2009-05-29

The real reason Obama won't release new Abu Graib photos: They are even worse than the first ones

PHOTOGRAPHS of Iraqi prisoner abuse which US President Barack Obama does not want released include images of apparent rape and sexual abuse, Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper reported.

The images were among photographs included in a 2004 report into prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib prison conducted by US Major General Antonio Taguba.

Gen Taguba included allegations of rape and sexual abuse in his report, and yesterday he confirmed to the Daily Telegraph that images supporting those allegations were also in the file.

"These pictures show torture, abuse, rape and every indecency," Gen Taguba, who retired in January 2007, told the paper.

He said he supported Mr Obama's decision not to release them, even though Mr Obama had previously pledged to disclose all images relating to abuses at Abu Ghraib and other US-run prisons in Iraq.

"I am not sure what purpose their release would serve other than a legal one," Gen Taguba said.

"The mere depiction of these pictures is horrendous enough, take my word for it."

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 are said to depict sexual assaults with objects including a truncheon, wire and a phosphorescent tube.

The photographs relate to 400 alleged cases of abuse carried out at Abu Ghraib and six other prisons between 2001 and 2005.

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