Home > Navy probes new photos of Iraqi prisoners abuse

Navy probes new photos of Iraqi prisoners abuse

by Open-Publishing - Monday 6 December 2004
19 comments

Edito Wars and conflicts International Prison


The U.S. Navy has launched a criminal investigation into new photos that
were posted on a website showing Navy SEALs in Iraq sitting on hooded and handcuffed
Iraqi detainees, and pictures of bloodied prisoners, a Navy spokesman said on
Friday.

by aljazeera

An Associated Press reporter found about 40 of the photos posted on a commercial
photo-sharing Web site, by a woman who said that her husband brought them from
Iraq after his tour of duty.

The reporter handed turned over the photos to officials at the Naval Special
Warfare Command at Coronado, California.

"They presented copies of them to us last week and once we were presented with these photos we then launched an investigation as to how the photos got on the Internet and who is responsible," Navy Commander Jeff Bender said.

"The matter is currently under investigation to determine if the personnel acted properly," Bender said.

"These photographs raise a number of important questions regarding the treatment of prisoners of war (POWs) and detainees," Navy Cmdr. Jeff Bender, a spokesman for the Naval Special Warfare Command in Coronado, said in a written response to questions. "I can assure you that the matter will be thoroughly investigated."

The Navy SEALs appeared in the photos sitting on hooded detainees, pointing a gun to a detainee’s bloodied head, and putting a boot on the chest of a prone man, the AP reported.

Other photos showed smiling U.S. personnel lying atop three hooded detainees in the bed of a pickup truck.

Some of the photographs have date stamps that show they were taken last May, which could make them the earliest evidence of abusing Iraqi detainees in Iraq.

It hasn’t been mentioned yet who took the pictures, which the Navy said it was investigating.

Navy regulations "strictly prohibit photographing detainees except to keep records of prisoners or for counterintelligence purposes," Bender said.

"Before they go on deployment they are instructed that taking photos of detainees is strictly forbidden," he said.

"Some of the photos clearly depict the faces and names of special warfare personnel which could put them or their families at risk," Bender said.

So far only seven U.S. military police reservists faced trial over Abu Ghraib prison scandal which first emerged in April, when photos showing U.S. soldiers torturing and sexually abusing Iraqi prisoners were released sparking international outrage.

For safety concerns, the Associated Press refuses to identify the woman who posted the photos on the website.

http://www.aljazeera.com/cgi-bin/news_service...

Forum posts

  • The digital photography makes people soooo creative.

  • This is just another example of the sick bastards that join the military. Anyone who would take "work" killing other people for money has got to be sick in the head in the first place. Each day when they give the U.S. military death announcemnets I am disappointed it isn’t many more.

    • Nice way to lump everyone in a group together. Most soldiers did not sign up for the army based on the likelihood they would get to kill other people. In fact, now that we are at war and killing (and being killed) is a real possibility it is very hard for recruiters to get people to join. The bigger reasons why soldiers have signed up range from getting money for college and learning some discipline, from traveling to getting away from a dead-end situation, from defending our nation to following a family heritage. There are as many unique reasons as their are soldiers.

      What you want to forget is that there are plenty of "sick bastards" who don’t join the military. They murder, rape, steal, and harass just fine without a uniform. A statistic to consider is how few of our soldiers are actually involved compared to the total number deployed — then compare that to the number of criminals in our society to the total population. At most we are looking at 2-3% in BOTH cases.

      These are horrific crimes, made worse by the way the military tries to cover them up, but they don’t color the entire army made up of individuals as "sick bastards". The only way to prevent them is to make it less dangerous to report such atrocities to one’s superiors without being humiliated as a snitch or pacifist or a soldier who can’t understand what is necessary in an interrogation.

    • Balderdash, what naive person would really think that going into the world’s most dangerous military would be a day at the beach? Only a sick bastard would go into a profession that is based on killing for a living. You are right about a lot of sicko people in this country, and I think they go into the military in dis proportionate numbers to do their sick shit knowing full well that they can shoot other humans men, women and babies and be thought of as heros, a win win situation they get to do their sick shit and they get medals for doing it as well as pay. Yes there is danger, but these sickos like that kind of risk its part of their demented mind set. There is no reason that would ever be good enough short of self defense for anyone with morals to take up arms against another human being and not be a sick bastard. There are plenty of ways to solve conflicts besides killing people.

    • The military is the only thing keeping your sorry ass free. You’re obviously not worth defending.

      In case you didn’t notice the money isn’t good. People join the military for idealistic reasons, something your cynical mind wouldn’t know anything about.

    • I suppose you think people that become police officers are sick too. Anyone who would take work that requires a gun and the possiblity of shooting someone must be SICK!

