“I don’t think there’s confusion,” Gibbs said. (ap photo)
The White House is pushing back against a British press report claiming the latest round of detainee photos — the ones they’re not releasing — contain images of rape.
“None of the photographs in question depict the images described in the article,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said. “Again, I — I think if you do an even moderate Google search you’re not going to find many of these newspapers and truth within, say, 25 words of each other.”
A report in the London Daily Telegraph claims the detainee photos President Obama recently decided not to release include multiple images of rape and abuse. The newspaper’s source is a former Army Major General Antonio Taguba, who invesitgated misconduct at Abu Ghraib. Per the report:
At least one picture shows an American soldier apparently raping a female prisoner while another is said to show a male translator raping a male detainee.
Further photographs are said to depict sexual assaults on prisoners with objects including a truncheon, wire and a phosphorescent tube.
The newspaper quotes Taguba as confirming the photos exist, saying “These pictures show torture, abuse, rape and every indecency.” Taguba told the paper he supported Obama’s decision not to release the photos. The Pentagon today also denied the newspaper’s report.
“That news organization has completely mischaracterized the images,” (spokesman Bryan) Whitman told reporters. “None of the photos in question depict the images that are described in that article.”
The Telegraph surmised the “graphic nature” of the photos persuaded Obama to withhold them, after initially saying he would release them. Gibbs denied the report but said he hadn’t actually seen all the photos. So who is telling the truth? Short of an independent review, the release of the photos would clear it up — but the White House won’t do that.
