Here is the link to the Washington Post page where they are posting the photographs of the Iraqi prisoners who are being "softened up".
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/photo/world/G63388-2004May03.html
Article here:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A5623-2004May5.html
I do think we need to make a distinction between photographs that show prisoners being humiliated and photographs showing prisoners being tortured.
I don't seen blood being drawn in these photos. I don't see arms, hands, fingers being chopped off. I don't see knees being broken with sledge hammers. These are just some of the things that used to happen in this same prison.
While we are all caught up in this "hate military intelligence" frenzy for what they did to these men, let's ask ourselves some other questions.
1. What if one of these men had knowledge of a nuclear or biological weapon that was going to kill tens of thousands or even millions of people in the next few days. What if the town that was targeted was YOUR town. What if all the people you loved would die horrible excruciating deaths if this were to happen. What if the only way to save the lives of your town and those you love would be to torture the people in your custody until they told everything they knew. What would YOU do?
2. Who brought the camera into the prison? Who took these photos and why? This sort of "torture" has gone on since the beginning of this War of Terror. Why are these photos being released now? Do you think that the top tier Al Queda who have been captured have been sitting on the beach in the French Riviera sipping mimosas? Don't you think that they have been undergoing forms of torture designed to make them tell everything they know about all operations? Why have no photographs of these torture sessions been released? Are the torture sessions of the top tier MORE justified because the men are famous? Is is okay to torture the heads of Al Queda who planned and are planning terrorist attacks to kill and maim people, but not to torture the low level soldiers who don't really know who they are working for or what they are really doing this for? Does it matter that a low level operative still has the ability to kill hundreds, maybe even thousands of people? Why are photos being released now? Who gains from the release of these photos?
3. Let's make a distinction in photos. There are some fake photos out there that are appearing on websites of people that some think are credible. These photos have been pointed out by RMN as fakes. The types of guns, uniforms, and vehicles that are shown in the photos are types that have never been in Iraq or Afghanistan. The photos have been traced back to a pornographic website. However, there are still naive or unscrupulous investigators who are mixing the fake photographs in with the real photographs. Why are they doing this? Is it merely to get MORE hits on their websites? Have they been taken in themselves? Or do they work for whoever it is that is behind this operation....
I don't know the entire reason for this operation yet... but I can tell you for sure that it IS an operation.
If it is possible for you to maintain balance while this is being sorted out, I would urge you to do so. This campaign is designed to inflame your emotions to the point where you are NOT thinking clearly.
Torture is a word that scares most of us. It turns our stomachs. We don't want to think about it. And we certainly don't want to think that our soldiers have ever tortured anyone.
I would like to assure you that our men have not tortured the enemy. But if I told you that I would be lying. You can be certain that in the middle of a covert operation where minutes and seconds count, that men and women, even children have been tortured to obtain vital and timely information that saved lives.
If torturing someone would have saved the WTC or the Murrah Building in OKC, would you do it? If otrturing someone would have stopped the bombing of the trains in Madrid, or the downing of Pan Am 103, would you do it? Or would you protest the human rights of the terrorists and let the innocent people die?
These are hard choices. You can maintain your anti-torture stance and pretend to be walking the high road until someone YOU love is the intended victim. What if your child, your mother, your husband, wife, beloved partner is in the building that is wired with bombs. Do you stand by your belief in never torturing a human being and let them die? Or do you do what is necessary to prevent the loss of innocent lives?
Okay... let's play pretend for a moment.
A hostage situation exists. YOU are the boss! It's up to you. YOU are the one who has to make the choice. There is NO ONE but YOU who can save the lives of these innocent men, women and children. Do you let them die? If the bomb explodes you know that many of them will burn to death. Many of these innocent people are children. Even your own child. Do you agree to let the experts torture the bombers until they tell you how to stop this slaughter? Or do you stick to the high road and tell the torture expert that he can not, under any circumstance use torture. No one can help you make this decision. You are alone here. Your child, your dog, your mother will pay the price for your decision.
What did you decide to do?
I have never been comfortable with the idea of torture. I am one of those people who used to close my eyes when anything "bad" happened in a movie. If I was reading a book and I came to a section about torture, I would skip it. I didn't want to know anything about it.
Then I married a man who had been tortured. If only he had been stripped naked and handcuffed to a cell or a bed I could have lived with his stories. But he was not this lucky. Bamboo was pounded under his fingernails. then the bamboo was lit. Then the fingernails were pulled out. Each time the fingernails grew back it was repeated until the fingernails grew back no more. And this was the most pleasant torture that he endured. He was tortured in 1971. The picture below was taken in 1992... 20 years later. His fingernails never grew back.
The photo below shows what happened to his nailbed (where his fingernails used to be) when he was forced to work a kitchen detail in a Missouri prison using scalding hot water with lye in it to clean tables. Torture comes in many forms. Maybe instead of focusing our media attention on the prisoners in Iraq, we should focus on the prisoners in our own prisons. Gunther was NOT the only one tortured in a United States prison.
Serving Freedom
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