More Abu Ghraib prison videos!

[RonOnGuitar]

REPORTING FOR THE ENEMY

By DEBORAH ORIN

NEW YORK POST



June 16, 2004 -- THE video only lasts four minutes or so — grue some scenes of torture from the days when Saddam Hussein's thugs ruled Abu Ghraib prison. I couldn't bear to watch, so I walked out until it was over.

Some who stayed wished they hadn't. They told of savage scenes of decapitation, fingers chopped off one by one, tongues hacked out with a razor blade — all while victims shriek in pain and the thugs chant Saddam's praises.



Saddam's henchmen took the videos as newsreels to document their deeds in honor of their leader.



But these awful images didn't show up on American TV news.



In fact, just four or five reporters showed up for the screening at the American Enterprise Institute think tank, which says it got the video via the Pentagon. Fewer wrote about it.



No surprise, since no newscast would air the videos of Nick Berg and Wall Street Journal reporter Danny Pearl getting decapitated, or of U.S. contractors in Fallujah getting torn limb from limb by al Qaeda operatives.



But every TV network has endlessly shown photos of the humiliation of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. troops at Abu Ghraib. Why?







"Because most [journalists] want Bush to lose," says AEI scholar Michael Ledeen, who helped host the screening of the Saddam video.



It's not just journalists. The Pentagon has lots of Saddam atrocity footage — but is loathe to release it, possibly for fear it would be taken as a crude attempt to blunt criticism of Abu Ghraib.



So the world sees photos of U.S. interrogators using dogs to scare prisoners at Abu Ghraib. But not the footage of Saddam's prisoners getting fed — alive — to Doberman pinschers on Saddam's watch. (That video's been described by former New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik.)



Former Pentagon official Richard Perle raps "faint hearts in the administration," saying they've bought into the idea that it's "politically incorrect" to show the horrors of Saddam's regime.



But he also faults the media — after all, AEI's briefings on Iraq have been standing-room-only, but the room was half empty for the screening of the Saddam torture video.



But part of the issue is simply that Saddam's tortures, like al Qaedas tactics, are so awful that they're unbearable to watch.



If I couldn't watch them myself, I'm hardly arguing that others should have to. Yet it raises a very complex problem in the War on Terror. It's worse than creating moral equivalence between Saddam's tortures and prisoner abuse by U.S. troops. It's that we do far more to highlight our own wrongdoings precisely because they are less appalling.



In this era, a photo is everything. We highlight U.S. prisoner abuse because the photos aren't too offensive to show. We downplay Saddam's abuse precisely because it's far worse — so we can't use the photos. And that sets the stage for remarks like Sen. Ted Kennedy's claim that Saddam's torture chambers have reopened under "U.S. management."



Terrorism is sometimes called asymmetric warfare — America had to adjust to new tactics to deal with small bands of terrorists who were able to turn our airplanes into weapons against us. Now it turns out that we also face asymmetric propaganda — where the terrorists gain a p.r. advantage precisely because what they do is so horrific that our media aren't able to deal with it.



The U.S. military hasn't figured out a strategic way to deal with this problem.



But neither has the press.



Media analysts like Washington Post ombudsman Michael Getler admit it sounds "sanctimonious" to justify publishing prison abuse photos — but not al Qaeda beheading videos — in the name of showing "the reality of war." But that is just what he did.



AEI spokeswoman Veronique Rodman, puzzled by the minimal interest in the Saddam torture video, is sure that if it was a video of equally horrific torture committed by U.S. troops, the press would find ways to show or report it.



Reporters have to face up to the fact that right now, if we highlight the wrongs that Americans commit but not — out of squeamishness — the far worse horrors committed by others, we become propaganda tools for the other side.



This isn't to argue in any way against reporting the Abu Ghraib scandal. But reporters have to face up to the problems — and find ways to achieve a more balanced account.



Saddam's torture videos may be too awful to show, but it's hard to explain the low media interest in the story of seven Iraqi men who had their right hands chopped off by Saddam's thugs — and then got new prosthetic arms and new hope in America.



They're eloquent, they're available, they're grateful for the U.S. liberation of Iraq. No one can better talk about Saddam's tortures — and no one is more eager to do so. Yet, as of yesterday, the New York Times had written 177 stories on Abu Ghraib — with over 40 on the front page. The self-proclaimed "paper of record" hadn't written a single story about those seven Iraqi men.



Deborah Orin is The Post's Washington Bureau Chief

[DreamTone7]

Thank you for posting that, Ron. There are some on this board that need to read this article...even though they'll probably try to find a way to ignore it, at least the truth will be where it needs to be. Out in the open.

