Is this another media non story?

[nedflanders]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4718328.stm

[WaldoMcFroog]

If there were no new abusers, or no abuses that might have increased the sentence given to those already found guilty of crime had they been known at the time of the original trials, it is a non-story (or perhaps, it adds nothing new to an existing very important story, lest the importance of the original pictures be underestimated), and it should probably have been kept out of the public domain given current world tensions.

If there were, it still does not necessarily follow that broadcasting it was sensible, but it should certainly get passed to the US authorities to prosecute the perpetrators as appropriate.

[undercovers]

its a news story - and an important one, these people were physically and mentally tortured two years ago, what makes this worse was they were tortured by a regime that claims to be liberating them from an evil dictator and instilling peace and democracy to their government whilst operating secret prisons, destroying countries and launching thousands and thousands of troops abroad WHILST AT THE SAME TIME complaining about violent Muslims and wondering why the Iraqi people are not glad to see themselves being �liberated�.

People complain that these pic make the soldiers jobs harder and more dangerous � I don�t think so, those that have been tortured will be out talking to the communities about what happened to them, these pictures just show the rest of the world what the Iraqi�s already know � they still live under an evil dictator

[nedflanders]

from what I can ascertain there are no new perpetraitors and the soldiers accused have been tried and are now serving time, the administration had these photos and I assume they were also used in the court martials. There are also more photo's that are yet unreleased but again do not show anything new. So what is the story actually about? As far as I can tell, nothing that we never new 2 years ago. Pardon the pun but "the regime has been changed" in the jail so why the big hoo haa. I would say that it it typical media story creation.

[noxlumos]

No it's clearly not a non story.The abuses within Iraq are clearly so widespread and systemic that nothing short of an enquiry which frankly doesn't involve the Americans will do. We really are not talking about a handful of sadistic squaddies here,torture appears to have been routinely used and instructions for that came from a higher level.It has to be in the public domain. People have to be aware that we aren't freeing Iraq from anything, we're just replacing one dictator with another and our only interest there is financial.If you do something wrong after you bang your drum about freedom and democracy and how great you are you must expect to pay the price and that's where America finds itself now I'm afraid.

[Gnisy]

"The US government has said the images should not have been released and could incite violence."

Bull.

[Supernick]

In one sense we're looking at a serious news story that is important to get to the public domain, however this is an old news story, reignited because new photos have come to light. Bear in mind that Donald Rumsfeld announced to the world when the original pictures came out that there were more that hadn't been seen yet, and that could possibly leak out in the future. So these pictures do not contain any new personnel that haven't already been tried and convicted, as far as I'm aware, because the government already had them in their possession. So in that sense it is a non-story that will unfortunately stoke up even more tension in the area. This doesn't detract from the seriousness of the events though.

[Goodsoulette]

I have to admit I see these pictures and I think that they are pretty horrendous, but not as shocked as I was the first time I saw these type of actions. I am ashamed to admit I must be getting a little resilient about these images. I like to think that I am pretty nice person, I may be ignorant in some areas but I do try to change it and judge people on an individual basis.

However I do think that this will probably lead to more western soldiers or even aid workers being kidnapped treated in a horrific fashion and having their lives ended with a pretty shocking death that will be braodcast on the internet, available to buy on DVD, also available to teenagersd to download on to their phones. I dont think the news is helping anyone at the moment.

[nedflanders]

Gnisy - It may give some fanatics as excuse to ransack some embassy's. I agree with supernick that it doesnt detract from the seriousness of the crimes but that is not my point.

Imagine this, a paedophile is caught with child porn 1000 images on his pc and then is tried and sentenced, the news report it and then 6 months later they find another 200 images, do they report it? I think not. It is the same principle, but America baiting is popular at the moment.

[metagirl]

it would be - if the Bush administration had done the right thing the first time and punished the senior ranking officials responsible for the "torture" policy of Abu Ghraib.

Because only the soldiers directly involved in the fiasco were called before a military tribunal and though they deserved their punishment they were obvious scapegoats for a larger and more fundamental movement in the US military under the direct control of the Bush administration.

Sad.

Unfortunately, the questions the pictures raise: "Who sanctioned these actions?" "Was the Bush administration directly involved?" "Does this sort of treatment of prisoners still occur in US prisons abroad?" "What steps have the US military taken to ensure this sort of treatment no longer happens in US prisons abroad?"

Still remain unanswered and because of it this issue will not go away. The media does not act as a "fourth estate" in the US - so of course the Bushes will say that what the Intl media has done is irresponsible and will "incite violence" without for once thinking of the legitimate reasons there may be for publishing them.

[Doggy2]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9HUw1LMlIY&search=music

so what does everyone think about that vidoe?

i thought it was funny but kind of mean... you shouldn't do that to the kids.. its lame heh