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Bush shown more abuse pics
11/05/2004 09:24 - (SA)
Washington - President George W Bush was shown a representative sample on Monday of the hundreds of photographs of abuses of Iraqi prisoners by US soldiers that have not yet been seen by the US public, a senior defence official said.
The large, colour prints were from selected from photographs taken at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. They were shown to Bush at an hour-long briefing at the pentagon attended by top cabinet officials and US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, the official said.
"The secretary showed him a kind of representative sample of a relatively small number," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Videos, CDs Larry DiRita, the pentagon's chief spokesperson, told reporters that in addition to the photographs, the pentagon has in its possession several dozen short videos of varying qualities that also showed abuses being committed.
He said there were "many, many hundreds" of images on three compact discs, but noted that each disc contained many duplicate images so the total number of images was difficult to determine.
DiRita, who has seen the images, said they were "broadly consistent with what we've already seen."
"They were disturbing. There are some involving humiliation of a nature we've already seen," he said.
"There is clearly inappropriate behaviour, including some inappropriate behaviour of a sexual nature," he said.
The spokesperson said discussions were still underway with members of congress on whether to make a public release of the images, and if so how.
"But the emphasis right now is whether," DiRita said. However, he said, "we haven't ruled it in or out."
DiRita said a major stumbling block is the concern that release of the images could have an adverse impact on prosecution of the soldiers involved in the abuse.
"By trying to artificially affect that process, they could end up not being held accountable," he said. "That's the big tension everyone is working under."
Rumsfeld warned members of congress in testimony on Friday that there were possibly hundreds of photos, as well as videos of abuse that if released, could worsen a scandal that already has been highly damaging to US credibility.
- AFP
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