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Iraq: Cruelty scandal widens
09/05/2004 18:26 - (SA)
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| US soldiers with dogs surround an Iraqi detainee in this photo obtained by The New Yorker, allegedly taken in December 2003, at the Abu Ghraib prison. (AP, courtesy of The New Yorker) |
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New York - New Yorker magazine on Sunday released a new Iraq prison abuse photo showing a naked prisoner cowering under threat from two US military dogs.
The magazine, which was among the first to publish photos that have caused an international scandal, said others existed from the same scene showing the prisoner on the floor with blood pouring from a wound.
The new picture is accompanied by an article which said Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and top military officers sought to keep the prison abuse scandal quiet for several months.
Top investigative reporter Seymour Hersh said he had obtained the pictures of the now notorious Abu Ghraib prison which had been in the possession of a member of the 320th military police battalion.
The published picture shows a naked Iraqi man, leaning against a cell door, with his hands clasped behind his neck, cowering in fear as two German Shepherd dogs bark at him.
Hersh said that other photos show the dogs "straining at their leashes and snarling at the prisoner.
"In another take a few minutes later, the Iraqi is lying on the ground, writhing in pain, with a soldier sitting on top of him, knee pressed to his back. Blood is streaming from the inmate's leg," Hersh said in his article.
"Another photograph is a closeup of the naked prisoner, from his waist to his ankles, lying on the floor. On his right thigh is what appears to be a bite or a deep scratch. There is another larger wound on his left leg covered in blood."
The article quoted an unnamed senior Pentagon official as saying that many senior generals believe that top civilians officials and General John Abizaid, the head of US Central Command, and Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, the head of US forces in Iraq, "had done their best to keep the issue quiet in the first months of the year."
"What is the motive for not being forthcoming? They foresaw major diplomatic problems," the Pentagon official was quoted as saying.
He added that the "secrecy and wishful thinking" that mark the Pentagon under Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld "shaped its response to the reports from Abu Ghraib," the New Yorker article said.
Rumsfeld has faced major criticism from Congress and been scolded by President George W. Bush for not bring the abuse investigation to their attention before photographs were published by US media.
- AFP
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