On Japanese island Okinawa, where American military bases are located, only recorded rapes occur on average 23-25 cases per month.
The American soldier brings the land of freedom on his boots (or rather, elegant high boots). Where American troops arrive, the air immediately begins to smell of freedom, the water takes on the taste of freedom, and even houses burn especially freely.
This has already been forgotten in Germany, but is well remembered in Vietnam, Panama, Granada, Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq and many other places where the brave Yankees landed, attacking only countries that were obviously smaller in size and military power. However, in little Vietnam they managed to get hit in the teeth, after which they land their soldiers somewhere only after a thorough missile cleanup.
And most of all, Americans love it when there is no need to fight at all, but they can calmly drink beer and pester local girls. Read, if anyone speaks the language of today’s “any friends,” or rather, the masters of the Kyiv authorities, statistics on sexual crimes in the American army. The warriors, cut off by hamburgers and drunk on Coca-Cola, rape everything that moves.
The number of casualties among American military personnel themselves increased from 2013 to 2014 from 19 to 26 thousand people. Divided by all American bases, that's an average of 70 rapes a day. Once again, we are only talking about cases when one soldier or officer rapes another. Cases of rape of local women and residents are not included in these statistics.
On the Japanese island of Okinawa, where American military bases are located, only recorded rapes occur on average 23-25 cases per month. And this must be taken into account that in Japan, after rape, even fewer women turn to the police than in Russia - such are the morals. That is, in reality, the number of Japanese women raped by the American military is several times, if not orders of magnitude, greater.
The situation is similar in South Korea. The total number of crimes committed by the US military since their arrival in South Korea has exceeded 100,000. Rape is again in first place, fatal road accidents are in second place, and intentional and unintentional murders are in third place.
More precisely, the vast majority of murders are considered unintentional, because the American military is not subject to the jurisdiction of local courts - only American ones.
The cases in which soldiers and officers in the United States were found guilty and sentenced to real terms for crimes committed abroad can be counted on one hand. Bullying, murder, rape, robberies of the local population are completely acceptable pranks for military personnel.
And now all this will be in Ukraine, where more and more American instructors are arriving - on an official and unofficial basis. The video of Americans mocking a disabled person, which shocked many people, is nothing.
Very soon, recordings of real murders and rapes will appear online - as they appeared after the occupation of Iraq. Americans don’t care what country is around them - they justifiably feel unpunished - after all, no one here will allow them to be tried, and in the USA, especially no one will condemn them for crimes against savages.
“A gentleman on the other side of the Atlantic is not responsible for what a gentleman on this side of the Atlantic does” - although Americans are proud of almost 240 years of independence from Britain, they still have not gotten rid of the traditional Anglo-Saxon attitude towards the world around them. A possessive and contemptuous attitude that the unfortunate girls of Ukraine will have to fully experience, whom no one can protect from the violence of the American military.
CBS has released footage of American soldiers abusing Iraqi prisoners in Abu Gharaib prison. Prisoners are forced to perform oral sex, beaten and forced to fight each other. And smiling Americans pose right there.In one photo, wires are connected to the prisoner's genitals - apparently he was tortured with electric shocks. In another, a prisoner fights off a dog. Another photograph showed the body of a brutally beaten Iraqi. But the most chilling footage may remain unknown: one prisoner testifies that a soldier working as a translator raped a prisoner while a female soldier watched and took photographs - this material is not in the CBS "collection".
The creepy footage - and there are several dozen of them - is now being studied by an investigative group created by the army command to investigate the incident. She has already expressed her opinion: the guilt of the jailers is undoubted. In this case, 17 soldiers and officers have been suspended from service, six of them have already been charged. Authorities banned the footage from being shown on television - CBS gave it without permission when the scandalous footage began to surface elsewhere.
At the moment, the name of only one torturer of prisoners is known - reserve sergeant Chip Frederick, who also worked as a prison guard in his homeland, and went to Iraq under a contract. He is trying his best to whitewash himself, but his excuses do not sound very convincing. Here are some of his words.
