Annie
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- Nov 22, 2003
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Warning, this link will take you to a very graphic description of video that was made available last week to reporters. A few members of Congress felt that it was important to get the message out of what Iraq under Saddam was like.
Considering the Berg and Johnson beheadings and the media's decision to save us from seeing those, but choosing show the US at the prison-complete with photos over and over again, it seemed appropriate to share this with those that can handle it.
Personally, I saw the Berg video. It was horrible. I had skipped the Pearl one, being so close to 9/11, I thought it why watch? For Berg, it was to 'bear witness.' Same with the following, same with seeing the Johnson stills today at Drudge, (Only one so far). The media has no trouble showing our sins, but not others. For now, here's some:
http://www.nationalreview.com/script/printpage.asp?ref=/comment/schulz200406170846.asp
June 17, 2004, 8:46 a.m.
Seeing, and Believing
The torture tapes the media are ignoring.
By Nick Schulz
EDITOR'S NOTE: Earlier this month, National Review Online obtained a four-minute video of Saddam-era torture at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. Many of us here who discussed the matter are ourselves unable to watch the whole video. Some could not get beyond the furious, ecstatic chanting of torturers as they raised swords, celebrating their own dementia in the depths of a man-made hell. What to do with the video was a matter of debate here. On principle this is newsworthy and weighing heavily on our deliberations was the fact that a group of United States senators held a press conference on June 2 during which they showed the horrific video and near no one covered it in fact, to this date, I am aware of no mainstream news organization other than the New York Post yesterday in an opinion column that has even mentioned that this new, Department of Defense-provided, video exists and has been shown on the Hill. We also considered this: Some Westerners, including some who did not support the war in Iraq, frankly may not understand the evil that was the Saddam Hussein regime. You watch or try to the four-minute video and you see the unbearable evil that was and that is no more because of the sacrifice of American and Coalition blood.
...You don't appreciate what happened in that prison until you see it." Aaron Brown, CNN News
Several weeks back, NRO's Jonah Goldberg suggested the press should have practiced self-censorship and refrained from showing the pictures and videos of Iraqi prisoner abuse by American soldiers at Abu Ghraib. CNN anchor Aaron Brown thought Goldberg's notion mistaken and argued that major media outlets were correct to show footage of the abuse: "You don't appreciate what happened in that prison," Brown said, "until you see it."
THE FOLLOWING IS GRAPHIC!! DON'T READ IF THIS WILL BOTHER YOU
WHAT'S ON THE TAPE [WARNING: THIS IS GRAPHIC]
According to Senate sources, this four-minute video, comprised of several clips, came to be after several verbal and written inquires were made to the Defense Department at the start of 2004. It is an edited version of several different tapes, totaling between one and two hours, discovered after the regime's collapse. The translations of the words heard on the tape were provided by the Department of Defense.
"You don't appreciate what happened in that prison until you see it."
The first film clip opens with the camera showing a man standing in a bland, mostly empty room. The camera pans down to show his right hand. Folded rugs are visible in the background. The clip jumps to footage of scrub-clad "surgeons" with rubber surgical gloves severing the man's hand at the wrist. First the skin is peeled away with surgical knives and tweezers; ligaments, tendons, muscle, and bone underneath are exposed. Then the gloved hands wielding the knives begin to slice, shredding through the sinews, slashing muscle, breaking bone, until the hand is ultimately detached and plopped onto a green cloth, as yellow, pulpy tissue spills forth.
Considering the Berg and Johnson beheadings and the media's decision to save us from seeing those, but choosing show the US at the prison-complete with photos over and over again, it seemed appropriate to share this with those that can handle it.
Personally, I saw the Berg video. It was horrible. I had skipped the Pearl one, being so close to 9/11, I thought it why watch? For Berg, it was to 'bear witness.' Same with the following, same with seeing the Johnson stills today at Drudge, (Only one so far). The media has no trouble showing our sins, but not others. For now, here's some:
http://www.nationalreview.com/script/printpage.asp?ref=/comment/schulz200406170846.asp
June 17, 2004, 8:46 a.m.
Seeing, and Believing
The torture tapes the media are ignoring.
By Nick Schulz
EDITOR'S NOTE: Earlier this month, National Review Online obtained a four-minute video of Saddam-era torture at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. Many of us here who discussed the matter are ourselves unable to watch the whole video. Some could not get beyond the furious, ecstatic chanting of torturers as they raised swords, celebrating their own dementia in the depths of a man-made hell. What to do with the video was a matter of debate here. On principle this is newsworthy and weighing heavily on our deliberations was the fact that a group of United States senators held a press conference on June 2 during which they showed the horrific video and near no one covered it in fact, to this date, I am aware of no mainstream news organization other than the New York Post yesterday in an opinion column that has even mentioned that this new, Department of Defense-provided, video exists and has been shown on the Hill. We also considered this: Some Westerners, including some who did not support the war in Iraq, frankly may not understand the evil that was the Saddam Hussein regime. You watch or try to the four-minute video and you see the unbearable evil that was and that is no more because of the sacrifice of American and Coalition blood.
...You don't appreciate what happened in that prison until you see it." Aaron Brown, CNN News
Several weeks back, NRO's Jonah Goldberg suggested the press should have practiced self-censorship and refrained from showing the pictures and videos of Iraqi prisoner abuse by American soldiers at Abu Ghraib. CNN anchor Aaron Brown thought Goldberg's notion mistaken and argued that major media outlets were correct to show footage of the abuse: "You don't appreciate what happened in that prison," Brown said, "until you see it."
THE FOLLOWING IS GRAPHIC!! DON'T READ IF THIS WILL BOTHER YOU
WHAT'S ON THE TAPE [WARNING: THIS IS GRAPHIC]
According to Senate sources, this four-minute video, comprised of several clips, came to be after several verbal and written inquires were made to the Defense Department at the start of 2004. It is an edited version of several different tapes, totaling between one and two hours, discovered after the regime's collapse. The translations of the words heard on the tape were provided by the Department of Defense.
"You don't appreciate what happened in that prison until you see it."
The first film clip opens with the camera showing a man standing in a bland, mostly empty room. The camera pans down to show his right hand. Folded rugs are visible in the background. The clip jumps to footage of scrub-clad "surgeons" with rubber surgical gloves severing the man's hand at the wrist. First the skin is peeled away with surgical knives and tweezers; ligaments, tendons, muscle, and bone underneath are exposed. Then the gloved hands wielding the knives begin to slice, shredding through the sinews, slashing muscle, breaking bone, until the hand is ultimately detached and plopped onto a green cloth, as yellow, pulpy tissue spills forth.
