By Jeremy Scahill, AlterNet
Posted on February 16, 2006, Printed on February 17, 2006
http://www.alternet.org/story/32321/
CNN's Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr should be given some kind of
award for the most outrageously off-target reporting on the newly
released photos and videos of U.S. torture and abuse of prisoners at Abu
Ghraib prison in Iraq.
In her numerous appearances during the morning news cycle on CNN after
the images were first broadcast on Australia's SBS television, Starr
described what she saw as the "root of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal" as
such:
"Let's start by reminding everybody that under U.S. military law and
practice, the only photographs that can be taken are official
photographs for documentation purposes about the status of prisoners
when they are in military detention. That's it. Anything else is not
acceptable. And of course, that is what the Abu Ghraib Prison
scandal is all about."
What? Here I thought the "scandal" was that the U.S. military was
systematically abusing prisoners. These new photos, with their
documentation of violently inflicted open wounds, obliterate any notion
that what occurred at Abu Ghraib was anything short of torture by all
accepted definitions of the term. They reveal some horrifying scenes of
naked, humiliated, bloodied prisoners, some with apparent gunshot
wounds. In a video broadcast on Australia's SBS, naked, hooded prisoners
were seen being forced to masturbate in front of the camera.
But, according to CNN's Starr, the real transgression was that some
soldiers documented the torture in violation of "U.S. military law and
practice."
In a report later in the morning, Starr returned to her outrageous
characterization of the "scandal," beginning her report:
"As we look at a couple of the photographs, let's remind people why
these are so inappropriate. Under U.S. military law and practice and
procedure, you simply cannot take photographs -- as we're going to
show you some of them right now. You cannot take photographs of
people in detention, in humiliating positions, positions that are
abusive in any way, shape or form. The only pictures that are ever
allowed of people in U.S. military detention would be pictures for
documentation purposes. And, clearly, these pictures are not that.
That is the whole issue that has been at the root of the Abu Ghraib
prison scandal, that it was abusive, the practices in which soldiers
engaged in."
"You cannot take photographs of people in detention, in humiliating
positions, positions that are abusive in any way, shape or form,"
according to Starr. But apparently it's OK to place them in those
humiliating, abusive positions -- or at least not worth commenting on in
these reports on CNN.
Starr continued her report, describing Pentagon reaction to the newly
released photos:
"But the Pentagon certainly is not happy that these pictures, these
additional pictures, which had not been distributed publicly in the
past, Pentagon not happy that they are out. And the reason is, the
Pentagon had filed a lawsuit trying to prevent their publication in
the United States out of concern, they say, that it would spark
violence in the Arab world to see these photographs, and it would
put U.S. military forces at risk."
The release of the photographs will spark the violence? No -- U.S.
torture of prisoners sparks massive outrage and justifiably so.
Moreover, this outrage should not just be confined to the "Arab world"
but should be felt everywhere, particularly in the United States.
Besides, Pentagon lawyers have already tried this defense in federal
court, and a judge ruled that fear of facing the consequences of your
actions is not a legitimate defense.
Starr concluded another report saying the Pentagon is concerned that if
the images "appear in the Islamic world, they are concerned they will
incite unrest in the Islamic world and therefore put U.S. military
troops at risk."
CNN anchor Zain Vergee then shot back, "And they were swiftly put on
Arab TV. As you say, they're out there."
They were swiftly put on Arab TV. Is there something devious about that?
Is "Arab TV" somehow committing some transgression against freedom and
democracy by broadcasting these images that were first put out by
Australian TV in a country Bush claims as his ally?
All of the images of the torture at Abu Ghraib should be made public, as
the Center for Constitutional Rights and ACLU have been fighting for,
because they are an accurate representation of what has happened and
continues to happen in U.S.-run and -supported gulags around the world.
When and if they are released, Barbara Starr should be reminded that she
is supposed to be a CNN reporter at the Pentagon, not a Pentagon
spokesperson on CNN.
/ Jeremy Scahill is a correspondent for the national radio and TV
program Democracy Now!
Fellow at The Nation Institute. /
� 2006 Independent Media Institute. All rights reserved.
View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/story/32321/
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