Home > CNN Blames the Photos,Not the Torture

CNN Blames the Photos,Not the Torture

by Open-Publishing - Thursday 16 February 2006
6 comments

Media-Network Wars and conflicts International Prison USA

by Jeremy Scahill
CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr should be given some kind of award for the most outrageously off-target reporting on the newly released photos and videos of U.S. torture and abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. In her numerous appearances during the morning news cycle on CNN after the images were first broadcast on Australia’s SBS television, Starr described what she saw as the "root of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal" as such:

"Let’s start by reminding everybody that under U.S. military law and practice, the only photographs that can be taken are official photographs for documentation purposes about the status of prisoners when they are in military detention. That’s it. Anything else is not acceptable. And of course, that is what the Abu Ghraib prison scandal is all about."

What? Here I thought the "scandal" was that the U.S. military was systematically abusing prisoners. These new photos, with their documentation of violently inflicted, open wounds, obliterate any notion that what occurred at Abu Ghraib was anything short of torture by all accepted definitions of the term. They reveal some horrifying scenes of naked, humiliated, bloodied prisoners, some with apparent gunshot wounds. In a video broadcast on Australia’s SBS, naked, hooded prisoners were seen being forced to masturbate in front of the camera. But, according to CNN’s Starr, the real transgression was that some soldiers documented the torture in violation of "U.S. military law and practice." In a report later in the morning, Starr returned to her outrageous characterization of the "scandal," beginning her report:

"As we look at a couple of the photographs, let’s remind people that why these are so inappropriate. Under U.S. military law and practice and procedure, you simply cannot take photographs - as we’re going to show you some of them right now. You cannot take photographs of people in detention, in humiliating positions, positions that are abusive in any way, shape or form. The only pictures that are ever allowed of people in U.S. military detention would be pictures for documentation purposes. And, clearly, these pictures are not that. That is the whole issue that has been at the root of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, that it was abusive, the practices in which soldiers engaged in."

"You cannot take photographs of people in detention, in humiliating positions, positions that are abusive in any way, shape or form," according to Starr. But apparently it’s OK to place them in those humiliating, abusive positions - or at least not worth commenting on in these reports on CNN. Starr continued her report, describing Pentagon reaction to the newly released photos:

"But the Pentagon certainly is not happy that these pictures, these additional pictures, which had not been distributed publicly in the past, Pentagon not happy that they are out. And the reason is, the Pentagon had filed a lawsuit trying to prevent their publication in the United States out of concern, they say, that it would spark violence in the Arab world to see these photographs and it would put U.S. military forces at risk."

The release of the photographs will spark the violence? No - U.S. torture of prisoners sparks massive outrage, and justifiably so. Moreover, this outrage should not just be confined to the "Arab world" but should be felt everywhere, particularly in the U.S. Besides, Pentagon lawyers have already tried this defense in federal court, and a judge ruled that fear of facing the consequences of your actions is not a legitimate defense.

Starr concluded another report saying the Pentagon is concerned that if the images "appear in the Islamic world ... they will incite unrest in the Islamic world, and therefore put U.S. military troops at risk."

CNN anchor Zain Vergee then shot back, "And they were swiftly put on Arab TV. As you say, they’re out there."

They were swiftly put on Arab TV. Is there something devious about that? Is "Arab TV" somehow committing some transgression against freedom and democracy by broadcasting these images that were first put out by Australian TV in a country Bush claims as his ally?

All of the images of the torture at Abu Ghraib should be made public, as the Center for Constitutional Rights and ACLU have been fighting for, because they are an accurate representation of what has happened and continues to happen in U.S.-run and -supported gulags around the world.

When and if they are released, Barbara Starr should be reminded that she is supposed to be a CNN reporter at the Pentagon, not a Pentagon spokesperson on CNN.

antiwar.com

Forum posts

  • She should be tortured.

  • Whitey, Whitey, Whitey....

    GGOOOOooooo WHITEY!!!

