CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr
should be given some kind of award for the most outrageously off-target
reporting on the newly
released photos and videos of U.S. torture and abuse of prisoners at
Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. In her numerous appearances during the morning
news cycle on CNN after the images were first broadcast on Australia's SBS
television, Starr described what she saw as the "root of the Abu Ghraib
prison scandal" as such:
"Let's start by reminding everybody that under U.S. military law and
practice, the only photographs that can be taken are official photographs
for documentation purposes about the status of prisoners when they are in
military detention. That's it. Anything else is not acceptable. And of
course, that is what the Abu Ghraib prison scandal is all about."
What? Here I thought the "scandal" was that the U.S. military was
systematically abusing prisoners. These new photos, with their
documentation of violently inflicted, open wounds, obliterate any notion
that what occurred at Abu Ghraib was anything short of torture by all
accepted definitions of the term. They reveal some horrifying scenes of
naked, humiliated, bloodied prisoners, some with apparent gunshot wounds.
In a video broadcast on Australia's SBS, naked, hooded prisoners were seen
being forced to masturbate in front of the camera. But, according to CNN's
Starr, the real transgression was that some soldiers documented the
torture in violation of "U.S. military law and practice." In a report
later in the morning, Starr returned to her outrageous characterization of
the "scandal," beginning her report:
"As we look at a couple of the photographs, let's remind people that
why these are so inappropriate. Under U.S. military law and practice and
procedure, you simply cannot take photographs as we're going to show you
some of them right now. You cannot take photographs of people in
detention, in humiliating positions, positions that are abusive in any
way, shape or form. The only pictures that are ever allowed of people in
U.S. military detention would be pictures for documentation purposes. And,
clearly, these pictures are not that. That is the whole issue that has
been at the root of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, that it was abusive,
the practices in which soldiers engaged in."
"You cannot take photographs of people in detention, in humiliating
positions, positions that are abusive in any way, shape or form,"
according to Starr. But apparently it's OK to place them in those
humiliating, abusive positions or at least not worth commenting on in
these reports on CNN. Starr continued her report, describing Pentagon
reaction to the newly released photos:
"But the Pentagon certainly is not happy that these pictures, these
additional pictures, which had not been distributed publicly in the past,
Pentagon not happy that they are out. And the reason is, the Pentagon had
filed a lawsuit trying to prevent their publication in the United States
out of concern, they say, that it would spark violence in the Arab world
to see these photographs and it would put U.S. military forces at
risk."
The release of the photographs will spark the violence? No U.S.
torture of prisoners sparks massive outrage, and justifiably so. Moreover,
this outrage should not just be confined to the "Arab world" but should be
felt everywhere, particularly in the U.S. Besides, Pentagon lawyers have
already tried this defense in federal court, and a judge ruled that fear
of facing the consequences of your actions is not a legitimate
defense.
Starr concluded another report saying the Pentagon is concerned that if
the images "appear in the Islamic world
they will incite unrest in the
Islamic world, and therefore put U.S. military troops at risk."
CNN anchor Zain Vergee then shot back, "And they were swiftly put on
Arab TV. As you say, they're out there."
They were swiftly put on Arab TV. Is there something devious about
that? Is "Arab TV" somehow committing some transgression against freedom
and democracy by broadcasting these images that were first put out by
Australian TV in a country Bush claims as his ally?
All of the images of the torture at Abu Ghraib should be made public,
as the Center for Constitutional Rights and ACLU have been fighting for,
because they are an accurate representation of what has happened and
continues to happen in U.S.-run and -supported gulags around the
world.
When and if they are released, Barbara Starr should be reminded that
she is supposed to be a CNN reporter at the Pentagon, not a Pentagon
spokesperson on CNN.
