Eyes Wide Open
By Chris Floyd
17 February 2006
Chris-Floyd.comSalon.com has obtained a cache of torture photos and videos from Abu Ghraib, along with previously unreleased investigation reports which detail "a total of 1,325 images of suspected detainee abuse, 93 video files of suspected detainee abuse, 660 images of adult pornography, 546 images of suspected dead Iraqi detainees, 29 images of soldiers in simulated sexual acts, 20 images of a soldier with a Swastika drawn between his eyes, 37 images of Military Working dogs being used in abuse of detainees and 125 images of questionable acts."
Our webmaster, Rich Kastelein, has put together a special page containing the photos released by Salon.com (which, as the website notes, represent only a small fraction of the total), along with other materials, including video of the recent Australian TV broadcast that first brought this new belching of Bush-filth to light. You can find it here: Abu Ghraib Part II.
Yes, we said Bush-filth. Let's lay the blame for these tortures squarely where it belongs: on the shoulders of the "Commander-in-Chief." It's only fair; if this gibbering goon is going to lay claim to unrestricted powers, then by God he will have to bear unrestricted, unmitigated responsibility as well. And in truth, it has been well-documented by now that the widespread, systematic -- and on-going -- use of torture throughout America's new worldwide gulag was instigated at Bush's order, "justified" by the pretzel logic of his legal bagmen -- Alberto Gonzales and John Yoo, among many others -- and promulgated through presidential "executive orders" and directions laid down by Donald Rumsfeld.
Of course, these Abu Ghraib photos themselves represent only a small fraction of the atrocities carried out -- in our name -- in secret hell-holes around the globe. The photos depict the raw and brutal dawn of a system that has become progressively more refined, more "professional," now largely removed from the hands of untrained grunts with digital cameras, and instead carried out in secret by CIA agents and other operatives of the America's mammoth "security organs" -- again, acting under presidential orders, and presidential protection.
What shall we say when history asks how such crimes came to be committed in the name of America? Will we say that we stood silently by, shrugging our shoulders, filling our bellies, closing our eyes? Or will we be able to say: We saw. We dissented. We resisted. We condemned.
Rich has done a masterful job with his many special projects on this site, providing vivid pictures -- and copious supporting materials -- for all those who want to open their eyes to the horrors of the illegal war in Iraq, and to the brutality and moral corruption of the "War on Terror." He has done it again here. Go, see, open your eyes, and let them know -- these torturers, these bloodstained betrayers of our common humanity -- let them know that you know what they are, what they have done.
