Washington — The Iraq prison-abuse scandal continues to grow as a chilling new photograph appeared yesterday showing a naked prisoner cowering before a guard dog, one of scores of still-secret images that leading U.S. lawmakers say must be disclosed to the public.
The New Yorker magazine, which features the photo in this week's edition, said it is one of a series of 20 pictures taken last Dec. 12 at Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad, showing how American guards used German shepherds to terrorize, then attack an Iraqi prisoner. Seymour Hersh, the award-winning investigative journalist for the magazine, writes that another unpublished photo in the series shows the man "lying on the ground, writhing in pain, with a soldier sitting on top of him, knee pressed to his back. Blood is streaming from the inmate's leg."
Please see:Mr. Hersh told CNN yesterday that U.S. soldiers shown in the photos are a "completely different group" from the seven reservists already charged with mistreatment of prisoners, demonstrating that the abuse practices were more widespread than first thought.
Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, under pressure to resign after taking responsibility for the scandal, has warned that there are many more images of abuse, including a video, all of which show "blatantly sadistic, cruel and inhuman" acts.
Members of Congress have been promised a look at all the pictures, but Virginia Senator John Warner, Republican chairman of the Senate armed services committee, said it was not yet decided whether the images will be made public.
Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, another Republican committee member, urged complete transparency. "If there's more photos, if there's a video, for God's sake, let's talk about it," he said on NBC. "Let's get it all out on the table. This is not about command influence, this is about rape and murder."
And Senator John McCain, also a Republican member of the panel and himself a former prisoner of war, said it would be "foolish" to try to keep the pictures secret because they will likely leak out in any case. "All the facts concerning this should be brought out completely," he said on Fox News.
In Baghdad, the U.S. military announced yesterday that the first court-martial resulting from the abuse scandal will begin May 19, and will be open to the media. Specialist Jeremy Sivits, a military policeman, faces charges of maltreatment of prisoners, conspiracy to maltreat prisoners and dereliction of duty, said Brigadier-General Mark Kimmitt.
Mr. Hersh said yesterday the photos were taken not simply as souvenirs by the guards, who are seen smiling in several of the previously published images of naked, hooded prisoners, but for use as "leverage" with other inmates. Prisoners were warned that the pictures could be shown to neighbours and relatives if they failed to co-operate with authorities.
It has been alleged that these practices were condoned and even encouraged by the guards' military superiors in an effort to extract more intelligence information from prisoners as the Iraqi insurgency began to take hold last fall.
The change in procedure followed the dispatch to Iraq last fall of Major-General Geoffrey Miller, who previously ran the Guantanamo Bay detention centre for terrorist suspects from Afghanistan, where U.S. authorities feel they are not obliged to treat detainees under the Geneva Conventions that cover prisoners of war.
In his review of the Iraqi prisons, Maj.-Gen. Miller recommended that prison guards in Iraq be actively involved in "setting the conditions" for getting more information from prisoners. But Maj.-Gen. Miller, who now is in charge of the Iraqi prisons, including Abu Ghraib, denied over the weekend suggesting that military police participate in the interrogations.
A spokesman for Mr. Rumsfeld said the abuse shown in the photographs is completely illegal. "The policies of the United States and the Defence Department are consistent, in that we do not permit activities or interrogation procedures that are torturous or cruel and that all the techniques that are approved for use are within the law," Bryan Whitman told the Associated Press.
President George W. Bush initially criticized Mr. Rumsfeld for failing to advise him earlier of the gravity of the abuse charges, but after the Pentagon chief's extraordinary apology at congressional hearings on Friday, the administration has closed ranks to defend the veteran politician against calls for his resignation.
"Don Rumsfeld is the best secretary of defence the United States has ever had," Vice-President Dick Cheney said in a statement. "People ought to get off his case and let him do his job."
In a further sign of support for Mr. Rumsfeld, Mr. Bush will visit the Pentagon todayfor a first-hand briefing on the war in Iraq from his Defence Secretary and top military officials.
Meanwhile, a spokeswoman for the International Committee of the Red Cross said the group's president told top U.S. officials about abuses at Abu Ghraib prison during a visit to Washington in January.
Nada Doumani was quoted by Germany's Spiegel TV yesterday as saying that Red Cross president Jakob Kellenberger met Secretary of State Colin Powell, Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice during his visit. "We went to the top," she told the station. "And he told them of our concerns over the prisons in Iraq."
Also in Europe, pressure is mounting on British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Mr. Bush's staunchest ally in Iraq, over allegations that British troops abused Iraqi prisoners, with politicians demanding to know what action the government took over reports of mistreatment.
The government admitted that the International Committee of the Red Cross had raised concerns with it over the treatment of British-held prisoners in February. Hounded by politicians of all parties, Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon agreed to make a statement to Parliament today.
Mr. Blair said he was sorry for any mistreatment by British soldiers, but stopped short of admitting abuses had taken place. "We've already made it absolutely clear we apologize deeply to anyone who's been mistreated by any of our soldiers. That is absolutely and totally unacceptable," he told French television yesterday.
With a report from Reuters
