War of words between White House & Daily Telegraph over Abu Ghraib abuse allegations

[financeguy]

War of words between White House & Daily Telegraph over Abu Ghraib abuse allegations

This newspaper reported that photographs showed a soldier apparently raping a female prisoner, a translator apparently raping a male prisoner and instances of sexual abuse involving objects.

After initially failing to respond to a request for comment, a White House spokesman eventually spoke to denigrate the standards of the British press, and said that the Telegraph report "mischaracterises" the photos.

Further confirmation of the story was provided on Friday by Scott Horton, a leading US human rights lawyer, who wrote on the Daily Beast website that he had "obtained specific corroboration of the British account from several reliable sources, including a highly credible senior military officer with first hand knowledge, who provided even more detail about the graphic photographs".

New-York based Human Rights Watch has called for an inquiry into the allegations of rape and sexual abuse.

Telegraph report over Abu Ghraib 'abuse' photos confirmed - Telegraph

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's administration strongly denied a British report on Thursday that images of apparent rape and sexual abuse of Iraqi prisoners are among photographs that it is trying to prevent being made public.

In unusually forceful terms, the Pentagon attacked the report in the Daily Telegraph newspaper while the White House went so far as to cast doubt on the accuracy of the British press in general.

U.S. slams British press over report of abuse photos | Politics | Reuters

 

[Irvine511]

it's all so upsetting, from every conceivable angle.

 

[anitram]

I don't think that it's helpful to attack the source of the reports (British media and/or tabloid media in particular) rather than their veracity, because this immediately gives the impression that you are hiding something. Dumb move.

 

[A stor]

I agree, antrim.

If this did happen, it wasn't on President Obama's watch. Several years prior, our government was saying. "We do not torture." And we all know now, that wasn't so.