      If you believe so strongly about wanting there to be more US military casualities maybe you should go to Iraq and join the insurgents. I’m sure you’d have a bright future doing that!

    • No I’m going to sit on my butt and make judgements on the murdering bastards and watch the country go to hell because of ass holes like you. This is my country and I will not go anywhere. While Bushco tears it apart and drags it down and mortgages its future I will stay here and go down with the ship. I’m old and have lived my life, while you and your children will have to bear the consequences of letting Hitler II destroy what was once a great country. I have no children and am not leaving this mess to anyone but your children who deserve to suffer because of ass holes like you.

    • I bet you hated Reagan and loved Carter too! You’re oviously not old enough to remember what Hitler did or else you would realize how loony your comparison of Bush with him is.

      At least you’re smart enough not to reproduce. Thank you for that!

    • And I bet you are stupid enough to have reproduced more than one little robot for the government to exploit and suck dry of a life....

    • You’re an idiot. If you consider someone who joins the military to capture terriots and protect your inconsiderate ass a sicko your the one who needs help.

      Wife of a Navy SEAL

    • Navy Seals can suck crap!

    • I hope the american military personal who have slaughtered any of those 80,000 women and children come home and stick a gun in their mouth and do us all a favor. Those murderers are a discrase to this great nation. I hope the iraq people have the courage and strength to stand up against the hostile foreign military powers occupying their country and drive them out. If the viet nam people can do it, so can the iraq people.

      Come home american servicemen and women, without killing any more iraq people.

    • I hope the american military personal who have slaughtered any of those 80,000 women and children come home and stick a gun in their mouth and do us all a favor. Those murderers are a discrase to this great nation. I hope the iraq people have the courage and strength to stand up against the hostile foreign military powers occupying their country and drive them out. If the viet nam people can do it, so can the iraq people.

      Come home american servicemen and women, without killing any more iraq people.

    • I hope the american military personal who have slaughtered any of those 80,000 women and children come home and stick a gun in their mouth and do us all a favor. Those murderers are a discrase to this great nation. I hope the iraq people have the courage and strength to stand up against the hostile foreign military powers occupying their country and drive them out. If the viet nam people can do it, so can the iraq people.

      Come home american servicemen and women, without killing any more iraq people.

    • I hope the american military personal who have slaughtered any of those 80,000 women and children come home and stick a gun in their mouth and do us all a favor. Those murderers are a discrase to this great nation. I hope the iraq people have the courage and strength to stand up against the hostile foreign military powers occupying their country and drive them out. If the viet nam people can do it, so can the iraq people.

      Come home american servicemen and women, without killing any more iraq people.

    • I hope the american military personal who have slaughtered any of those 80,000 women and children come home and stick a gun in their mouth and do us all a favor. Those murderers are a discrase to this great nation. I hope the iraq people have the courage and strength to stand up against the hostile foreign military powers occupying their country and drive them out. If the viet nam people can do it, so can the iraq people.

      Come home american servicemen and women, without killing any more iraq people.

      If you kill any more people, you will be as bad as the israeli military slaughtering unarmed palestinian people.

    • I hope the american military personal who have slaughtered any of those 80,000 women and children come home and stick a gun in their mouth and do us all a favor. Those murderers are a discrase to this great nation. I hope the iraq people have the courage and strength to stand up against the hostile foreign military powers occupying their country and drive them out. If the viet nam people can do it, so can the iraq people.

      Come home american servicemen and women, without killing any more iraq people.

      If you kill any more iraq or afganistan people, you will be as bad as the israeli military slaughtering unarmed palestinian people.

    • I hope the american military personal who have slaughtered any of those 80,000 women and children come home and stick a gun in their mouth and do us all a favor. Those murderers are a discrase to this great nation. I hope the iraq people have the courage and strength to stand up against the hostile foreign military powers occupying their country and drive them out. If the viet nam people can do it, so can the iraq people.

      Come home american servicemen and women, without killing any more iraq people.

      If you kill any more iraq or afganistan people, you will be as bad as the israeli military slaughtering unarmed palestinian people.

  • Thats why they like young kids in the military as they are much easyier to brainwash than someone who’s been around awhile.......yeah they all are made to feel indestructable untill they find themselves with thier buddies intestines hanging all over them and the bullets start flying....thats when they realize the mistake they made and that they are just regular humans that die like all the rest to help keep the military industrial complex running smoothly on thier blood.....war has ALWAYS been for the profit of the super wealthy thats why they have to keep creating "enemies" to justify thier existence....and as for the military "keeping us free" what a line of bullsh-t. If we are so damned free then why all the massive "prisons for profit"? Endless rising taxes , permits , fees and licenses ?Please tell me of something left thats free so i can go do it just to experience what being "free" is like.

    pleiadian@alienembassy.com