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Congress calls for restraint
13/05/2004 08:54 - (SA)
Washington - US lawmakers expressed revulsion Wednesday after seeing more unpublished photos and videos of the abuse of prisoners in Iraq by US troops.
Speaking a day after the release of a video showing an American beheaded in Iraq, a top Senate committee chairman said the release of more images could encourage more attacks on Americans.
A special showing of the pictures and videos of the abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad was held in secure viewing rooms on both the House and Senate sides of Congress. The images were seized by military investigators.
After viewing the images, members of Congress said they included Iraqi women exposing their breasts, and hooded Iraqi prisoners masturbating.
Senator Sam Brownback, a Kansas Republican, said there were also some "gruesome scenes" that showed dead bodies, without explanation of how they died.
"You can't tell me that all this was going on with seven or eight Army privates," said Democratic Senator Bill Nelson of Florida.
"The question is, how far up the chain of command did these orders (go)," said Democratic Senator Jon Corzine of New Jersey.
Lawmakers viewed the images as two additional US military police guards were charged in the case.
"We are announcing two additional courts-martial related to Abu Ghraib," US Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, the coalition's deputy operations director, said in Baghdad.
US army Sergeant Javal Davis and US army Staff Sergeant Ivan Frederick both face general courts-martial, each on five charges that include maltreatment of prisoners and assault, Kimmitt said at a news conference.
Officials have said army Specialist Jeremy Sivits will be the first to face trial next month on charges of photographing "nude detainees forced into a human pyramid position" and "escorting the detainees to be positioned in a pile on the floor to be assaulted by other soldiers".
Because the United States has faced international outrage over the mistreatment by US soldiers, Virginia Senator John Warner, the Republican chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, argued that the White House should not authorise the release of more images, saying US nationals could be hit in revenge strikes.
Warner also urged senators to be wary of the way they describe the images so as to "not incite in any way further anger against our forces or others working in the cause of freedom."
Warner also expressed concern that making the pictures public might interfere with criminal trials against those facing prosecution.
"I think at this time it would not be wise to publish them," he said, adding that it would be better to release them during the trials "when the prosecution has a right to bring out certain photographs, (and) the defence has a right to bring out other photographs - so you will have a balance of interests."
- AFP
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