The latest round of photos and videos of Iraqi prisoner abuse included torture, humiliation and forced sex beyond what has been seen in public, members of Congress said Wednesday after viewing them.
Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., said there also were some "gruesome scenes" that showed
dead bodies, but without any explanation of how the victims had been killed or why.
Lawmakers said the disturbing images included military dogs snarling at cowering prisoners, Iraqi women commanded to expose their breasts and photos of sex acts, including
forced homosexual sex.
"What we saw is appalling," said Senate Majority Leader Bill
Frist, R-Tenn.
http://www.freep.com/news/nw/abuse13_20040513.htm= = =
Members of Congress were given special access yesterday to pictures of Iraqi prisoner abuse that they said included
"heartbreaking" and "sickening" images of torture, sexual abuse, and humiliation.
"I was obviously shocked and horrified to discover that the new photos are even more gruesome than those we have seen in the media," said Representative Martin T. Meehan, Democrat of Lowell.
"There's no doubt in my mind that the abuses at Abu Ghraib constitute torture."Some described images of Iraqi women exposing their breasts. Others remembered photos of a shackled prisoner repeatedly banging his head against a wall. There were images of three US soldiers beating an Iraqi prisoner. And there were many sexual images, some of simulated acts and others including actual intercourse between male and female soldiers.
"It's heartbreaking," said Representative Barney Frank...
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2004/05/13/lawmakers_view_images_of_abuse_express_shock/= = =
They gathered in a secure room on Capitol Hill, as many as 150 at one time, but the pictures and slides they viewed so silenced U.S. lawmakers that one said later, he could have been in the room by himself.
Afterward, they emerged on their own or in small groups, some spitting out disgust to the waiting microphones, others appearing ashen, unsure of how to describe what their eyes had just seen.
They saw Iraqi women forced to bare their breasts, forced homosexual sex, sex between U.S. troops, hooded Iraqi prisoners forced to masturbate in front of their captors, another forced to sodomize himself.http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1084399811783&call_pageid=968332188854&col=968350060724= = =
Members of the US Congress saw new images of violence and sexual humiliation from a US-run Iraqi prison last night in a closed viewing and one likened them to
a descent into "the wings of hell".
They said
images showed inmates apparently being forced to commit sodomy, wounds possibly from dog bites, a number of dead bodies, and examples of "sadistic torture" and "sexual humiliation".
http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/16008.html= = =
Thanks George and Rummy for bringing American Democracy to Iraq!!
Thanks for getting the people responsible for 9/11!!
Thanks for violating the Geneva Convention and endangering our troops!
Thanks for uniting 1.3 billion Muslims and the rest of the world agains the US!
Thanks for finally getting Bill Frist and Barney Frank to agree on something!
Thanks for restoring honor and dignity to the White House!