Dec 3, 2004 — LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The U.S. Navy is investigating photos posted on the Internet that appear to depict abuse of Iraqi detainees during their capture in May 2003 by Navy special forces, a Navy spokesman said on Friday.
At least a dozen photos showing bloodied detainees were handed over to officials at the Naval Special Warfare Command at Coronado, California, by an Associated Press reporter who found them on a commercial photo-sharing Web site.
The photographs, posted by a woman who said her husband brought them home from Iraq, appear to show the aftermath of raids on civilian homes, the Associated Press reported.
The AP reported that Navy SEALs were seen sitting on hooded and bound detainees, holding a gun to a detainee's bloodied head, and placing a boot on the chest of a prone man. Other photos showed grinning U.S. personnel sitting or lying atop three hooded prisoners in the bed of a pickup truck, the AP reported.
Copies of the photographs, which had been posted on an online photo-sharing site, could not be immediately located on the Web site.
"They presented copies of them to us last week and once we were presented with these photos we then launched an investigation as to how the photos got on the Internet and who is responsible," Navy Commander Jeff Bender said.
"The matter is currently under investigation to determine if the personnel acted properly," Bender said.
Navy regulations "strictly prohibit photographing detainees" except to keep records of prisoners or for counterintelligence purposes," Bender said.
"Before they go on deployment they are instructed that taking photos of detainees is strictly forbidden," he said.
Rules barring special forces members, who conduct covert operations, from being photographed also appear to have been violated.
"Some of the photos clearly depict the faces and names of special warfare personnel which could put them or their families at risk," Bender said.
Seven U.S. military police reservists have been charged in the Abu Ghraib prison scandal which emerged publicly in April in photos showing abuse of naked Iraqi inmates that were passed around by U.S. Army personnel who served in the prison west of Baghdad.
I thought you were talking of the German one where the German NCOs were
shocking their trainees....
"If scientists and inventors who develop disease cures and useful technologies don't get lifetime royalties, I'd like to know what fucking rationale you have for some guy getting lifetime royalties for writing an episode of Full House." - Mike Wong
"The present air situation in the Pacific is entirely the result of fighting a fifth rate air power." - U.S. Navy Memo - 24 July 1944
No, the picture of the guy sitting on top of the detainee...not torture , but definitely abusive. The other pictures posted are not incriminating by themselves, though.
BoTM / JL / MM / HAB / VRWC / Horseman
I'm studying for the CPA exam. Have a nice summer, and if you're down just sit back and realize that Joe is off somewhere, doing much worse than you are.
Joe wrote:No, the picture of the guy sitting on top of the detainee...not torture , but definitely abusive.
Do we know if that guy is even alive, though? Many photographs of soldiers posed somehow with the dead bodies of their enemies were taken in WWII, for example, and while distasteful it is something you can expect from men who have just been fighting for their lives.
The threshold for inclusion in Wikipedia is verifiability, not truth. -- Wikipedia's No Original Research policy page.
I thought Roman candles meant they were imported. - Kelly Bundy
12 yards long, two lanes wide it's 65 tons of American pride, Canyonero! - Simpsons
Support the KKK environmental program - keep the Arctic white!
Since when if ever did the SEAL bring their personal Handi-cams and photocamers with them on missions?
I call bullshit and dressup on these
"A cult is a religion with no political power." -Tom Wolfe Pardon me for sounding like a dick, but I'm playing the tiniest violin in the world right now-Dalton
Damaramu wrote:Maybe it's just me, but these few photos don't appear to depict abuse. Are there others?
Maybe, maybe not. But taking pictures of detainees is against the rules, and posting pictures of special forces personnel could be dangerous to their families.
Damien Sorresso
"Ever see what them computa bitchez do to numbas? It ain't natural. Numbas ain't supposed to be code, they supposed to quantify shit."
- The Onion
Meh, no great scandal. Though the people taking the pics and those posing should get NJP atleast for violating the rules. The guy with the pistol needs to be slammed real hard, but other than that, just bad PR.
They say, "the tree of liberty must be watered with the blood of tyrants and patriots." I suppose it never occurred to them that they are the tyrants, not the patriots. Those weapons are not being used to fight some kind of tyranny; they are bringing them to an event where people are getting together to talk. -Mike Wong
But as far as board culture in general, I do think that young male overaggression is a contributing factor to the general atmosphere of hostility. It's not SOS and the Mess throwing hand grenades all over the forum- Red
This may be a sense over hyper-sensitivity in the wake of Abu Ghraib... I'd say it is worth investigating but we shouldn't get surprised if it turns out to be no big deal.
Something about Libertarianism always bothered me. Then one day, I realized what it was:
Libertarian philosophy can be boiled down to the phrase, "Work Will Make You Free."
In Libertarianism, there is no Government, so the Bosses are free to exploit the Workers.
In Communism, there is no Government, so the Workers are free to exploit the Bosses.
So in Libertarianism, man exploits man, but in Communism, its the other way around! If all you want to do is have some harmless, mindless fun, go H3RE INST3ADZ0RZ!! Grrr! Fight my Brute, you pansy!
Hey, hold on a minute there! *looks carefully at pistol* I don't think that's no Beretta... can anybody ID it? I wonder why they, or that guy at least, aren't packing issue?
Elheru Aran wrote:Hey, hold on a minute there! *looks carefully at pistol* I don't think that's no Beretta... can anybody ID it? I wonder why they, or that guy at least, aren't packing issue?
I think it's a Mk.23 Mod 0, which actually is issue, just not standard issue for line troops.
"preemptive killing of cops might not be such a bad idea from a personal saftey[sic] standpoint..." --Keevan Colton
"There's a word for bias you can't see: Yours." -- William Saletan
Yay for me. I clicked submit instead of preview, didn't inline the pics and say "I wouldn't be surprised if some of them did." instead of "I wouldn't be surprised if they did."
"Thousands of years ago cats were worshipped as gods. Cats have never forgotten this."
Beowulf wrote:I think it's a Mk.23 Mod 0, which actually is issue, just not standard issue for line troops.
That's no Mk. 23: The slide is too rounded (the Mk. 23's slide has a very angular appearance), and the shape of the sights and hammer spur is also wrong: It looks more like an M1911A1, but there are a number of details that don't match up with that gun either, such as the ejector port, the grip ridges on the the slide, and the hammer recess on the slide rear...
The M2HB: The Greatest Machinegun Ever Made.
HAB: Crew-Served Weapons Specialist
"Making fun of born-again Christians is like hunting dairy cows with a high powered rifle and scope." --P.J. O'Rourke
"A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself." --J.S. Mill
