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Lawmakers view violent and sexual mistreatment of inmates { May 13 2004 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/content/auto/epaper/editions/today/news_042aaeaf0642b1fa008f.htmlhttp://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/content/auto/epaper/editions/today/news_042aaeaf0642b1fa008f.html
Latest prison photos depict 'a ring of hell'
By George Edmonson and Mike Williams, Palm Beach Post-Cox News Service
Thursday, May 13, 2004
WASHINGTON -- U.S. lawmakers reacted with disgust Wednesday after viewing hundreds of new photographs made available by the Pentagon showing more violent and sexual mistreatment of inmates in U.S.-run prisons in Iraq.
"It's like looking at one of the rings of hell, and it's a ring of hell of our own creation," said Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., shortly after after viewing several hundred of the pictures in a secure Senate room. "And when you see these accumulated photos of violence and brutality and perversity and depravity, you want to turn around in revulsion."
"I don't know how the hell these people got into our Army," said Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, R-Colo.
The latest revelations came as Congress continued to debate the Bush administration's actions in Iraq.
Sen. John Warner, R-Va., chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, which is leading the congressional inquiry into the scandal, said he thought the government should wait to release the photos until military trials of those accused are completed.
Some members of Congress, shaken by the videotaped beheading of American Nick Berg, said they feared that publicizing more photographs of abuse and degradation of Iraqi prisoners could further stoke anti-American sentiment and increase the danger faced by U.S. troops.
"I don't know that the government can take that responsibility to do that," said Sen. Mike DeWine, R-Ohio, who called the pictures he saw "absolutely disgusting."
But others, including Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., said they thought releasing the pictures would be best in the long run.
Two more U.S. soldiers will face trials in the Abu Ghraib prison scandal for abuses ranging from punching and kicking detainees to ordering them to engage in sex acts, according to documents released Wednesday. Seven soldiers have been charged, with one court-martial set for May 19.
Numerous investigations are under way, and officials have said at least two or three others are likely to be charged.
More than 1,000 images were brought by the Pentagon for lawmakers to view Wednesday. Several of those who saw them said there appeared to be hundreds of duplicates as they were displayed by military personnel on a screen.
Durbin said there were many horrific images, but no information about when or where they took place and who was involved.
"Many of them, you couldn't figure it out," he said. "One showed a victim of a gunshot wound with half of his head blown off, with all the blood and gore around it, and no identification as to who he was or where it took place.... Many others, you couldn't tell where they took place. The military officials there couldn't explain it. They didn't know."
Congress had been negotiating with the Pentagon to see the additional images since Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld revealed last week that there were many more pictures and some video and that they were worse than those already published by news organizations.
The latest soldiers to face courts-martial in Baghdad in the coming weeks are Sgt. Javal Davis, 26, of Maryland and Staff Sgt. Ivan "Chip" Frederick II, 37, of Buckingham, Va. Their trials will follow the court-martial of Spc. Jeremy Sivits, 24, of Hyndman, Pa.
The trials of the three reservists will be open, officials said. Sivits faces a special court-martial, while Davis and Frederick will be tried in general courts-martial, which could result in stiffer sentences than the Sivits proceeding.
According to military documents, Frederick allowed or participated in attaching electrical wires to a detainee's hands, ordered him to stand on a box with a hood over his head, then told the detainee he would be electrocuted if he fell off the box. Frederick also allegedly allowed photos of the incident, and that image has become one of the most widely reproduced pictures.
Frederick also is accused of placing naked detainees in a human pyramid; grabbing the hands of detainees and ordering them to strike each other; posing for a photo while sitting atop a detainee wedged between two medical litters; "stomping" on the hands and feet of detainees, and punching a detainee so hard he required medical attention.
Davis allegedly lied to investigators by claiming he had never intentionally stepped on detainees or struck them in anger when in fact he did, his charge sheet stated. He also is accused of placing detainees in a pile on the floor, jumping on the detainees and shoving them with his shoulder.
Rumsfeld appeared at a Senate hearing Wednesday on the Defense Department's budget request but ended up answering several questions on interrogation methods and related issues.
Rumsfeld said Pentagon lawyers had approved methods such as sleep deprivation and dietary changes as well as rules permitting prisoners to be made to assume stressful positions.
"The fact of the matter is that in Iraq there have been improvements made, and successive investigations have seen that improvements were made, and they were not brushed off," Rumsfeld said.
Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, noted that the rules require prisoners to be treated humanely at all times. But Durbin said some of the approved techniques "go far beyond the Geneva Convention," a reference to international rules governing the treatment of prisoners of war.
The Pew Research Center released results of a poll that showed the prison scandal "registered powerfully with the public," the center said. Seventy-six percent of those polled said they had seen pictures depicting mistreatment of Iraqis by U.S. soldiers.
The poll also found for the first time that a majority of Americans, 51 percent, said the war in Iraq was not going well.
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