After Donald Rumsfeld testified on the Hill about Abu Ghraib in May, there was talk of more photos and video in the Pentagon's custody more horrific than anything made public so far. "If these are released to the public, obviously it's going to make matters worse," Rumsfeld said. Since then, the Washington Post has disclosed some new details and images of abuse at the prison. But if Seymour Hersh is right, it all gets much worse.
Hersh gave a speech last week to the ACLU making the charge that children were sodomized in front of women in the prison, and the Pentagon has tape of it. The speech was first reported in a New York Sun story last week, which was in turn posted on Jim Romenesko's media blog, and now EdCone.com and other blogs are linking to the video. We transcribed the critical section here (it starts at about 1:31:00 into the ACLU video.) At the start of the transcript here, you can see how Hersh was struggling over what he should say:
"Debating about it, ummm ... Some of the worst things that happened you don't know about, okay? Videos, um, there are women there. Some of you may have read that they were passing letters out, communications out to their men. This is at Abu Ghraib ... The women were passing messages out saying 'Please come and kill me, because of what's happened' and basically what happened is that those women who were arrested with young boys, children in cases that have been recorded. The boys were sodomized with the cameras rolling. And the worst above all of that is the soundtrack of the boys shrieking that your government has. They are in total terror. It's going to come out."
"It's impossible to say to yourself how did we get there? Who are we? Who are these people that sent us there? When I did My Lai I was very troubled like anybody in his right mind would be about what happened. I ended up in something I wrote saying in the end I said that the people who did the killing were as much victims as the people they killed because of the scars they had, I can tell you some of the personal stories by some of the people who were in these units witnessed this. I can also tell you written complaints were made to the highest officers and so we're dealing with a enormous massive amount of criminal wrongdoing that was covered up at the highest command out there and higher, and we have to get to it and we will. We will. You know there's enough out there, they can't (Applause). .... So it's going to be an interesting election year."
Notes from a similar speech Hersh gave in Chicago in June were posted on Brad DeLong's blog. Rick Pearlstein, who watched the speech, wrote: "[Hersh] said that after he broke Abu Ghraib people are coming out of the woodwork to tell him this stuff. He said he had seen all the Abu Ghraib pictures. He said, 'You haven't begun to see evil...' then trailed off. He said, 'horrible things done to children of women prisoners, as the cameras run.' He looked frightened."
So, there are several questions here: Has Hersh actually seen the video he described to the ACLU, and why hasn't he written about it yet? Will he be forced to elaborate in more public venues now that these two speeches are getting so much attention, at least in the blogosphere? And who else has seen the video, if it exists -- will journalists see and report on it? did senators see these images when they had their closed-door sessions with the Abu Ghraib evidence? -- and what is being done about it?
(Update: A reader brought to our attention that the rape of boys at Abu Ghraib has been mentioned in some news accounts of the prisoner abuse evidence. The Telegraph and other news organizations described "a videotape, apparently made by US personnel, is said to show Iraqi guards raping young boys." The Guardian reported "formal statements by inmates published yesterday describe horrific treatment at the hands of guards, including the rape of a teenage Iraqi boy by an army translator.")
Someone said to the Prophet, "Pray to God against the idolaters and curse them." The Prophet replied, "I have been sent to show mercy and have not been sent to curse." (Muslim)
Re: Hersh: Children sodomized at Abu Ghraib, on tape-
Now if such acts had happened to an iraqi, wouldn't that justify that he would go suicide bomb himself into the first american soldier he sees. I mean, there's a possibility that even worse things might have happened, who knows what the people over there feel like.
Re: Hersh: Children sodomized at Abu Ghraib, on tape-
This is sick and seriously shows exactly what a mess Iraq is - May God help our brothers and sisters there - no wonder the muslim world cant stand the american occupation of muslim lands - they are just a bunch of terrorist terroizing the world.
Do you think the pious don't sin?
They merely:
Veiled themselves and didn't flaunt it
Sought forgiveness and didn't persist
Took ownership of it and don't justify it
And acted with excellence after they had erred - Ibn al-Qayyim
Re: Hersh: Children sodomized at Abu Ghraib, on tape-
What can you expect when these filthy kuffar invade our lands and bring their dirty western innovations with them. Can you imagine how traumatising this must have been for the mother and child, they would have been absolutely helpless to do anything about it
All mujahideen are justified in fighting these invaders in our countries, no matter what 'war on terror' they seem to be fighting
Re: Hersh: Children sodomized at Abu Ghraib, on tape-
I feel we are only scratching the tip of the iceberg..
these perverse criminals and the admin that gave them the ok should be tried for war crimes..
I am at a loss for words. But I am filled with rage!
Text without context is pretext If your opponent is of choleric temperament, seek to irritate him
Re: Hersh: Children sodomized at Abu Ghraib, on tape-
I think we should publicise such news more often so that our disgust at least partly raises our Honour, sleeping somehwre inside.
Kids are kileld and dishonoured, women, tortures in Abu ghairb that we can;t even think of, things have been done to people in the prison which has made men lose ther sanity..
And yet we are not awaken from our slumber of ignorance!!!
Woe unto us!
May Allah protect the innocent and punish the oppressors according to their sins, Ameen
brothers and sisters please pray for the innocent in at elast one salat a day, JazakAllah.
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