CAUGHT ON FILM: RAPE AS OFFICIAL U.S. POLICY

From AlterNet:

Why the Pentagon Is Probably Lying About
its Suppressed Sodomy and Rape Photos

The Telegraph of London broke the news -- because the U.S. press is in a drugged stupor - -- that the photos President Barack Obama is refusing to release of detainee abuse depict, among other sexual tortures, an American soldier raping a female detainee and a male translator raping a male prisoner.

The paper claims the photos also show anal rape of prisoners with foreign objects such as wires and lightsticks. Retired Army Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba calls the images "horrific" and "indecent" (but absurdly agrees that Obama should not release them -- proving once again that the definition of hypocrisy is the assertion that the truth is in poor taste).

Predictably, a few hours later, the Pentagon issues a formal denial.

It is very likely that the Pentagon lying. This is probably exactly what the photos show, because it happened. Precisely these exact sex crimes -- these exact images and these very objects - -- are familiar and well-documented to those of us who follow closely rights organizations reports of what has already been confirmed.

And

But what is far scarier about these images Obama refuses to release and that the Pentagon is likely to be lying about now, is that it is not the evidence of lower-level soldiers being corrupted by power -- it is proof of the fact that the most senior leadership -- Bush, Rumsfeld and Cheney, with Rice's collusion -- were running a global sex-crime trafficking ring with Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib and Baghram Air Base as the holding sites.

The sexual nature of the torture also gives the lie to Cheney's and others' defense of torture as somehow functional: The sexual perversity mandated from the top reveals that it was just plain old sick sadism gratified by a very sick form of pleasure.

More here.

From the UK Telegraph courtesy of AlterNet:

Report: Unreleased Abu Ghraib Abuse Photos 'Show Rape'

At least one picture shows an American soldier apparently raping a female prisoner while another is said to show a male translator raping a male detainee.

Further photographs are said to depict sexual assaults on prisoners with objects including a truncheon, wire and a phosphorescent tube.

Another apparently shows a female prisoner having her clothing forcibly removed to expose her breasts.

Detail of the content emerged from Major General Antonio Taguba, the former army officer who conducted an inquiry into the Abu Ghraib jail in Iraq.

Allegations of rape and abuse were included in his 2004 report but the fact there were photographs was never revealed. He has now confirmed their existence in an interview with the Daily Telegraph.

More here.

From Rebel Reports courtesy of AlterNet:

Gen. Taguba Alleges Existence of Prisoner Rape Photos;
White House Press Secretary Attacks ... British Media

In a major story today, London’s Daily Telegraph quoted Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba describing photos (that the Obama administration is fighting to keep secret), which allegedly depict U.S. personnel raping prisoners, other sexual assaults on prisoners with objects including a truncheon, wire and a phosphorescent tube. “These pictures show torture, abuse, rape and every indecency,” Taguba said. Put that statement against this one from the president: In defending his decision to fight the ACLU in its efforts to have the photos publicly released, Obama said on May 13, “I want to emphasize that these photos that were requested in this case are not particularly sensational.”

At the White House press briefing today, Gibbs lashed out -- not at Gen. Taguba, who made the allegation on the record, and not even specifically at the paper that quoted Taguba. Instead, Gibbs went after the entire British media, saying “I think if you do an even moderate Google search (heh) you’re not gonna find many of these newspapers and ‘truth’ within say 25 words of each other.”

More here.

A couple of weeks ago in my post about President Obama deciding not to release some "not particularly sensational" photos of Americans torturing Iraqi POWs and detainees at Abu Ghraib, I speculated whether the real reason for this flip flop was that the pictures in question were actually depictions of rape and sodomy at Saddam Hussein's former national prison mentioned some months earlier by investigative journalist Seymour Hersh. I always get a little nervous when I go out on a limb here at Real Art: at the time, as far as I could tell, nobody was asserting this. Just me.

Turns out, I wasn't the only one, which makes me feel a little better about my ability to analyze the news. But that's not really my point. Rather, my point is that this whole torture scandal gets more and more disgusting the more we learn about it. Speculation that the photos the White House was planning to release contained images of rape may be incorrect, but it is becoming increasingly clear that it was, and maybe still is, official US policy to rape helpless prisoners.

As if waterboarding, humiliation, attack dogs, "stress positions," and plain old beating the shit out of shackled detainees wasn't enough.

This is some deeply twisted and sick shit. And the men who designed and ordered these "enhanced interrogations" are some sick fucks, nearing John Wayne Gacy on the spectrum of violent perversion. Absolutely nothing can justify this. Not 9/11, not a million IED attacks against US service personnel. And we continue to do nothing about it. Is this what we have become? Are we now a nation that rapes helpless prisoners?

If that's the case, God damn the United States.

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