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Barely three weeks, and already I've developed Abu Ghraib fatigue. At first, I was saddened and ashamed by the photographs of abuse. I thought they might cost us the war, and deservedly so. But then I learned the prisoners in cell blocks 1A and 1B are not nice people. They're in prison because the Army thinks they did things like kill our soldiers with roadside bombs. Then I learned that, not infrequently, such interrogation techniques work — they elicit information that allows us to catch plotters and save lives. Then I was struck by the hypocrisy of Arab state leaders...

Graphic accounts by Iraqi prisoners of abuse at the hands of US soldiers have been published in a US newspaper, with fresh images depicting ill-treatment. The Washington Post says it has seen hundreds of videos and photos which show previously unseen abusive techniques. In sworn statements, detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad said they were beaten and sexually humiliated. They were also force-fed pork and alcohol, against their Muslim beliefs. The new photos include one of a prisoner being menaced by a soldier with a dog. In other abuses depicted in the latest pictures: A naked prisoner who...

Plans to destroy the prision where Iraqi detainees were 'humiliated' and 'abused' took a small step forward Thursday as lawmakers voted to include it in a multimillion dollar defense bill.The plan by Pennsylvania Reps. Curt Weldon a Republican, and John P. Murtha a Democrat would demolish the Abu Ghraib prision and build a modernized detention facility in its place.It was slipped into a $422 billion defense authorization bill that the House approved Thursday.The proposal drew an immediate rebuke from one lawmaker Wednesday during a short debate on the House floor.Rep. Thaddeus McCotter (R-Mich.) said destroying the prision is the 'sovereign...

As the Abu Gharib prisoner abuse scandal has almost naturally segued into calls for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s resignation, the media has once again focused on the “news” to the detriment of the actual context needed to fully understand and appreciate the reality of the situation. Just as the media focuses on Fallujah and now Abu Gharib while ignoring the thousands of daily good deeds performed by Americans and others, those calling for Rumsfeld’s head on a platter are being given a pass on their motivations for doing so. When the media trots out one poll after another showing that half...

 Abu Gharib: A Product of the “War on Terror” By Yamin ZakariaAl-Jazeerah, May 8, 2004 As the obscene pictures depicting sexual abuse, torture and execution of the Iraqi prisoners continues to surface it only confirms the scale of the horror, obscenity, deceit, arrogance and the sheer hypocrisy of this war! Then the US has the gall to expect the Arabs/Muslims to condemn the human rights violation of Saddam Hussein’s regime but simultaneously expects the US forces to be excused for the same behaviour! Furthermore, one of the justifications for the carnage in Iraq was Saddam’s violation of human rights, but yet...

ShameMona Charen (archive) May 7, 2004 | Print | Send  Today's picture on the front page of the newspaper shows a naked Iraqi prisoner on the floor. A leash is tied around his neck. Holding the leash is an American soldier.  This is a disaster.  These photographs are a dagger in the heart of our hopes for Iraq and the wider Middle East. It isn't yet clear whether the damage is reversible, but first let's be clear about what the damage is.  Many have been at pains to object that what we have so far seen does not amount to...

GOTTA SEE THIS - War for Enduring Freedom 09/18/03 - Baghdad, Tikrit, Abu Gharib, Al-Taji, Beirut, Damascus BREAKING: Baghdad, BREAKING: Abu Gharib BREAKING: Al-Taji BREAKING: Beirut BREAKING: Mosul BREAKING: Syria BREAKING: Tikrit QFN [QUAMIRE-FREE NEWS] ========= Tikrit ========= BREAKING: In Tikrit, Iraq, AMERICAN HEROES deliver medical care to FREED Iraqis. The Bedouin children have never seen a doctor. Iraqi orphans, FREED by the USA. ========= Mosul ========= In Mosul, at the market BREAKING: In Mosul, Iraqi policeman qualify then receive a salary. =========== Al Arabiya =========== BREAKING: Arabic television channel Al Arabiya aired an old audio tape of Saddam. It...

Exposed: Secret and macabre world of jail where thousands were killed By Andrew Buncombe in Baghdad 14 April 2003 Wednesday was the day for killing and Thursday was the day relatives paid to collect the bodies of the dead. How prisoners were executed depended on an order from above – a bullet to the back of the head for those deemed to deserve a degree of mercy and the rope for those destined to suffer. On the morning of their deaths, prisoners were asked their permission to be killed: those who agreed first received a glass of water and a...

A huge mural just inside the gates of Abu Gharib Prison depicts a smiling Saddam Hussein and a row of black-hooded executioners. Bit redundant, that. The Iraqi president has been known to pull the trigger himself when in the mood for a spot of blood-letting or political avengement. But such was the frequency of formalized extermination under the Baath party regime that executioners were practically guaranteed tenure. Nowhere was the butchery more rife than Abu Gharib, a notorious penitentiary/gulag 40 kilometres west of the capital, and sprawling for miles behind thick stone walls along the main highway into town. It's...