New Abu Ghraib Pictures Released

An Australian Television show, SBS Dateline, has broadcast new, unreleased pictures of prisoners and US jailers at the infamous Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

RawStory has the photos up here. Go see them.

From this Australian news website:

SBS television's Dateline program tonight screened video and still images of the wounds allegedly inflicted on the Iraqis by their American captors.

They included photographs of blood-soaked Iraqi prisoners who had been tortured or shot dead, footage of a prisoner repeatedly slamming his head into a metal door, and a film of naked male prisoners being forced to masturbate in front of the camera.

The Bush administration is reportedly attempting to prevent release of the images in the US, arguing that their publication could provoke antagonism towards the US.

It's sad that these photos are getting more attention in Australia than they are here in the United States. I guess the Australians won't have to ask themselves to many questions about what's being done in their name. Here in America, we would have to confront the unpleasant concept that we're not always the good guys riding in on white horses to save the world from brutal dictators. Sometimes we're brutal occupiers. The sad fact is, it didn't have to be that way.

The War in Iraq could have been conducted with the kind of decency (at least as far as treatment of prisoners!) on which the United States has built its reputation. Shameful.

Americans need to see these pictures, though they are graphic and appalling. These prisoners are being beaten in your name by people paid with your tax dollars. The blood is on ALL of our hands, not just a few bad apples.

Our international reputation won't recover from this in our generation. People don't forget about torture.