Maybe you start believing now even if I think it is unlikely

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060215/ap_on_re_au_an/australia_iraq_prison_abu
se_7;_ylt=AhA1KiRiuo_yID.qJBGFDHJg.3QA;_ylu=X3oDMTA2ZGZwam4yBHNlYwNmYw--

If you like to see some of the pics, go to
http://www.stern.de/politik/ausland/555985.html?nv=ct_rl&backref=%2Fpolitik%
2Fausland%2F%3AFolterskandal-Neue-Horrorbilder-Abu-Ghreib%2F555982.html


U.S. Source: Nothing New in Abuse Photos By MERAIAH FOLEY, AP Writer  

SYDNEY, Australia - An Australian television network aired previously 
unpublished video and photographs Wednesday of what it said was the abuse 
of Iraqis in U.S. military custody at 
    
Abu Ghraib prison in 2003, including 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's "Dateline" program reported.

SBS refused to give details on the source of the photos and video clips but 
said they were among those the 
    
American Civil Liberties Union was trying to obtain from the U.S. 
government under a Freedom of Information request.

Several new images, which could not be independently confirmed, appeared to 
show former Cpl. Charles Graner, Jr., who is serving a 10-year prison term 
at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, after being convicted of abusing Iraqi 
captives.

Many of the images, including some that appear to be corpses, were more 
graphic than those published in 2004, which prompted a U.S. congressional 
investigation and military trials for some soldiers involved.

In Washington, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said he did not know 
whether U.S. officials had reviewed the photos and video clips or whether 
they were among images the Pentagon has been withholding from public 
release since 2004.

But another defense official said later Army officials had reviewed the 
photographs posted on the Sydney Morning Herald's Web site and matched them 
to images that were among those turned over to military authorities in 
Iraq in 2004 by a U.S. soldier.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not 
authorized to address the matter publicly, said the photos contained no new 
information about abuse.

Whitman stressed it is U.S. policy to treat all detainees humanely.

"The abuses at Abu Ghraib have been fully investigated," Whitman 
said. "When there have been abuses, this department has acted upon them 
promptly, investigated them thoroughly and where appropriate prosecuted 
individuals."

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 U.S. troops overseas, Whitman said.

"The department believes that a further release of images could only 
further inflame and possibly incite unnecessary violence in the world and 
would endanger our military men and women that are serving around the 
world," Whitman said.

Based on Whitman's comments, it appeared the Pentagon did not intend to 
open a new investigation as a result of the latest publication of photos.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, who was scheduled to hold a routine 
Pentagon news conference Wednesday afternoon, canceled his appearance for 
what his aides called scheduling reasons.

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 southern city of Amarah in 2003.

Labeed Abbawi, an adviser to Iraq's foreign minister, criticized such 
abuses but questioned the benefit of airing footage of events for which 
American soldiers had already been punished.

"I feel bringing up these issues is only going to add to heat to an already 
fragile situation in Iraq and they don't help anybody at all," Abbawi said.

One of the video clips shown by SBS showed 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 feces 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." 

One photograph showed a man with a deep cut on his neck. The same man 
appears in another photo surrounded by men dressed in khaki shirts and 
pants, with one of the men pointing at the wound. 

The SBS report said the man was identified in a U.S. Army report as 
detainee No. 10. He was thought to be an Iraqi general who had been 
resisting transfer from an outside prison camp into Abu Ghraib's inner cell 
blocks when soldiers pushed him against a wall, then noticed blood coming 
from under his hood, the network said. 

A 1 1/2-inch (3.8-centimeter) cut on the man's neck was then sutured by an 
army medic, SBS said, quoting an unspecified army report. 

Another photo showed a man lying dead in the dirt with blood coming out of 
his head. 

The SBS also 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 was 
killed during a riot at the prison. SBS said it spoke to two soldiers at 
Abu Ghraib who told the network that guards trying to contain the rioting 
ran out of rubber bullets and "were ordered to use lethal rounds." 

"The detainees were fenced in a camp compound, with nowhere to run or 
hide," the report said. 

Uniformed men holding dogs on leashes as they threaten a hooded prisoner in 
an orange jumpsuit appear in at least one image as does a hooded and robed 
prisoner standing on a box with wires strapped to his finger. 

Another shows a man in green camouflage kneeling over a naked prisoner 
lying face down on the floor with a pool of blood by his left knee. 

The SBS report also showed a photograph of a man with about 10 bright red 
wounds across his buttocks. Quoting an unspecified military report, the 
network said the man had been hit by "MP personnel with a shotgun, using 
less than lethal rounds." 

Two women who the network said were prostitutes detained at the prison for 
48 hours also appear in photographs dressed in regular clothes, with one of 
them baring her breasts. 

The Arab satellite station Al-Jazeera aired brief excerpts of the 
Australian footage, which was broadcast as outrage spreads in the Muslim 
world over caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad deemed offensive to Islam 
and published in newspapers in Denmark and elsewhere. 

The SBS broadcast said many of the new photos showed Graner having sex with 
    
Lynndie England, a 22-year-old reservist, but those were not shown. England 
is serving a three-year prison term for abusing detainees and has said 
Graner fathered her son. 

A U.S. district court in September upheld the request in a ruling covering 
scores of photographs and several videotapes. Government lawyers said it 
was considering an appeal, and the images were not immediately released. 

In a statement e-mailed to The Associated Press, SBS said the ACLU had not 
seen the images sought under the Freedom of Information request, so it had 
not been able to confirm whether they were the same as those broadcast 
Wednesday. 

But the general description of the photographs the ACLU is seeking "is 
consistent with the photographs we are releasing," the SBS statement said. 

"'Dateline' is confident in the credibility of the source of these new 
photographs and videos," the SBS statement said. "They are entirely 
consistent with descriptions of the unreleased photographs and videos from 
various U.S. army reports into the abuses." 

At a Senate Armed Services Committee inquiry in May 2004, Rumsfeld 
testified that not all known photographs of the abuses at Abu Ghraib had 
been released publicly. 

"Beyond abuse of prisoners, there are other photos that depict incidents of 
physical violence toward prisoners, acts that can only be described as 
blatantly sadistic, cruel and inhuman," Rumsfeld said at the time.

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