White House Addresses Alleged Rape Photos

(AP/Washington Post)

A report in London's Daily Telegraph today, citing retired Major Gen. Antonio Taguba, alleges that among the photos President Obama wants to keep from the public are images that show American soldiers raping detainees as well as "sexual assaults on prisoners with objects including a truncheon, wire and a phosphorescent tube."

Both the Pentagon and the White House today disputed the report and criticized the newspaper from which it came. But they stopped short of suggesting that the photographs do not exist.

Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said the Telegraph "has completely mischaracterized the images." He added: "None of the photos in question depict the images that are described in that article."

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs, meanwhile, attacked the British press.

"If I was looking for something that bordered on truthful news, I'm not entirely sure it'd be the first stack of clips I picked up," he said. Gibbs went on to say that "you're not going to find many of these newspapers and truth within, say, 25 words of each other."

Echoing Whitman, he also said that "none of the photographs in question depict the images described in the article."

But those comments leave some wiggle room.

Taguba investigated abuse at Abu Ghraib, but it is not clear that he was privy to the detainee photos the president wants kept classified. Those pictures, which allegedly depict abuse at various facilities in Iraq and Afghanistan, are what Whitman and Gibbs are referring to when they discuss the photos "in question."

The Telegraph suggested in its report that the photos detailed by Taguba come from the set of photos the president wants classified, though this seems unlikely. As the Associated Press points out, the request for those photos by the American Civil Liberties Union came in October 2003, before the revelations of abuse at Abu Ghraib.

So when Whitman and Gibbs say none of the photographs "in question" depict rape and the other abuses detailed by Taguba, they appear to be on solid ground. But that does not mean that the photos do not exist – only that they are apparently not among the pictures covered by the ACLU request.

The Pentagon's Whitman said he was not aware of the pictures reportedly detailed by Taguba, though he did not say categorically that they do not exist - only that "to the best of my knowledge" all the Abu Ghraib photos are "out there." The same goes for Gibbs, who focused on the Telegraph report, not the photos themselves.

Allegations of the sort of abuse detailed by Taguba have surfaced over the past few years; in 2004, the New Yorker's Seymour Hersh, for example, suggested in a speech that the Pentagon has video of boys being sodomized by members of the military.

Taguba told the New Yorker in 2007 he had seen video of a soldier sexually abusing a female detainee. CBS News has left messages for Taguba seeking clarification, but has not yet received a response.

[whosaid1]

Posted by oldtimer1941

easy...careful oldtimer...."they" might "throw" you off the site. I DO agree in principle with most of what you are saying. I just remind myself often that the "very" liberal on these sites are in the smallest percentile. Anything they view as Bush/Republican....or ideas they didn't think of, are BAD. The funny thing about it is that some of them don't REALLY believe their EXTREME rhetoric....they just throw it out there to "misdirect" or change the subject....or, to "bait" people into saying something that they wouldn't ordinarily say.

[harpoot]

Hell, show the photos. Everyone already knows that the US is just as principled as any third world dictatorship.

[SanityPlease]

The real issue here is to rape,torture,beat,kill a prisoner, while on the PAYROLL of the US GOVERNMENT, is a tragic travesty of JUSTICE. It would be understandable if it was done by some common criminals, but these guys represented the UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT!!.

None of the abusers have ever been tried or convicted as of yet. SHAME on the USA. A government of the people is a SHAM.

[nextgenman09]

"I writhed in anguish for years. Always knowing pain was coming, but never knowing what I should attempt to say next, or how I should appear so that my American torturers would believe me.

The problem was that I was innocent."
SearingTruth

A Future of the Brave
Posted by searingtruth at 9:49 PM : May 28, 2009
-------

Yet you still torture us with your sanctimonious yammering......

[nextgenman09]

Both the Pentagon and the White House today disputed the report and criticized the newspaper from which it came. But they stopped short of suggesting that the photographs do not exist.

Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said the Telegraph "has completely mischaracterized the images." He added: "None of the photos in question depict the images that are described in that article."
---------

Listen to this political bulldropping.

Prove it, release the photos.

This is what ALWAYS happens. Politicians try to hide something, it gets reported anyway, making it worse and prolonging the agony. Its better to just get it out.

Apparently President Obama is no more intelligent that Bush was....

[erb0087]

"Just like no one that high up would ever be stupid enough to authorize the burglary of the opposition's headquarters either, eh?"
Posted by formrusmcsgt at 7:47 PM : May 28, 2009
=========================

How could Richard Nixon have been that stupid ?

It's as if he and OJ Simpson shared some kind of death wish.

[lehnahund]

I can understand Obamas decision not to set the fotos into the public eye. It is hamrful to the stance of the US in many ways and in a lot of places. all over the world.

but to evade the truth is not helping on the long run. one?s own history is one?s own history. all of it, whether you like it or not. it won?t go away that way.

and... it helps in the end the ones who did the torturing and the ones who ordered it or had a blind eye or couldn?t care less.

[babooph]

"Alleged"are they saying the general is a liar,or the truth must be denied CAREFULLY?

[count_slapula]

The photos are real. This story was available online 6 months ago.

[babooph]

The Bushies survived because some of the people can be fooled all of the time-even the graphic pix would be denied by them-FULLY DELUSIONAL.