[Rev9Volts]

yes thanks!

[Rev9Volts]

iraqi prison abuses before usa





yes tying mens legs to a pole and beating the nbottom of their feet. pics just before beheading cutting off fingers. not here but another site had video pushing men off a building. how high? i duno but hich enough for them to bounce when they hit the ground.

[RonOnGuitar]

Yeah, it's easy to fall into a personal tunnelvision where a person only exposes him/herself to that which reinforces their worldview.



The internet is a mix of blessing & curse; though there's surely a lot of junk out there, there's also more than enough diverse legit sources of information so a person would have to work hard to not be well read/informed!

[NRKofOver]

I truly hope that every American understands the brutality of Saddam's regime whether they see this footage or not.



But utilizing the footage to try and diminish what happened at Abu Graib under US watch is sad. The US military and their contractors have behaved poorly, unethically and monstrously at that prison. Because we're 'not as bad' as Saddam doesn't make what was done there justifiable.



As far as the media, maybe they want Bush to lose, I don't know. But if we're really interested in 'truth' in America, then let's open up to complete honesty. Saddam was not and is not the only leader violating the basic human rights of the population, he's just the only one we decided to invade. The US has been involved and most likely is still involved in the support of leaders that are tyrannical and dangerous to their own people. We armed, trained and supported Saddam even though we knew he grabbed power by executing innocent people. I wonder who we're arming, training and supporting right now that we'll have to usurp down the road.



I do want Bush to lose, but I think showing pictures and video of decapititions will help that cause, I think Americans subject to that kind of brutality will realize we have to try something different, because with our current approach, this is our future for a very very long time.

My music for the disenchanted masses

[RonOnGuitar]

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But utilizing the footage to try and diminish what happened at Abu Graib under US watch is sad.

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Errr, NRK, read the article, it sez the same thing.

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Saddam was not and is not the only leader violating the basic human rights of the population

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You mean as in the Sudan where the Islamist government thugs are commiting genocide and taking people as slaves? Ditactors such as Khadaffi wised up pretty quickly after Ol' Sad was dragged outta his hole; the K-Man wanted to get rid off his own WMD pronto. NKorea started talkin' nice about their WMDs, too.

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As far as the media, maybe they want Bush to lose, I don't know. But if we're really interested in 'truth' in America, then let's open up to complete honesty

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I agree - so you're calling up ABC, CBS,CNN,NBC, NYT, etc, to tell them to go with this story with the same 24/7 frenzy they attached to a story of a few bad apples in the US military? Or does the "complete honesty" stop there?

Quote:

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I do want Bush to lose, but I think showing pictures and video of decapititions will help that cause, I think Americans subject to that kind of brutality will realize we have to try something different, because with our current approach, this is our future for a very very long time.

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That's where you go wrong, NRK, in wanting negatives - e.g. as in thinking in terms of someone losing rather than America(all) winning. And I highly suspect you've figured Americans wrong - the majority are sickened, but not intimated by such butchery as when the Islamists slaughter either masses of people or an individual. If anything, as with the horrors of National Socialist Germany, it strengthens American's resolve. Americans were shocked by the 911 attacks, but for some reason the tragedy did not seem to cause most folks to ponder what nice things we should do to appease terrorists and their supporters.



However you are quite correct inasmuch as the war of freedom from global terrorism will be a long one for America and any other nation that doesn't cave in to terrorist demands or foul jihadist tactics.



World War III was the struglle to defeat Marxism; it took years to fight the "Cld War" but it was won in the Reagan-Bush era. "WW IV" is the struggle to defeat global terrorism, no country or nation is immune. Even without the Islamist terrorists who want to establish a Taliban-world, England already had the IRA, the Dutch & Moluccan terrorists and Spain will have to meet the Basque terrorists demands after the goverment's recent virtual surrender to Bin Laden. And other European empires have even more troubles looming, what with their subjects wanting freedom and like silliness: Polynesia voters set stage for showdown with Paris



"By Nick Squires in Sydney

(Filed: 16/06/2004)

One of France's farthest-flung and most exotic colonial possessions, French Polynesia, elected its first pro-independence leader yesterday in a blow to the government in Paris.'



(Hmmm....I believe "Let them eat cake!" is the usual working Franco-response).



But the Amer-guilttripping mantra and the Kumbaya thingee seems to remind me of something in the news from awhile back, NRK. Do you know what the NEA is - maybe possibly a member?