    There was a little talk at work yesterday about the photos. When I say, "little" I mean talk not in depth and not at length. It was understood by us what was going on and we understood the mental energies that we were expending to justify the photos and memories from a couple of years back. And as a result, we just didn’t "go there".

    Then the tensions amongst us Whites skyrocketed when an Indian (Muslim) co-worker came into the room. I could feel the collective heartbeat. The poor Indian fellow has been in the states for only a few months and could read the unease on our faces. He apologized for interrputing and left.

    Shame overtook me. But my White colleagues sighed a sigh of relief... Guilt in their minds and heart.

    And here is Ms. Barbara, a Whitey American. The spokewoman for Whitey America. Only Whitey can handled the wickedness — such talent with words.

    • It is part of the Bush administration strategy to blame the bearer of bad news, a good old tradition going far back into the origins of imperialism. Blame someone who photographs coffins of dead people, but never blame someone who sent them to their deaths. Never embarrass a "high dignitary" as they should be untouchable, above criticism, subject only to the ruling of the Supreme Creator. Never show photos of wounded and maimed veterans, who will spend most of their days in some sort of pain, pity, or contempt for being disabled and never ever mention that Bush lied to start the war that maimed them. So, it is better to talk about how it is a crime of some sort to expose the shenanigans of Presidents, than to even mention that Presidents can be liars, cheats, egomaniacs, and loony tune irascible daddy’s boys with a Napoleonic complex.

    • Be that as it may, did it occur to you that the war party came from your own kind?

      That is, (using more modern words) ... that the came from your part of the gene pool?

      No even the ruthless Moguls were as bad as the Euro-Centric (and now by extension White America) when it came to having hate and directing their hate towards the non-Whites of the world.

      Call them and label them with all the attibutable words you want — in the end they are you, and you are them.

  • More photos of abuses but little has been done to prosecute the abusers

    The second set of photos of abuses in Abu-Graib prison has been published by an Australian TV (SBS). Australia has been a keen supporter for the invasion of Iraq. The published photos shows only a small fraction of the huge number of abuses committed on the detained Iraqis. The major abuses that should not be forgotten and must be lifted are:-
    1- The detention of Iraqis was and has been illegal and unjustified, since the USA troops are invading forces.
    2- After the establishment of the current and former Iraqi governments, the detention authority should be given to the Iraqi government and Iraqi justice. If that government is legal, as Mr. Bush administration speaks and ask Arab countries to resume diplomatic relation with it, then detention of Iraqis is part of its sovereignty .
    3- Whoever was the detainer, the detainees should be sent to trial immediately and innocent ones should be sent free, and compensated for detention and mistreatment.
    4- International Red Cross and Iraqi Red Crescent committees should have been allowed to visit the detainees, record them and report about their cases.
    The large number of photos and the large versions of sadistic torture prove that large number of USA troops have been involved in the torture. Consequently, the violent torture was systematic policy of the USA troops. The puppet trials that have been applied on few USA soldiers refused to hear those on whom the abuses were committed !. The trials ended with minor sentences that too little compared to extent of damage incurred on the detainees. This is an other evidence that the abuses were the result of systematic policy of the USA troops.

    In the light of the above points, the detention of Iraqis has been a major crime as it was the abuses committed against the detainees. We have heard many comments by humanitarian organizations condemning the abuses. In the meantime the UN nation express shy condemnation but it did very little to end the detention or at least to free the innocent ones who are the majority. The publication of the second set of photos is a second call, for those who claim to spread democracy and justice in the middle east, to prove, or at least pretend, that they are not liars.
    Mohamed Younis
    Mosul / IRAQ

  • CNN is just the "left " side of the Zionist mass media that has been "shifted to the "far right"over the last 25 years.BY DESIGN!!.leaving the impression,to those who aren’t paying attention(98%),that we have any semblance of a fair and balanced mass media!!!!!
    ........want proof??http://www.realnews247.com/who_runs_the_media.htm
    WAKE UP AMERIKA