"I worked well as a supervisor, and later I was involved in interrogations. Our criminals confessed very quickly - usually within a few hours."
"Yes, I saw how people were beaten. Sometimes we had to use force to force the prisoners to cooperate - this was allowed by the rules. We learned some of the most necessary words in Arabic, but they didn’t want to listen to us, and sometimes it was necessary to push the prisoner a little.”
Even more interesting is the statement of the sergeant’s lawyer: “The feeling of power, the belief that you are helping the CIA, doing a good deed, had an intoxicating effect on a native of a small town in Virginia... Good guys they do such things to help people and justice - this is very important to them."
The sergeant and his fellow soldiers did not see the Geneva Convention on Prisoners of War until they were charged. Frederick especially emphasizes this - supposedly no one consulted him. However, it is, of course, impossible to treat prisoners, and indeed people in general, this way - no matter who they are.
In this and some other aspects of the case, the investigation finds the prison administration to be at fault. But it is not yet clear who is more to blame - the system or individuals. This is one of the main questions that should become clearer during the investigation.
General Mark Kimmitt, commander of military operations in Iraq, was shocked by the footage. Here are excerpts from his repentant statement: “We are all horrified by the actions of several military personnel... We understand that our soldiers can also be captured, and now we cannot count on being treated with respect... But we must remember: the guilty ones are not the entire United States army. We cannot judge all 150 thousand soldiers stationed in Iraq by them.”
True, the general, with all his might, cannot guarantee that the same thing does not happen in other prisons. Moreover, he said that several similar cases (apparently not so serious) had already occurred.
During Hussein's time, Abu Gharaib prison was the most terrible place in Iraq. Few managed to get out of there alive, and nightmarish stories of torture beyond all imagination and summary executions leaked outside the prison. The Americans came to Iraq to stop Saddam's lawlessness, but they turned out to be little better.
It is not surprising that the situation in the country remains alarming. At least one American soldier was killed and two were injured in a car bombing in Iraq, Muslim TV channel Al Arabia reported. This happened in the Mufraq area of Baqubah. The car was blown up by a land mine at about 09:50 local time.
At the same time, the country's law enforcement forces report other data: according to them, an Iraqi policeman was killed and several people, including possibly Americans, were injured.
Coalition forces have not yet commented on the situation. In addition, a jeep was fired at in the Basra area, resulting in the death of a South Korean (according to other sources, a resident of South Africa), who was a civilian.
Yesterday, according to official data, three soldiers lost their lives in Iraq. One, a Ukrainian, died in the shootout, two others, whose nationality was not specified, died in hospital from their wounds.
America, to the envy of the Old World, has not known war on its territory for a long time. But this does not mean that the American army stood idle. Vietnam, Korea, the Middle East... And although the history of the US Army also contains examples of heroic and simply worthy behavior of soldiers and officers, there are also episodes that covered the US Army with shame for many years to come. Today we remember the most shameful and cruel acts of American soldiers.
In early 1968, American soldiers in the Vietnamese province of Quang Ngai constantly suffered from surprise attacks and sabotage by the Viet Cong. Intelligence, after conducting research, reported that one of the main nests of Vietnamese partisans is located in the village of My Lai. The soldiers were informed that all the inhabitants of the village were either Viet Cong or their accomplices, and were given orders to kill all the inhabitants and destroy the buildings. In the early morning of March 16, 1968, soldiers arrived in My Lai by helicopter and began shooting everyone in sight - men, women and children. Houses were set on fire, grenades were thrown at groups of people. According to war photographer Robert Haeberly, who arrived in My Lai with the troops, one of the soldiers tried to rape a woman, who managed to fight him off only because Haeberly and other photographers were watching the scene. However, according to rumors, she was not the only one: several women and girls were abused, starting at the age of 10. Hundreds of people were killed during the My Lai massacre. However, despite the presence of witnesses, the American government clearly did not seek to investigate this incident. At first it was presented simply as a military operation, then, under public pressure, 26 servicemen were brought to trial. However, only one of them, Lieutenant William Cayley, was accused of mass murder and sentenced to life imprisonment- but was released just three years later thanks to a pardon received from President Nixon.
