Boing Boing: Hersh: children raped at Abu Ghraib, Pentagon has videos

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" Zepp " <zepp

Thu, 29 Sep 2005 19:31:16 -0700

[Zepps_News] Boing Boing: Hersh: children raped at Abu

Ghraib, Pentagon has videos

 

 

 

 

http://www.boingboing.net/2004/07/15/hersh_children_raped.html

 

 

Thursday, July 15, 2004

 

*Hersh: children raped at Abu Ghraib, Pentagon has videos*

 

From Daily Kos' partial transcript of a video (link

http://stream.realimpact.net/?file=clients/aclu/conf2004/20040707_aclu_AmericaAt\

ACrossroads_300.rm

to REAL stream) of Seymour Hersh

 

http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?040510fa_fact speaking at an

ACLU event. He says the US government has videotapes of children being

raped at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

 

 

 

" 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. "

 

Link http://www.dailykos.com/story/2004/7/14/193750/666 (/via Warren

http://www.diepunyhumans.com/

 

There's also a piece worth reading in

this week's /Newsweek/ about new allegations of rape and sexual

torture at Abu Ghraib. Feature includes details on the identities of

the Iraqi prisoners shown in those widely-circulated photographs --

including Satar Jabar (charged with carjacking, not terrorism), whose

iconic hooded figure with wires attached is derisively described by

many Iraqis as the " Statue of Liberty. "

Link http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5412316/site/newsweek/

 

 

 

Update: Geraldine Sealey at Salon on Hersh's remarks:

 

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. (...)

 

 

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. "

 

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?

 

Link http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2004/07/15/hersh/ to

Salon item.

 

Update 2: BB guestbar alum Russ Kick of Memory Hole

http://www.thememoryblog.org/ reminds us of a post he made in May

http://www.thememoryblog.org/archives/000155.html about the type of

as-yet-unreleased evidence Hersh is presumably discussing. Here, Russ

quotes Republican Senator Lindsay Graham: " The American public needs

to understand, we're talking about rape and murder here. We're not

just talking about giving people a humiliating experience. We're

talking about rape and murder and some very serious charges. "

 

Update 3: BoingBoing reader Lars has an update from Germany -- some

European media perspective on the allegations:

 

" Report Mainz " is a German TV show/magazine of the SWR

(Sudwest-Rundfunk = South-West broadcasting). " Report Mainz "

reported already on 5th July 2004 about the potential abuse of

children in Abu Ghraib. (Link

 

http://www.swr.de/report/archiv/sendungen/040705/02/frames.html .

A video (in German) of the feature is available at the page (Link

http://www.swr.de/report/archiv/sendungen/040705/02/04070502.ram

to streaming Real file). You can see interviews with persons who

testify that they have seen children arrested in Abu Ghraib and

who have seen and have heard of a boy and a 12 year old girl terrified

(cold water and mud were spilled over them) by guards or military

personal. The boy and the girl were then used to terrify their

also arrested parents who were willing to cooperate after seeing their

children terrified by the guards/military personnel.

 

Another TV show/magazine covered the issue too: " Kulturzeit " , of

the German-Austrian-Swiss broadcaster " 3Sat " (Link

 

http://www.3sat.de/3sat.php?http://www.3sat.de/kulturzeit/themen/68032/

The main theme in these features is the concern about the fact

that children are arrested and that they are used to apply pressure on

their parents. "

 

UPDATE: Evidence to support Hersh's claims in the Taguba Report? Link

http://www.boingboing.net/2004/07/20/evidence_for_hershs_.html

 

 

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