Australian TV Report on Abu Ghraib Photos and Video February 15, 2006
Salon exclusive: The Abu Ghraib files February 16, 2006 (The photographs we are showing in
the accompanying gallery represent a small fraction of these visual materials.)
The most asinine and lame comment yet on these atrocities:"A US state department legal adviser said the government felt it was better for the photos not to be released.
John Bellinger said
this was "not because there was anything to hide" - but rather "because we felt it was an invasion of the privacy of the people in the pictures". (emphasis added)
He said the images, which show "conduct that is absolutely disgusting" were likely to "fan the flames around the world and cause more violence". "
New inquiry urged over Abu Ghraib February 16, 2006
An Arabic proverb: "The excuse is uglier than the crime".
An Update:"PRESIDENT BUSH: A year ago, I did give the speech from the carrier, saying that we had achieved an important objective, that we'd accomplished a mission, which was the removal of Saddam Hussein. And as a result, there are no longer torture chambers or rape rooms or mass graves in Iraq. As a result, a friend of terror has been removed, and now sits in a jail."
Remarks by President Bush and Prime Minister Martin of Canada, The Rose Garden April 30, 2004
"The Associated Press reports that
Alberto Mora summarized his longstanding concerns in a secret memo to senior Pentagon officials dated July 7, 2004, writing that "legal theories granting the president the right to authorize abuse in spite of the Geneva Conventions were
unlawful, dangerous and erroneous."
Pentagon ignored repeated warnings on torture and abuse February 20, 2006
"In drawing the comparison between American military behavior in Iraq and that of Saddam, bin Laden said: "The jihad is continuing with strength, for Allah be all the credit, despite all the barbarity, the repressive steps taken by the American Army and its agents, to the extent that there is no longer any mentionable difference between this criminality and the criminality of Saddam."
U.S. tactics 'barbaric,' bin Laden alleges February 20, 2006
"We strongly condemn these infractions. We will do our best effort to have democratic, honest, and free infractions" 