Abu Ghraib abuse video aired

AN Australian television network yesterday aired previously unpublished video and photographs of what it said was the abuse of Iraqis in US military custody at Abu Ghraib prison in 2003.

It included a man beating his head against a cell door.

The images of naked prisoners, some bloodied and lying on the floor, were taken about the same time as earlier photos that sparked protests and outrage in the Middle East in 2004, the Special Broadcasting Service programme reported.

SBS refused to give details on the source of the photos and video clips but said the programme was “confident in the credibility of the source of these new photographs and videos”.

It said they were among those the American Civil Liberties Union was trying to obtain from the US government under a Freedom of Information request.

The authenticity of the images shown by SBS could not be independently confirmed, but they were consistent with the earlier photographs of abuse by American soldiers.

Many were more graphic than those previously published, including some showing what appear to be corpses of people who SBS said had died at the prison.

In Washington, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said he did not know whether US officials had reviewed the photos and video clips or whether they were among images the Pentagon has been withholding from public release.

More than 25 people have been held accountable for criminal acts and “other failures” at Abu Ghraib and it remains the view of the Pentagon that the release of additional images of abuse at the prison would be trigger new violence and threaten US troops overseas, he said.

Iraqi officials condemned the images, which aired just days after the release of video allegedly showing British soldiers beating and kicking Iraqi males in the city of Amarah in 2003.

However, Labeed Abbawi, an adviser to Iraq’s foreign minister, said: “I feel bringing up these issues is only going to add to heat to an already fragile situation in Iraq.”

One of the video clips shown by SBS was of a group of naked men with bags over their heads standing together and masturbating. The network said they were forced to participate.

Another video showed a handcuffed man repeatedly pounding his head against a metal cell door. The same prisoner was shown in other pictures, including one in which he is smeared in his own faeces and another in which he dangles naked from the top bunk of a bed. SBS said the man was mentally ill and became a “plaything” for the guards who “experimented with ways to restrain him”.

The SBS showed photographs of a bloodied cell block and a dead body, saying the man had been killed during a CIA interrogation.

Another showed a dead prisoner identified only by the number 153399 who it said was killed during a riot at the prison.

SBS said it spoke to two soldiers at Abu Ghraib who said guards trying to contain the rioting ran out of rubber bullets and “were ordered to use lethal rounds.”