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2009-05-30 Iraq
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Iraqi prisoners were not raped in Abu Ghraib: US
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[Al Arabiya Latest] The United States denied allegations on Thursday that the prisoner photgraphs President Barack Obama was trying to censor included images of Iraqi detainees being raped, sexually abused and subjected to "every indecency."
The denial came following an article published in Britain's Daily Telegraph on the same day revealing disturbing details of what the images showed and quoting retired U.S. Army Major General Antonio Taguba as saying the pictures showed "torture, abuse, rape and every indecency."
The newspaper said at least one picture showed an American soldier apparently raping a female prisoner while another is said to show a male translator raping a male detainee.
Others were said to depict sexual assaults with objects including a truncheon, wire and a phosphorescent tube.
Taguba, who conducted a 2004 investigation into abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison, told the paper "the mere description of these pictures is horrendous enough, take my word for it."
But Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said the Telegraph had shown "an inability to get the facts right."
"That news organization has completely mischaracterized the images," Whitman told reporters. "None of the photos in question depict the images that are described in that article."
In an interview with the New Yorker magazine published in 2007, Taguba was quoted as saying that he saw a video of a male American soldier in uniform sodomizing a female detainee.
Photographs of abuse at the jail outside Baghdad that were published in 2004 damaged the U.S.'s image as its invasion of Iraq fueled a sectarian war that caused deep resentment throughout the Muslim world.
Whitman said he did not know if the Telegraph had quoted Taguba accurately. But he said he was not aware that any such photographs had been uncovered as part of the investigation into Abu Ghraib or abuses at other prisons.
He said the paper also wrongly reported earlier this month that some of the images, which Obama is trying to block from release, had previously been aired on Australian television.
"I would caution you whenever you see a subsequent story on photos in this particular publication," he told reporters. "They now have, at least on two occasions, demonstrated an inability to get the facts right."
No release
Taguba, who retired in January 2007, included allegations of rape and sexual abuse in his report.
Earlier this month, the Obama administration reversed course and decided it would fight the release of the photographs, which the American Civil Liberties Union is seeking to obtain through legal action.
In April, the administration said it would comply with a court order to release the pictures. But Obama changed course after military commanders warned of a backlash in Iraq and Afghanistan that could add to the danger facing U.S. troops.
Taguba was quoted in the Telegraph as saying he supported Obama's decision not to release the pictures. "I am not sure what purpose their release would serve other than a legal one," he said. "The sequence would be to imperil our troops, the only protectors of our foreign policy, when we most need them, and British troops who are trying to build security in Afghanistan." 
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Posted by Fred 2009-05-30 00:00||
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