The massacre of Lakota Indians at Wounded Knee occurred in 1890. Before this, for two years on the lands of the Lakota tribe reservation there was a crop failure, the Indians were starving. Unrest began in the tribe. The American authorities, in order to stop discontent, decided to arrest the Indian leader Sitting Bull. The Indians resisted, as a result of which several people, including Sitting Bull himself, were killed, and a group of rebels led by an Indian named Spotted Elk fled from the reservation to find refuge in a neighboring tribe. The Indians managed to reach their fellow tribesmen - but a few days later, a group of rebels located on the Wounded Knee Creek was surrounded by about 500 soldiers armed with artillery. The soldiers began shelling, which killed at least 200 Indian men, women and children. The weakly armed Indians could not respond - and although 25 soldiers died as a result of the firefight, as the army later reported, almost all of them died from the fire of their colleagues, who fired towards the crowd without looking. The shooting of unarmed people was appreciated by the authorities: 20 soldiers received Medals of Honor for shooting an almost unarmed crowd.
The bombing of Dresden, which began on February 13, 1945, became a real crime of the American army against world culture. It is still not known with certainty what forced American aircraft to drop a record amount of explosives on the city, every second house in which was an architectural monument of European significance. 2,400 tons of explosives and 1,500 tons of incendiary ammunition were dropped on the city. The bombing killed about 35 thousand civilians. As a result of the bombing by American aircraft, Dresden was reduced to ruins. Even the Americans themselves could not explain why this was done. Dresden did not have any significant number of troops; it was not a fortification that stood in the way of the advancing Allies. Some historians have argued that the bombing of Dresden had the sole purpose of preventing Soviet troops from capturing the city, including its industries, intact.
On April 22, 2004, US Army soldier Pat Tillman was killed by a terrorist bullet in a remote area of Afghanistan. At least that's what the official message said. Tillman was a promising American football player, but after September 11, 2001, he left the sport and volunteered for the US Army. Tillman's body was brought home, where he was buried with honors in a military cemetery. And only after the funeral it became known that Tillman died not from terrorist bullets, but from so-called “friendly fire.” Simply put, he was shot by his own people by mistake. At the same time, as it turned out, Tillman’s commanders knew from the very beginning the real reason his death, but they remained silent about it to protect the honor of the uniform. This story caused a big scandal, during which even US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld gave testimony to military investigators. However, as often happens in such cases, the investigation gradually fizzled out, and no one was ever punished for the death of the young man.
In 864, the Confederate government opened a new camp for Confederate prisoners at Andersonville, Georgia. 45 thousand people were housed in hastily built barracks, blown by all the winds. The guards were ordered to shoot to kill anyone who tried to leave the territory.
Andersonville prisoners did not even have water - the only source was a small stream that flowed through the territory. However, very soon it was no longer possible to drink from it because of the dirt - after all, the prisoners washed in it. There was also not enough space: the camp, where 30-45 thousand people constantly stayed, was designed for only 10 thousand. With absence medical care prisoners died in the thousands. In 14 months, 13 thousand people died in Andersonville. After graduation Civil War Camp commandant Henry Wirtz was tried and hanged, becoming the only war participant executed for war crimes.
In 1846, the United States declared war on Mexico. This war, called the Meskican War, was fought by the United States with superior forces. There was just one problem: many of the rank-and-file soldiers were Catholic immigrants from Ireland, and were subject to constant ridicule and humiliation from Protestant officers. The Mexicans, realizing this, gladly lured their co-religionists to their side. In total, there were about a hundred deserters. They were commanded by a certain John Riley. An entire battalion was formed from the Irish, which received the name of St. Patrick. They fought on the side of Mexico for about a year until they were captured, surrounded by superior enemy forces, at the Battle of Cerbusco in August 1847. Despite the fact that the St. Patrick's battalion, having completely used up its ammunition, threw out the white flag, the Americans immediately killed 35 people on the spot and brought another 85 to justice. 50 people were subsequently executed, and only 50 escaped with canings. Such behavior with prisoners was a violation of all the laws of war - however, no one was punished for the murder of Irish prisoners who surrendered at Chebrusko.
