Iraqi Officials Condemn Abuse Images

Pictures the Pentagon tried hard to keep secret are now on the Internet for all the world to see after an Australian television network on Wednesday aired previously unpublished video of what it said was the abuse of Iraqis in U.S. military custody at Abu Ghraib prison in 2003.

Iraqi officials are condemning the Abu Ghraib abuses purportedly shown in photos and video aired Wednesday on Australian TV. They say bringing the images to light doesn't help anyone.

The images of naked prisoners, some bloodied and lying on the floor, were taken about the same time as earlier photos that sparked protests and outrage in the Middle East in 2004, the Special Broadcasting Service's "Dateline" program reported.

Perhaps the most disturbing shows a deranged prisoner slamming his head into a cell door while someone takes pictures but no one tries to stop him, reports CBS News correspondent David Martin. Many of the pictures show the same kinds of abuse seen in the original photos which triggered the Abu Ghraib scandal ? Iraqis subjected to sexual humiliation and shackled in positions tantamount to torture.

Nine low-ranking guards were court-martialed for abuses at Abu Ghraib and two dog handlers are still facing trial. Nine officers received career-ending reprimands.

SBS has refused to give details on the source of the photos and video clips that surfaced on Wednesday but did say they are among those the American Civil Liberties Union was trying to obtain from the U.S. government.

Thursday, Australian Prime Minister John Howard said an Australian TV network would be justified in airing graphic images of abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison if they showed evidence of mistreatment that have not already been investigated. Howard at the same time suggests that if the photos depict acts that have already been exposed and prosecuted, there might be no reason to publish them.

Officials in Iraq and the United States have expressed concern that the images released Wednesday by the Special Broadcasting Service's "Dateline" program could further inflame tensions in the Middle East, when public anger is already running high over footage of British soldiers beating youths in southern Iraq.

An adviser to Iraq's foreign minister says he can't see the benefit of airing images of apparent prisoner abuse for which American soldiers have already been punished. He says bringing up these issues is only going to add heat to the already fragile situation in Iraq.

Martin reports that with Muslims still demonstrating and rioting over the publication of a cartoon making fun of the prophet Mohammed and with new revelations of a video showing British troops abusing Iraqi teenagers, these photos, in the words of a senior American official in Iraq, "could not have come at a worse time."

Several new images appeared to show former Cpl. Charles Graner, Jr., who is serving a 10-year prison term at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., after being convicted of abusing Iraqi captives.

Many of the images, including some that appear to be corpses, were more graphic than those published in 2004, which prompted a U.S. congressional investigation and military trials for some soldiers involved.

"Well, these photographs are out and what really remains to be seen is how the government will respond to them," Amrit Singh, a lawyer with the ACLU, told AP Television News in New York. "Will the government take this opportunity to really do an independent investigation into why this abuse happened and who is ultimately responsible for it?"

In Washington, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said he did not know whether U.S. officials have reviewed the photos and video clips or whether they are among the images the Pentagon has been withholding from public release since 2004.

Another U.S. defense official said later Army officials had reviewed the photographs posted on the Sydney Morning Herald's Web site and matched them to images that were among those turned over to military authorities in Iraq in 2004 by a U.S. soldier.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to address the matter publicly, said the photos contained no new information about abuse.

Whitman stressed it is U.S. policy to treat all detainees humanely.

"The abuses at Abu Ghraib have been fully investigated," Whitman said. "When there have been abuses, this department has acted upon them promptly, investigated them thoroughly and where appropriate prosecuted individuals."

More than 25 people have been held accountable for criminal acts and "other failures" at Abu Ghraib, and it remains the view of the Pentagon that the release of additional images of abuse at the prison would be trigger new violence and threaten U.S. troops overseas, Whitman said.

Labeed Abbawi, an adviser to Iraq's foreign minister, questioned the benefit of airing footage of events for which American soldiers had already been punished.

"I feel bringing up these issues is only going to add to heat to an already fragile situation in Iraq and they don't help anybody at all," Abbawi said.

One of the video clips shown by SBS showed a group of naked men with bags over their heads standing together and masturbating. The network said they were forced to participate.

Another video showed a handcuffed man repeatedly pounding his head against a metal cell door. The same prisoner was shown in other pictures, including one in which he is smeared in his own feces and another in which he dangles naked from the top bunk of a bed. SBS said the man was mentally ill and became a "plaything" for the guards who "experimented with ways to restrain him."

One photograph showed a man with a deep cut on his neck. The same man appears in another photo surrounded by men dressed in khaki shirts and pants, with one of the men pointing at the wound.

The SBS report said the man was identified in a U.S. Army report as detainee No. 10. He was thought to be an Iraqi general who had been resisting transfer from an outside prison camp into Abu Ghraib's inner cell blocks when soldiers pushed him against a wall, then noticed blood coming from under his hood, the network said.

A 1?-inch cut on the man's neck was then sutured by an army medic, SBS said, quoting an unspecified army report.

Another photo showed a man lying dead in the dirt with blood coming out of his head.

Uniformed men holding dogs on leashes as they threaten a hooded prisoner in an orange jumpsuit appear in at least one image as does a hooded and robed prisoner standing on a box with wires strapped to his finger.

Another shows a man in green camouflage kneeling over a naked prisoner lying face down on the floor with a pool of blood by his left knee.

The SBS report also showed a photograph of a man with about 10 bright red wounds across his buttocks. Quoting an unspecified military report, the network said the man had been hit by "MP personnel with a shotgun, using less-than-lethal rounds."

The Arab satellite station Al-Jazeera aired brief excerpts of the Australian footage, which was broadcast as outrage spreads in the Muslim world over caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad deemed offensive to Islam and published in newspapers in Denmark and elsewhere.

The SBS broadcast said many of the new photos showed Graner having sex with Lynndie England, a 23-year-old reservist, but those were not shown. England is serving a three-year prison term for abusing detainees and has said Graner fathered her son.

Singh, the ACLU lawyer, said the government has "continued to stonewall" the group's efforts to obtain photographs showing alleged abuse by U.S. forces at Abu Ghraib and elsewhere.

A U.S. district court in September upheld the Freedom of Information request in a ruling covering scores of photographs and several videotapes. Government lawyers said it was considering an appeal and the images were not immediately released.

At a Senate Armed Services Committee inquiry in May 2004, Rumsfeld testified that not all known photographs of the abuses at Abu Ghraib had been released publicly.

"Beyond abuse of prisoners, there are other photos that depict incidents of physical violence toward prisoners, acts that can only be described as blatantly sadistic, cruel and inhuman," Rumsfeld said at the time.