times ^
| May 03, 2004
| Richard Mills
Posted on 5/2/2004, 10:59:14 PM by Eurotwit
The photographer Richard Mills tells why 'the evidence' does not add up
THERE are a significant number of inconsistencies with these pictures that leave me convinced that they have been staged. The subjects in each image are remarkably still; it is hard to accept that the “victim” would not be moving at all.
There is no explanation why the pictures are in black and white. If they were taken with a digital camera, as has been suggested, the photographer would have to switch deliberately into “mono” mode rather than the default colour.
Most striking is the lack of any form of identification on the soldier in each picture shown “abusing” the Iraqi. There are no badges on his uniform, no markings on the rifle and neither does he have any rings, tattoos or identifying marks on his skin.
Rifle to head. The rifle is said by some observers to be the Mark 1 model of the SA80, which was not issued to troops in Iraq. More suspiciously, there are no markings whatsoever on the weapon and it looks too clean. It also lacks a new method of strapping around the muzzle that I saw troops using.
Urinating. The soldier shown urinating on the prisoner is wearing the wrong webbing belt, which is used to carry ammunition, water and other essentials. Troops in Iraq were issued “Soldier 95” webbing.
The picture has been taken at night, as there is black in the gap between the truck canopy and tailgate on the right-hand side of the image.
If the truck was actually in Iraq, it would be filled with sand and dirt, but its floor is almost spotless. This suggests that they could have been taken either at Catterick Garrison, North Yorkshire, the Army’s largest base, or in Cyprus, where The Queen’s Lancashire Regiment is stationed.
The “victim” does not have the physique of many Iraqi youths from the impoverished south of the country: rather, he has the muscle tone typical of a British soldier.
Stamping on neck. The shirt being worn by the victim is part of the Iraqi national football team kit and could not be that clean and unstained if he had been subjected to several hours’ beating. It depicts the flag of Baathist Iraq, and it is unlikely that anyone would wear this in public in the Shia south of the country.
His thighs are very broad and muscular and again uncharacteristic of an Iraqi. There are no visible injuries to back the Mirror’s claims that the victim was tortured and beaten.
The soldier’s boots are laced in an unusual way and appear to be brand new; they are certainly far too clean to have been worn in Iraq. He also lacks a bungy cord around his trousers that soldiers often wear to keep sand out of their boots.
Rifle in groin. Anyone having a rifle thrust into their groin would be curled up in a foetal position and not have their legs open. It is also quite likely he would have lost control of his bladder.
Kick in face. The so-called victim in this picture is not tensed, as he would be if he was really being kicked in the face. Again, there are no injuries, which would be visible had the victim been subjected to an eight-hour ordeal.
The four-tonne truck in which the pictures have been taken is another cause for concern. They are not used in Iraq, as they are considered to be sitting ducks for insurgents. Armoured vans that had been used in Northern Ireland were shipped there for that reason.
Richard Mills was a Royal Air Force photographer from 1987 to 2000 and now works for The Times. His pictures of British troops in Iraq won the What The Papers Say Awards Photographer of the Year 2003
TOPICS: Extended News; News/Current Events; United Kingdom
KEYWORDS: iraqipow; torture
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1
posted on
5/2/2004, 10:59:14 PM
by
Eurotwit
To: Eurotwit
Torture photos are fakes, say army officers
y Michael Evans and Stephen Grey in Basra
Military police fly to Cyprus as calls for investigation gather pace
PICTURES that appear to show a hooded Iraqi prisoner being abused and beaten by British soldiers are almost certainly fake, senior officers concluded yesterday.
Ministry of Defence officials promised that the photographs, which first appeared in Saturday’s Daily Mirror, would be thoroughly investigated, amid fears that they could anger Iraqi civilians. “We have to take these allegations seriously,” one source said.
But the photographs, said to have been taken during an eight-hour “torture ordeal” in the back of an army truck, appear to have been staged, according to officers.
Senior investigators from the Royal Military Police were flying to Cyprus yesterday to interview soldiers from the Queen’s Lancashire Regiment, some of whose troops are said to have been involved in the alleged incident in Basra. While stressing the army’s determination to investigate, some senior officers have cast doubt on the pictures’ authenticity. They point that the alleged victim appears to have no injuries, and no sign of sweat or blood. “His shirt looks immaculate, and the boot raised against the Iraqi looks as if it is held there for the picture,” one officer said.
Piers Morgan, Editor of the Daily Mirror, said that the two soldiers who supplied the pictures and made the allegations had revealed more details of brutal treatment of Iraqi prisoners by British soldiers.
The published photographs have come at a time when the MoD is drawing up options for sending several thousand more troops to Iraq to take charge of a new area of the country south of Baghdad, including the volatile city of Najaf where thousands of militia loyal to an extremist Shia Muslim cleric are based.
Defence sources said that one of the options was to send the headquarters element of 3 Commando Brigade Royal Marines to command the reinforcements. The Royal Marines were the first to deploy to Iraq before the war last March and have not been back since the military campaign ended. A political decision on sending more troops is expected shortly.
With more troops expected to be on their way to Iraq in the next few weeks, senior army sources said that it was vital that the allegations against the Queen’s Lancashire Regiment be cleared up quickly because of the damage to Britain’s reputation in Iraq.
Isobel Jones, widow of Captain Dai Jones of the Queen’s Lancashire Regiment who was killed by a roadside bomb in Basra last year, said she fully supported her late husband’s regiment, although if there had been any mistreatment of an Iraqi prisoner it was “utterly indefensible”. She told The Times that it would be “very sad” if a rogue element had taken part in such an incident because it would have let down the rest of the regiment.
