The Abu Ghraib files

March 16th, 2006 at 18:16 Björn Hallberg

Salon has made available their entire set of 279 photographs and 19 videos from Abu Ghraib. Just one brief glimpse of the horrors that go on daily at various empire outposts. It should be clear to most that even these images are selective or cleaned up and do not expose the true scope of abuse. The most egregious violations linger in unproven stories and all we get are the tourist photos.

Finally, it’s critical to recognize that this set of images from Abu Ghraib is only one snapshot of systematic tactics the United States has used in four-plus years of the global war on terror. There have been many allegations of abuse, torture and other practices that violate international law, from holding prisoners without charging them at Guantánamo Bay and other secretive U.S. military bases and prison facilities around the world to the practice of “rendition,” or the transporting of detainees to foreign countries whose regimes use torture, to ongoing human rights violations inside detention facilities in Iraq. Abu Ghraib in fall 2003 may have been its own particular hell, but the variations of individual abuse perpetrated appear to be exceptional in only one way: They were photographed and filmed.

Meanwhile, the number of reported cases of sexual assault WITHIN the U.S. military is up by 40% since last year. Yet, accounts of rape carried out against civilians at empire outposts are virtually nonexistent. Curious that. It’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Entry 488 filed under: Middle East. This entry was posted 2 years, 9 months ago. RSS feed for comments on this post.