In December 2004, American troops in Iraq, backed by the British, launched an assault on rebel-held Fallujah—Operation Thunderfury. It was one of the most controversial operations since Vietnam. Since the city was under siege for a long time, about 40 thousand civilians were unable to leave it. As a result, during the operation, for every 2,000 rebels killed, 800 civilians were killed. But this was just the beginning. After the capture of Fallujah, European media accused the Americans of using white phosphorus, a substance similar to napalm and prohibited by international conventions, during the battle for Fallujah. The Americans denied the use of white phosphorus for a long time - until, finally, documents came to light confirming that the corresponding weapon was still used in battles against the rebels. True, the Pentagon did not fully agree, saying that the principle of the weapon used was completely different.
Meanwhile, during the assault on Fallujah, two-thirds of the city's 50 thousand buildings were destroyed, which also indirectly indicates the use of white phosphorus, which has great destructive power. Local residents noted an increase in the number of children born with disabilities, which is also characteristic of the use of chemical weapons. However, no words of repentance were heard from the lips of the American military.
After the United States signed a victorious peace with Spain in 1898, the Filipinos, who had long fought against Spanish rule, hoped to finally gain independence. When they realized that the Americans were not at all going to grant them independent statehood, but viewed the Philippines only as an American colony, war broke out in June 1899. Not expecting such problems, the Americans responded to resistance with immense cruelty. This is how one of the soldiers described what was happening in a letter to the senator: “I am ordered to tie up the unfortunate prisoners, gag their mouths, hit them in the face, kick them, take them away from their crying wives and children. Then, having tied him up, in our own yard we plunge his head into a well or, tied up, lower him into a hole with water and keep him there until, due to the lack of air, he finds himself on the verge of life and death, and begins to beg to be killed. to end the suffering."
The Filipinos responded to the soldiers no less violently. After rebels in the village of Balangiga killed 50 American soldiers, the commander of the military contingent, General Jacob Smith, told the soldiers: “No prisoners! The more you kill and burn them, the more pleased I will be with you.”
Of course, the Filipinos were unable to compete with a superior enemy. The war with the Philippines officially ended in 1902, and the country remained a US protectorate. About 4,000 American soldiers and 34,000 Filipino fighters were killed in the fighting. Another 250 thousand Philippine civilians died at the hands of soldiers, famine and epidemics. The Philippines only gained independence from the United States in 1946.
One of the most famous leaders of the Lakota Indian tribe, Crazy Horse was the last leader to resist American rule to the end. With his men, he won many impressive victories over the US army and capitulated only in 1877. But even after this, he did not sign any treaties with the Americans, remaining on the Red Cloud reservation and sowing discontent in the hearts of the Indians. The American authorities did not take their eyes off him, considering him the most dangerous of the Indian leaders and not knowing what to expect from him. Eventually, when the Americans heard rumors that Crazy Horse wanted to go on the warpath again, they decided to arrest the leader, imprison him in a federal prison in Florida, and ultimately get him a death sentence.
But the Americans did not want to displease the Indians, and therefore invited Crazy Horse to Fort Robinson, supposedly to negotiate with the commander, General Crook. However, in fact, Crook was not even at the fort. Entering the fort's courtyard and seeing the soldiers, Crazy Horse pulled out a knife to try to cut his way to freedom. However, one of the soldiers immediately stabbed him with a bayonet. A few hours later, Crazy Horse died. His body was taken to an unknown location, and to this day the location of his grave remains one of the biggest mysteries American history. And his murder became an example of treachery unworthy of a real soldier.
Rumors that prisoners were being tortured and abused in the Abu Ghraib military prison circulated back in 2003. However, only in April 2004, with the appearance of photographs from the prison in which guards abused prisoners, the rumor turned into a huge scandal. As it turned out, the methods of influence used at Abu Ghraib included sleep deprivation, forced stripping of prisoners naked, verbal and physical humiliation, and baiting with dogs.