She dismissed any suggestion that there may have been revenge attacks on Iraqis for the death of her husband.
In Cyprus it was reported that a former member of the Queen’s Lancashire Regiment would be questioned as well as serving members.
The MoD also confirmed yesterday that the Royal Military Police and the RAF police were involved in the investigation of ten other alleged incidents of mistreatment of Iraqi civilians by British soldiers, in which seven had died. With two of the deaths, the MoD said, there “was no case to answer”. So far, five of the cases had been completed, and five were still under investigation.
Only one of the five cases completed is believed to involve the Queen’s Lancashire Regiment. A soldier from the regiment is facing a possible manslaughter charge after the death in custody of Baha Mousa, a 26-year-old hotel receptionist.
The challenge with the latest allegation of mistreatment is that none of the photographs provides any distinguishing features, either of the victim or of his alleged assailants. There are no faces visible, no tattoos, not even a watch strap.
Mr Morgan issued a statement yesterday in which he stood by his decision to publish the photographs. He refused to be drawn on whether the Mirror paid for the pictures, which are believed to have earned his newspaper about £100,000 when sold to other media organisations.
However, he said that his reporters had gone back to the two soldiers who had supplied the photographs and they “stood firmly by every word” of their allegations, and the “veracity” of the pictures.
Mr Morgan said: “There’s clearly a rogue element of soldiers who committed totally unacceptable acts against Iraqi civilians.” He said he had no reason to believe that the photographs had been faked. But army sources said it had not been unknown for soldiers to do a staged photograph for their own use, although they stressed that this type of behaviour was also condemned and unlawful.
In Basra yesterday, Iraqis expressed their anger at the photos. Saad Jamal, 27, an engineer, said: “This behaviour gives a reason for people to join the militia.”
Lieutenant-Colonel Jorge Mendonca, commanding officer of the Queen’s Lancashire Regiment, has appealed to his men to come forward if they have any information about the photographs.
2
posted on
5/2/2004, 11:00:07 PM
by
Eurotwit
Comment #3 Removed by Moderator
To: Eurotwit
Even if these turn out to be fake, the damage has regrettably been done by those retards in Abu Ghraib prison.
4
posted on
5/2/2004, 11:03:11 PM
by
RegT
To: RegT; KirkBloke
There is a really depressing analysis done by some senior analyst in Jane's
'Another week like this and the last wheel will fall off'
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,7374-1096453,00.html I decided against posting it.
And this is the latest from Fallujah:
"Around their deaths savage legends are already building. The gravedigger claims they were dismembered by US forces, who carved a crucifix into the forehead of the one adult with them.
Of this there is no evidence. But no matter. These are the tales that will spread from Fallujah to the Arab world and they will — with images of US brutality at Abu Ghraib prison fresh in angry minds — reach an audience willing to believe."
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,7374-1096434,00.html
5
posted on
5/2/2004, 11:07:06 PM
by
Eurotwit
To: Eurotwit
As luck would have it, I've also got a bridge for sale.......
To: KirkBloke
Was there a lot of blood in the ones showing the abuse from the Americans?
7
posted on
5/2/2004, 11:08:24 PM
by
FITZ
Comment #8 Removed by Moderator
To: Eurotwit
Sadly, this is probably true--no stopping a juicy lie everyone wants to believe anyway, and Al Jazeera and all the rest will repeat them ad nauseum. Wish I had a good solution to offer, but I'm stymied. If these U.K. pictures are fake, the fakers did a good job of sabotage. Not sure what to think about the U.S. pictures at this point, except to say that in no way was this treatment anywhere near as bad as what the Iraqis did to their own.
9
posted on
5/2/2004, 11:13:02 PM
by
MizSterious
(First, the journalists, THEN the lawyers.)
To: hole_n_one
Nice bridge, the water looks really nice & blue in that picture.
The lefties may get their knickers in a twist about this. As for the so-called arab street, well they hate us anyway, so what's the diff? As for the rest of us, well it's a shame if prisoners were abused, but we all know we need to hang together, or surely the islamists will hang us seprately.
I'm sorry, if they don't like it, they shouldn't have started it.
10
posted on
5/2/2004, 11:13:26 PM
by
jocon307
(The dems don't get it, the American people do.)
To: RegT
You are missing something.... if the British photos are fake.... The Mirror has some serious explaining to do.
Someone at that paper has declared war on the British military.
11
posted on
5/2/2004, 11:13:32 PM
by
Dog
(In Memory of Pat Tillman ---- ---- ---- American Hero.)
To: Dog
I haven't seen the British pictures. Any known links (that don't require me to register!)?
Comment #13 Removed by Moderator
To: KirkBloke
Of course they're fakes. My guess is the Marxist Islamic KLA propagandists are at work for militant Islam (and militant Stalinist liberalism).
Comment #15 Removed by Moderator
To: Reactionary
Of course they're fakes. My guess is the Marxist Islamic KLA propagandists are at work for militant Islam (and militant Stalinist liberalism).Don't forget PETA and SAG
To: Eurotwit
ANSWER has been fairly quiet, of late. Hmmmm....
To: tsmith130
18
posted on
5/2/2004, 11:21:47 PM
by
BlessedBeGod
('I went to Vietnam, yada yada yada, I want to be President...")
To: KirkBloke
True or not at lest it wasn't pictures of burnt American corpses hanging from an Iraqi bridge behind a mob of grinning Muslims.
To: Eurotwit
Someone yesterday posted a link to the abuse photos. Some of them were clearly from porn. A search on google turns up numerous similar photos (pretty disgusting ones, too).
20
posted on
5/2/2004, 11:24:48 PM
by
mikegi
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