Where Are The Pictures From Saddam's Torture Chambers?

White House Press Office ^ | 5/10/2004 | Jeff Gannon, White House Correspondent

[ConservativeMajority]

From Monday's White House press briefing:

JEFF GANNON, TALON NEWS:

In your denunciations of the Abu Ghraib photos, you've used words like "sickening," "disgusting" and "reprehensible." Will you have any adjectives left to adequately describe the pictures from Saddam's rape rooms and torture chambers? And will Americans ever see those images?

MR. McCLELLAN:

I'm glad you brought that up, Jeff, because the President talks about that often. We did remove a brutal regime from power that was responsible for mass graves and torture chambers and rape rooms. And this was a regime that encouraged and tolerated that kind of activity. It stands in stark contrast to the way we're addressing this issue of prisoner abuse. When something like this comes to light, the United States acts quickly and swiftly to bring people to justice and to take steps to make sure it doesn't happen again.

JEFF GANNON, TALON NEWS:

This is a matter of degree. Those prisoners will survive being photographed naked, but many of Saddam's victims will never be seen again, and did not survive the torture chambers. Will Americans ever see the photographic evidence of that? I think if you contrast the two, you're going to get a much different perspective on this.

MR. McCLELLAN:

We should never forget the atrocities carried out by the former regime. You are having the head of that regime come to trial before long, and he will be held accountable for those atrocities.

JEFF GANNON, TALON NEWS:

Will the pictures emerge at that time?

MR. McCLELLAN:

He will be accountable for those atrocities.

[Keith]

Translation...we don't want to screw up the prosecutions...I would expect there to be plenty of photo evidence...the question is...will it get the same play in the media?

[Yardstick]

Sidenote: McClellan seems to be improving in his role as White House spokesman. He had big shoes to fill!

[Ready4Freddy]

Maybe they weren't stupid enough to take pics, like our folks were......

Where Are The Pictures From Saddam's Torture Chambers?

[Naspino]

Liberals might smell blood on this question. No evidence of torture and brutality by Saddam? That was the 'other' reason for the war. Did Bush deceive us all? Maybe the 'torturers' were like the 'scientists' and just 'told' Saddam that they did abuse but actually just let the victims go and maybe the people that complained were just doing their part in the 'well meaning cover-up'. I'll bet everyone in Iraq is misunderstood and Saddam was the 'only' bad guy there. /sarcasm

[Christian4Bush]

"Where Are The Pictures From Saddam's Torture Chambers? "

Probably in the same place as the WMDs...they definitely exist, they just haven't been found.

As a reminder, just because they haven't been found does not mean that they never existed (or that they don't now exist).

Speaking of the whole "where are the WMDs" debate, I'm reminded of the movie "Aliens"...the sequel to the popular original, alien infects crew member, kills all but one of the crew (setup by the government). The lone survivor blows up the ship (didn't kill the alien), is found sleeping in a lifeboat 57 years later (after frying the boat's engines to kill the alien), and is called to account by the government, because she blew up such an expensive vessel.

The president of the committee says "the analysis team, which went over the lifeboat centimeter by centimeter, found no physical evidence of the creature you described."

Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) defiantly said "GOOD! That's because I blew it out of the g--d--- airlock!...like I said."

Point: if there are no (longer) WMD's in Iraq, GOOD! Either we bombed them out of existence, or at the very least, they are not there to be used on our troops (or on the Iraqi people).

[vigilence]

Did John Kerry, admitted committer of atrocities in Viet Nam, call for the resignation of Robert McNamara after Mi Lai? No, I don't think so. And when you compare that with the current abuse charges that are supposed to force Rumsfeld from office it's obvious that this is raw, election year politics.

[PersonalLiberties]

Was the wrong? yes. But let's not forget those prisoners were not killed or dragged through the street and hung from a bridge.

[monkeywrench]

Yes, technically, kerry should be breaking rocks at Leavensworth.

[ConservativeConvert]

A few woodchipper execution and tongue removal videos should put all of this nonsense into perspective...