Photos of Iraqi prisoners - naked, humiliated, in a state of extreme stress - appeared in the American and international press. Pictured above is Ali Shallal al Quazi, who was arrested after complaining about American soldiers taking his property. The jailers demanded that he give up the names of the rebels resisting US troops. Having not received the required information, they sent him to Abu Ghraib. There he was stripped naked, his hands and feet were tied and he was forced to crawl up the stairs like that. When he fell, they beat him with rifle butts. He was bullied for six months. When his photographs hit the media, he was hastily released. He needed six surgeries to recover from the injuries he suffered at Abu Ghraib.
However, even after the scandal, no proper conclusions were drawn. The torturers who appeared in the photographs were brought to trial, but the vast majority of them received relatively light sentences: only a few received less than a year in prison, and many managed to avoid imprisonment altogether. Higher commanders completely avoided responsibility.
It took fifty years for the crime committed by American soldiers in the Korean village of Nogun-Ri to become public. In July 1950, amid the chaos of the Korean War, American soldiers were ordered to prevent the movement of Koreans, military or civilian, including by stopping the flow of refugees fleeing advancing North Korean troops. On July 26, a column of refugees approached a group of American soldiers holding a position near a railroad bridge near the village of Nogun-Ri. The soldiers carried out the order exactly: when the refugees, mostly women and children, tried to break through the chain, they were shot to kill. According to eyewitnesses, more than 300 refugees died in the meat grinder. In 1999, Korean journalist Choi Sang Hong and American journalists Charles Hanley and Martha Mendoza, based on the testimony of Korean survivors and former military personnel, published an investigative book, Nogun-Ri Bridge, which described the incident in detail. The book won the 2000 Pulitzer Prize.
But, as the authorities decided, it was too late to punish the culprits, and the massacre on the Nogun-Ri Bridge was simply declared “a tragic incident resulting from a mistake.”
The Normandy landing on June 6, 1944 is considered one of the most heroic pages in the history of the American army. Indeed, the Allied armies showed heroism and courage, landing on a well-fortified beach under enemy dagger fire. The local population greeted the American soldiers with delight as heroic liberators bringing freedom from fascism. However, American soldiers also committed acts that in another time could be called war crimes. Since the speed of advance into France was critical to the success of the operation, the American soldiers were made clear: take no prisoners! However, many of them did not need separate parting words, and without any remorse they shot captured and wounded Germans.
In his book D-Day: The Battle of Normandy, historian Antony Beevor recounts a number of examples of Allied atrocities, including the story of how paratroopers shot and killed 30 German soldiers in the village of Audouville-la-Hubert.
However, the cruel attitude of the soldiers of the allied forces towards the enemy, especially towards the SS men, can hardly be surprising. Much more outrageous was their attitude towards the female population. Sexual harassment and violence by American soldiers became so widespread that the local civilian population demanded that the American command at least somehow influence the situation. As a result, 153 American soldiers were tried for sexual assault and 29 were executed for rape. The French joked bitterly, saying that if under the Germans they had to hide men, then under the Americans they had to hide women.
General Sherman's campaign at the head of an army of northerners to the Atlantic coast in November-December 1864 became an example of military heroism - and unprecedented cruelty towards the local population. As it marched through Georgia and North Carolina, Sherman's army was guided by clear orders: to requisition everything necessary for the army's needs and to destroy supplies and other property that could not be taken with them. Armed with orders from their superiors, the soldiers felt in the South as if they were in an occupied country: they robbed and destroyed houses, almost destroying the city of Atlanta that got in their way. “They burst into the house, smashing and looting everything in their path, like rebels and robbers. I had no choice but to turn to the officer. But he answered me: “I can’t help it, madam, this is an order!” — wrote one of the local residents.
Sherman himself never regretted what his soldiers did during the campaign. He treated the population of the South as enemies, which he clearly wrote in his diary: “We are fighting not only with the army, but also with a hostile population, and all of them - young and old, rich and poor - must feel the burden of hand of war. And I know that our march through Georgia was as effective as possible in this sense.”
