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New Abu Ghraib abuse photos shown in Australia

By Sundeep Tucker in Sydney

Updated: 3:42 p.m. ET Feb. 15, 2006
An Australian television station on Wednesday broadcast previously unpublished graphic images of physical abuse of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad.

The shocking scenes are expected to spark further anger across the Muslim world, and follow the broadcast this week of TV footage allegedly showing British troops beating Iraqis in Basra and the continued tensions caused by the publication of the Danish cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.

State-funded SBS television's acclaimed Dateline programme screened video and still images of the wounds allegedly inflicted on the Iraqis by their American captors in the aftermath of the US-led invasion of the country in March 2003.

They included photographs of blood-soaked Iraqi prisoners who had been tortured or shot dead, footage of a prisoner repeatedly slamming his head into a metal door, and a film of naked male prisoners being forced to masturbate in front of the camera.

Other images unearthed by Dateline included photos of women's breasts, prisoners with severe wounds or covered in faeces as well as degrading pictures of several corpses.

Previously published pictures of abuses at the prison caused worldwide outrage when they surfaced in April 2004 and led to the jailing of seven low-ranking US army personnel.

The images shown on Dateline have reportedly been viewed by US politicians but have been classified by authorities as too graphic for public consumption.

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The programme said that the Bush administration is attempting to prevent release of the images in the US, arguing that their publication could provoke antagonism towards the US across the Muslim world.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has been granted access to the images under Freedom of Information, but the US government is appealing the decision.

Dateline said that it had approached the US Defense Department for comment but it declined, stating that the matter was before the US courts.

George Negus, Dateline's host, told viewers it was important to televise the images to make the public aware of what had taken place at the Abu Ghraib prison.

He said: "Despite the currently overheated international climate, we're showing them because they show the extent of the horror that occurred at Abu Ghraib."

The program reported that three prisoners at Abu Ghraib were killed when US soldiers ran out of rubber bullets trying to quell a riot at the jail and resorted to using live ammunition.

Amrit Singh, an ACLU lawyer, told Dateline that the images were evidence of "systemic and widespread abuse" of prisoners by US soldiers.

The report was filed by Olivia Rousset, an award-winning freelance reporter, who is believed to have secured the pictures through local contacts in Iraq.

Ms Rousset has interviewed some of the Iraqi torture victims featured in the previously published notorious Abu Ghraib abuse photos. SBS would not confirm how it secured the pictures.

Dateline said that Ms Rousset would file a further expose "early next month" regarding the role of the US Military Police Guard at the prison, featuring perpetrators of abuse and eyewitness testimony.