(202) 362-5266                 4 May 2004                MER@MiddleEast.Org
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RAPE PHOTOS
FAILED DAMASCUS ASSASSINATION
ISRAELI TROOPS BLOCKADE ARAFAT

"Before the war, I had a bright idea about the Americans.
I thought they were people who believe deeply in democracy
and respect freedom...   Now I believe that the Americans
are far removed from anything related to democracy and freedom."
                       Iraqi Cameraman
Mid-East Realities - MER - www.MiddleEast.Org - 4 May 2004:  
     Those who read MER know that days ago now we reported that CBS News had held the story about U.S. torture of Iraqi prisoners for weeks at the 'request' of the Pentagon.   We now believe it may also be true that CBS and possibly other corporate news organizations have even worse pictures of rape and sodomy that are still being 'withheld'.  Today the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports on the CBS News news hold (see story below).   And there is probably much worse to come as the article in The New Yorker we commented on yesterday suggests.
      Now the Rape Photos.   We are not in a position to verify the story that follows with the rape photos.  There are indeed times journalists have to make judgements about credibility, news value, and even timing.   We believe CBS News made the wrong judgement in complying with the Pentagon to hold their story for weeks.  We wonder in fact what would have been the case if the story had not been further leaked to The New Yorker -- probably by courageous Pentagon insiders who felt the story had to get out.  Our judgement is that under the circumstances these rape photos may very well be real, that the current Pentagon 'investigations' are totally inadequate, that the U.S. Congress cannot be fully trusted to investigate these allegations, and that in fact if the United Nations is going to allow itself to be further pushed into the politics and 'occupation justification' of Iraq a special United Nations investigations is warranted quite possibly leading to a trial before the International Court of Justice in the Hague, even if the U.S. will be in abstentia.
      Breaking News:   *  The Israeli Army has reinforced its military positions in and near Ramallah and Yasser Arafat's headquarters is now surrounded and blockaded.    * There are also reports from Syria that an Israeli hit-team failed in an assassination attempt against the two top in-exile leaders of Hamas, Musa Abu Marzook and Khalid Mashal.   Abu Marzook was held in an American prison until his release some years ago when the charges against him were dropped.   Mashal was the target of an Israeli assassination attempt some years ago in Amman, and was saved only when then King Hussein and the Americans demanded the Mossad supply the antidote to the secret poison they had infected him with.         * French TV has just shown a video showing the helicopter execution of three helpless Iraqis - expect this news 'visual' news story to break worldwide today.
CBS News says it held prison abuse story
By David Bauder*

SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER -Tuesday, May 4, 2004:    NEW YORK -- CBS News delayed reporting for two weeks about U.S. soldiers' alleged abuse of Iraqi prisoners, following a personal request from the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff.

Gen. Richard B. Myers called CBS anchor Dan Rather eight days before the report was to air, asking for extra time, said Jeff Fager, executive producer of "60 Minutes II."

Myers cited the safety of American hostages and tension surrounding the Iraqi city of Fallujah, Fager said, adding that he held off as long as he believed possible given it was a competitive story.

With The New Yorker magazine preparing to run a detailed report on the alleged abuses, CBS finally broadcast its report last Wednesday, including images taken last year allegedly showing Iraqis stripped naked, hooded and being tormented by U.S. captors at the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad.

Fager said he felt "terrible" being asked to delay the broadcast.

"News is a delicate thing," he said. "It's hard to just make those kinds of decisions. It's not natural for us; the natural thing is to put it on the air. But the circumstances were quite unusual and I think you have to consider that."

Bob Steele, a journalism values scholar at the Poynter Institute for Media Studies, said there should be an "exceptional principle and argument" to justify withholding news of such magnitude.

"You'd have to be convinced that these other American lives are truly on the line," he said. "I would want to have a very specific and short time period (to withhold the news). If CBS believes it was justified, to hold back two weeks seems like an awful long time. Perhaps a day or two. But two weeks is a long time, particularly with the nature of the allegations in the video."

Rather revealed the two-week delay in a postscript to viewers at the end of Wednesday's broadcast.

Fager said he believed the story was better because of the delay; CBS was able to interview Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt about the alleged incidents because the network waited.

Myers, speaking on ABC's "This Week" on Sunday, confirmed that he asked CBS for the delay.

"You can't keep this out of the news, clearly," Myers said. "But I thought it would be particularly inflammatory at the time."

Fager knew that CBS had to consider safety issues in deciding when to run the story. "We can't just be acting in a void," he said. "There's a war going on and Americans are at risk, especially the ones that are being held hostage. It concerns us."

Although one American hostage recently escaped and others may have been killed, at least one hostage is still believed held in Iraq.

Steele pointed out that Iraqi prisoners could have been at risk, too.

"Allegations of this nature, the violation of the rights of the enemy prisoners, should not be taken lightly in the slightest," he said. "It's possible that their lives could be in jeopardy as well. ... it's not impossible to consider that at least their health, if not their lives, were at risk."

Photos Show Rape of Iraqi Women
by US Occupation Forces

by Ernesto Cienfuegos
La Voz de Aztlan

Los Angeles, Alta California - May 2, 2004 - (ACN) The release, by CBS News, of the photographs showing the heinous sexual abuse and torture of Iraqi POW's at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison has opened a Pandora's box for the Bush regime. Apparently, the suspended US commander of the prison where the worst abuses took place, Brigadier General Janis Karpinski, has refused to take the fall by herself and has implicated the CIA, Military Intelligence and private US government contractors in the torturing of POW's and in the raping of Iraqi women detainees as well.

