The Secret File of Abu Ghraib
New classified documents implicate U.S. forces in rape and sodomy of Iraqi prisoners
The new classified military documents offer a chilling picture of what happened at Abu Ghraib — including detailed reports that U.S. troops and translators sodomized and raped Iraqi prisoners.
The files make clear that responsibility for what Taguba called “sadistic, blatant and wanton” abuses extends to several high-ranking officers still serving in command positions.
During the Muslim holy period of Ramadan, Hilas saw Spc. Charles Graner Jr. and an unnamed “helper” tie a detainee to a bed around midnight. “They . . . inserted the phosphoric light in his ass, and he was yelling for God’s help,” the prisoner testified. Again, the same female soldier photographed the torture.
Read the whole thing, there’s much more.
From Body and Soul
But here’s where hope flies in: This silence can not last. I’ve just been watching Hersh’s ACLU speech and in many ways it’s a horrible experience. Even more heartbreaking than Hersh’s description of children being tortured and women begging to be killed, is the sense of defeat that almost seems to overtake him as he repeats a number of times that he doesn’t know what we can do if we don’t manage to get rid of this administration. But half an hour into his speech, Hersh gets a huge, and I think grateful, applause from this:
The boys were sodomized, with the cameras rolling, and the worst above all of them is the soundtrack of the boys shrieking — that you’re government has. And they’re in total terror it’s going to come out. It’s impossible to say to yourself, “How did we get there? Who are we? Who are these people who sent us there?”… And so we’re dealing with an enormous, massive amount of criminal wrongdoing that was covered up at the highest command out there and higher, and we have to get to it, and we will — we will, I mean, you know, there’s enough out there…
Listening to the determination in Hersh’s voice on the second “we will,” and the audience gratitude for that determination, I realized that the only reporters worthy of the name are the ones who believe that their work has important consequences, and that ultimately, if “there’s enough out there” the truth is going to come out. And I am very grateful for a reporter who has that faith.
The truth on this must come out.