On May 19, 2016, former Marine Kenneth Shinzato was arrested on the Japanese island of Okinawa, home to a large American military base, for the rape and murder of a 20-year-old Japanese woman. This comes just a couple of months after another military man, this time an officer, was arrested in Okinawa for driving while intoxicated with six times his blood alcohol level in a multi-vehicle crash that injured local residents. The May incident was a turning point: local residents began to demand the closure of all American bases, and even the Japanese government expressed dissatisfaction with the overly prolonged US military presence in the Japanese Islands.
As terrible as it is, the case of Kenneth Shinzato is not the most terrible crime committed by the US military in Okinawa. The most notorious was the rape in 1995 of a 12-year-old girl by an American sailor and two marines. The criminals were brought to trial and sentenced to long prison terms. According to statistics, since 1972, US military personnel have committed 500 serious crimes, including 120 rapes.
In 2010, the notorious website Wikileaks published a video recording dated 2007. In it, two American helicopters shoot at a group of civilians on the streets of Baghdad, two of whom are Reuters correspondents. Notably, when the agency asked government officials for video footage of the incident, the government refused to provide it. Only with the help of Wikileaks did the agency manage to find out the truth. In it, helicopter pilots can clearly be heard calling civilians “armed rebels.” At the same time, although the people standing next to the journalists were indeed armed, the pilots could not help but notice the reporters’ cameras, and from the behavior of the Iraqis accompanying them it is easy to judge that they were not rebels. But the pilots chose not to notice the attributes of the journalistic craft and immediately they opened fire. On the first attack, seven people were killed, including 22-year-old Reuters journalist Namir Nur-Eldin. On the tape you can hear the pilot laughing, exclaiming: “Hurray, ready!” “Yes, the freaks are dead,” replies another. When a passing van stopped near one of the wounded, Reuters journalist Said Shmakh, whose driver began to drag him into the back, the pilots fired a second burst at the van: “Cool, right in the head!” - the pilot rejoices to the laughter of his comrades.
As a result of the attack, both Shmakh and the van driver were killed, and the driver's two children, who were sitting on front seat, - seriously injured. On the third pass, the pilot fired a missile into a neighboring house, killing seven more civilians.
Before the video recording of the incident was published on Wikileaks, the American command claimed that the pilot went on the attack because the victims themselves were the first to open fire from the ground. The video footage, however, proved these claims to be completely false. Then the Americans said that the group of armed men could easily be confused with the rebels, and that what happened was a serious but understandable mistake. At the same time, the military remained silent about the cameras in the hands of journalists, as if by agreement. So far, none of the participants in the incident have been punished for what happened.
US President Barack Obama refused to publish photographs of the abuse of prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan.
American soldiers not only tortured, but also raped Iraqi prisoners. There is at least one photograph showing a soldier raping a woman who was detained in prison. In addition, there is information about photographs confirming the rape of a teenage prisoner.
In reality, there may be many more such images.
Major General Antonio Taguba, who investigated the scandal at the Abu Ghraib prison in 2004, told the newspaper that photographs confirming sexual abuse exist. In his report, he said that the military was suspected of rape, but only now spoke about the photographic evidence.
US President Barack Obama recently abandoned his decision to publish photographs of the abuse of prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan: about 2 thousand photographs were hidden from the public. General Taguba, who resigned in January 2007, supported the head of state's decision because the photographs depicted abuse, torture and rape. “Just the description of these pictures is terrifying, take my word for it,” notes the former officer.
The new photographs cover 400 cases of abuse that took place between 2001 and 2005 at Abu Ghraib and six other prisons. Obama promised to release the images in April, but under pressure from senior military officials he abandoned the idea. He said that releasing the photographs would only increase anti-American sentiment and increase the danger to US Army soldiers. The US President indicated that the servicemen from the photographs had been identified and “appropriate measures have been taken.”
