http://www.truthout.org/051909A?nDocuments Describe Torture PhotosTuesday 19 May 2009
by: Jason Leopold, t r u t h o u t | Report
US Army soldiers in Afghanistan took dozens of pictures of their colleagues pointing assault rifles and pistols at the heads and backs of hooded and bound detainees and another photograph showed two male soldiers and one female soldier pointing a broom to one detainee "as if I was sticking the end of a broom stick into
rectum," according to the female soldier's account as told to an Army criminal investigator.
Documents found on the ACLU web site describe many of the photographs that were set for release at the end of the month. The ACLU has been trying to gain access to the photographs for nearly six years. The ACLU obtained the files describing the pictures in 2005 as part of the organization's wide-ranging Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the Bush administration, seeking documents related to the treatment of "war on terror" prisoners in US custody.
Amrit Singh, an ACLU staff attorney, confirmed that the photographs described in documents posted on the group's web site were those that President Obama has decided to withhold, fearing the disclosure would stoke anti-American sentiment and endanger US troops.
Last September, the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ordered the prisoner abuse photographs released. The Bush administration challenged the ruling, and in March the court denied that petition. The appeals court also shot down the Bush administration's attempt to radically expand FOIA exemptions for withholding the photos, stating that the Bush administration had attempted to use the FOIA exemptions as "an all-purpose damper on global controversy."
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One female soldier in the photo is pointing a broom "as if I was sticking the end of a broom stick into the rectum of a restrained detainee," she testified to Army investigators in April 2004.
On March 27, 2004, this soldier sent an email to an undisclosed number of her colleagues. She discovered that the photograph she appeared in had been widely disseminated and that she was under investigation.
You guys have a picture of me holding a broom near a detainee. I don't have a copy of this picture anywhere ... but some Marine got a hold of it and now I'm being investigated for detainee abuse. I guess one of you share (sic) the photos with the Marines ... but either way, they have a copy of that picture.
Anyway, this email serves two purposes. First, I know that at least one more of you guys is in the picture, but I cannot remember who. If I'm being investigated ... I'm sure that the other individuals in this picture will be investigated as well, so heads up! Secondly, can I please have a copy of this picture ASAP!!! I can't stress how badly I need this picture so I can show people that it was just a posed shot, and that I wasn't physically beating anyone with a broom.
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One soldier admitted during a July 2004 interview with an Army investigator that he took "bad photographs" before "the incident in Iraq," which is likely a reference to the Abu Ghraib prison scandal. The soldier characterized the "bad photographs" as those in which the "public would be outraged" if they were released. He went on to state "that he was standing behind a prisoner with a weapon holding it at their head" in one of the two photographs he appeared in.
The corpse of the dead Afghanistan national was photographed sometime in January 2004 after he was shot to death by US soldiers, who believed he was responsible for a rocket-propelled grenade attack on Fire Base Tycze that seriously wounded three US soldiers. However, an investigation into the incident was never conducted.
Most of the soldiers interviewed in all of the incidents stated that they were not aware of any set policy on the treatment of detainees, and did not realize at the time that their actions were wrong nor did they believe they were inappropriate. A sergeant stated that he had also seen pictures on Army computers of detainees being kicked, hit or inhumanely treated while in US custody.
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