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British troops torture Iraqi civilians

y | 30.04.2004 21:39

The Ministry of Defence has launched an investigation into allegations that British soldiers have been pictured torturing an Iraqi prisoner.
The photographs, obtained by the Daily Mirror newspaper, show a suspected thief being beaten and urinated on.

UK troops in Iraqi torture probe


The paper claims British soldiers handed over the photos
The Ministry of Defence has launched an investigation into allegations that British soldiers have been pictured torturing an Iraqi prisoner.

The photographs, obtained by the Daily Mirror newspaper, show a suspected thief being beaten and urinated on.

The UK's most senior soldier, General Sir Mike Jackson, said if guilty, the men were not fit to wear the uniform.

Earlier, the UK Government said it was "appalled" by pictures of Iraqi prisoners being abused by US troops.

Tony Blair's official spokesman said the way naked prisoners were tormented by troops directly contravened all the US-led coalition's policy.

He stressed the abuse by a few soldiers at the Abu Ghraib jail was not representative of coalition troops.

 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3675215.stm


y

Comments

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Utter hypocrisy

01.05.2004 14:10

What utter hypocrisy by the US and UK authorities to suddenly
claim that torture is not their cup of tea!

Why do we need photos before governments become embarrassed due
to the real meaning behind their euphemisms suddenly becoming apparent?
Aren't text reports enough?
I guess that's communicational
reality, it should remind us how powerful image and video
on indymedia can be - in this case it was not indymedia, but the
communication effect is similar.

In any case, note the attempts by both governments to desperately
try damage control, claiming that these were just "rogue" incidents,
when it's hard not to believe they're systematic.

human bean


Just an observation

01.05.2004 16:55

i dont defend or support either the occupation or the nature of it, and maybe im just being a paranoid "conspiracy theorist", but the pictures of the british thugs torturing an iraqi dont look very spontaneous. They seem a bit staged. Maybe they are fake, and once this is "discovered", the ensuing media hysteria will be used to foster doubt about similar or more serious acts of inhumanity towards iraqi people. Apologies for the inverted commas, very cliched i know.

sempre stoned