Brigadier General Janis Karpinski said to the Washington Post that Military Intelligence, rather than the Military Police, dictated the treatment of prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison. "The prison, and that particular cellblock where the events took place, were under the control of the Military Intelligence command," Brigadier General Karpinski said to the Washington Post Saturday night in a telephone interview from her home in Hilton Head, South Carolina.

Brigadier General Karpinski, who commanded the 800th Military Police Brigade, described a high-pressure Military Intelligence and CIA command that prized successful interrogations. A month before the alleged abuses and rapes occurred, she said, a team of CIA, Military Intelligence officers and private consultants under the employ of the US government came to Abu Ghraib. "Their main and specific mission was to give the interrogators new techniques to get more information from detainees," she said.

Today, new photographs were sent to La Voz de Aztlan from confidential sources depicting the shocking rapes of two Iraqi women by what are purported to be US Military Intelligence personnel and private US mercenaries in military fatigues. It is now known that hundreds of these photographs had been in circulation among the troops in Iraq. The graphic photos were being swapped between the soldiers like baseball cards.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, one Mexican-American soldier told La Voz de Aztlan, "Maybe the officers didn't know what was going on, but everybody else did. I have seen literally hundreds of these types of pictures." Many of the pictures were destroyed last September when the luggage of soldiers was searched as they left Iraq, he said

An investigation, led by Army Major General Antonio M. Taguba, identified two military intelligence officers and two civilian contractors for the Army as key figures in the abuse cases at the Abu Ghraib prison. In an internal report on his findings, Major General Taguba said he suspected that the four were "either directly or indirectly responsible for the abuses at Abu Ghraib and strongly recommended disciplinary action."

The Taguba report states that "military intelligence interrogators and other U.S. Government Agency interrogators actively requested that Military Police guards set physical and mental conditions for favorable interrogation of witnesses." The report noted that one civilian interrogator, a contractor from a company called CACI International and attached to the 205th Military Intelligence Brigade, "clearly knew his instructions" to the Military Police equated to physical and sexual abuse. It is not known whether these instructions included, or led to, the raping of Iraqi women detainees as well.

Iraqi POW Torture Photographs (Click Here)

Publication by: Aztlan Communications Network, aztlan.net
Iraqi cameraman recounts ordeal in US detention

Tue May 04 2004 08:56:14 ET - The US interrogater yanked the 24-year-old Iraqi male's hair and peeled back his eyelids.

"'Do not ever imagine you will manage to get out of this. Forget about your Jazeera; forget about your future; the only future you will enjoy is in Guantanamo,'" the American shouted, according to Al-Jazeera television cameraman Suhaib Badraddin Baz who spent two-months in US custody.

Baz's story is just one of many told by Iraqis about beatings at the hands of US prison guards, allegations which sparked international outrage last week when images of abuse were published in the US media.

The coalition has vowed to bring all offenders to justice and has already suspended 17 US military personnel from their duties.

But Baz, who was detained twice last year by US forces, said he no longer believed in America's commitment to human rights or freedom.

"It was night, 10:00 pm (1800 GMT). The American officer came and said to me 'Maybe there are some guys who respect the media, I respect no one'," Baz recalled of his first night in US costody after his second arrest.

"It was only after three hours I spent standing hooded that I was admitted to a room and they started interrogating me."

He said the interrogator accused him of collaborating with insurgents fighting US forces and demanded to know why Al-Jazeera, an Arab station which is heavily criticised by US officials, appeared to know about attacks before they occurred.

Baz said he asked for time to pray, but the guards refused. He also claimed to have been beaten and spat on during his two days in US custody at Samarra, north of Baghdad.

"Guards kept beating me and calling me names... It seemed to me that everyone ... coming into the room wished me dead. I was kicked and spat on over and over," he claimed.

Baz, whose story could not be immediately confirmed, said he was then flown to the Baghdad airport where he spent two more days before being hooded and transfered again.

"During that time ... there was someone who tried to terrify me by pointing a machine gun at my back and many times the guy tried to make me feel as if he or she was about to shoot," he said.

"Whenever I made even a slight movement, I had someone beating me for it."

At one point, a soldier bashed his head against a wall until he fell unconscious, he said.

"I was still hooded, and because of the pain in my forehead I thought I would lose my eyesight. The guy keep doing this for some time till I fainted," he said.

Finally, Baz was moved to his last destination, the notorious Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad. He said he was stripped naked against his will, and beaten when he refused to take off his clothes.

Baz said he heard people cry out in pain at all hours. His cell had no light or bedding, except for a torn blanket. He went weeks without a shower or bath.

"Because it was in winter, it was damp and cold and I spent many nights shivering. My feet started to swell as I was not allowed to wear slippers," he said.

"It was only after 35 days that at around 4:00 am some of the guards came and told me it was my turn to take a bath. I thought it would be a nice warm one, but ... I was shocked to find out that it was harshly cold."

He said the guards taunted him with false news about the killing or arrest of some of his colleagues in Baghdad. Other prisoners were also humiliated.

"A man and his son were brought in. They were both hooded. Then they were stripped naked and after that they were allowed to see each other. It was so hard for both of them. Then the son was given female underwear. I saw it for myself," he said.

Later he was moved to a large tent, home to about 40 detainees, where Baz said one sick man died without receiving medical care.

Released after about two months, Baz returned to his job at Jazeera but he admits that he is now fiercely anti-American.

"Before the war, I had a bright idea about the Americans. I thought they were people who believe deeply in democracy and respect freedom," he said.

"Now I believe that the Americans are far removed from anything related to democracy and freedom."
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