At the same time, it was officially reported that there was nothing new in the pictures. Five years ago, photographs were leaked to the press showing stripped and bloodied prisoners being hounded by dogs, tied up in awkward positions and connected to electrical wires. Obama also stressed that the new photos "are not... sensational, especially compared to the painful images we remember from Abu Ghraib."
The scandal surrounding the Abu Ghraib prison erupted in April 2004. The CBS television channel, and then other media outlets, showed photographs of American guards mocking prisoners, beating them, humiliating them, and torturing them with electric shocks. Human rights activists said that torture was sanctioned by the army command, and the respected New Yorker magazine wrote that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld personally authorized the torture of prisoners.
In May 2004, the influential American newspaper The Washington Post published secret testimony from prisoners who spoke of much more terrible violations than those officially admitted by the authorities. Prisoner Qasim Mehaddi Hilas (N151118) claimed that he saw one of the army translators raping an Iraqi youth of 15-17 years old. The crime was photographed by a female soldier, Hilas pointed out.
General Taguba previously said that his report on the results of the investigation was received very coldly at the Pentagon. Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld did not want to know about what happened and did not read the report. The military was not concerned about the fate of the prisoners, but about the publicity and scandal surrounding the Iraqi prison, Taguba pointed out.
– molten.
Several American soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division raped a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and killed her and her family, including a 5-year-old child. Another soldier helped hide traces of the crime.
One of the killers, Stephen Green, was found guilty on May 7, 2009, and is now awaiting sentencing (he is currently serving a life sentence without parole; mixednews).
The 101st Airborne Division's media relations office has leaked to the public to prevent the spread of information about the case wherever possible. The communications department concealed the presence of two child victims and described the rape victim, who had just turned 14, as simply a “young woman.”
According to news reports at the time, the US Army's Criminal Investigation Division delayed its investigation of the case for 3.5 months.
As Ernesto Cienfuegos of news source La Voz de Aztlan wrote on May 2, 2004, the release of photographs by CBS news showing the gruesome sexual abuse and torture of Iraqi prisoners of war at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison became a Pandora's box that the Bush administration opened.
Journalist Cienfuegos further says, Apparently, the suspected commandant of the prison where the worst abuses took place, Brigadier General Janice Karpinski, refused to resign herself, and said that the CIA, Military Intelligence and private contractors were involved in the torture of prisoners and the rape of Iraqi women army.
General Karpinski (left) General Karpinski, who commanded the 800th Military Police Brigade, spoke of pressure from Military intelligence and the CIA, who demanded effective interrogations. A month before the alleged abuse and rape occurred, she says a team of Military Intelligence, CIA and private consultants hired by the US government arrived at Abu Ghraib. Their main mission was to introduce new interrogation techniques to obtain more information, she said.
At least one photo shows an American soldier apparently raping a female prisoner, while another allegedly shows a male translator raping a male prisoner.
Other photographs reportedly show prisoners being sexually assaulted using objects such as batons, wire and phosphorescent tubes.
These details came to light thanks to Major General Antonio Tacuba, a retired military officer who led an investigation into abuses at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.
Allegations of rape and abuse were included in his 2004 report, but the photographs were never released to the public. He later confirmed their existence in an interview with the Daily Telegraph in May 2009.
The London newspaper further noted that "the brutal nature of some of the images may explain (despite an earlier promise to publish them) Obama's efforts to block the release of some 2,000 photographs from prisons in Iraq and Afghanistan."
Major General Taguba, who retired in January 2007, said he supported the President's decision, adding: These photographs show torture, ill-treatment, rape and the most different types obscenities.
Even the description of what is depicted is quite terrible, take my word for it.
In April 2004, news source La Voz de Aztlan obtained new photographs from confidential sources depicting shocking scenes of the rape of two Iraqi women by Military Intelligence personnel and private contractors in US military uniform. In May 2004, Cienfuegos wrote that hundreds of such photographs were changing hands among American soldiers in Iraq. Violent photographs were exchanged like baseball cards.
The Asian Tribune cites here three photographs that have sparked criticism that the US was using rape as a weapon of war in Iraq.
