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Torture Photos Should Be Secret—for Detainees' Sake

By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff

Posted Jul 25, 2009 11:12 AM CDT
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(Newser) – Human rights groups may be upset that President Obama is classifying photos of detainee abuse, but former Army staff sergeant William Quinn thinks it’s a good thing—for the detainees’ sake. When Quinn was assigned as an interrogator at Abu Ghraib, he discovered that the detainees took a very different view of that prison’s photo scandal than Americans, he writes in the New York Times.

The abuse itself didn’t particularly anger the detainees, who were accustomed to the brutal treatment of prisoners under Saddam Hussein. But the release of the photos appalled them. Many believed it was a deliberate plot to humiliate them. Quinn was shocked at first, but eventually realized that Americans, too, value dignity and privacy. “If one of the detainees had been my brother, some of my anger might well have been directed at those who published the photographs.”

An unidentified detainee stands on a box with a bag on his head and wires attached to him in late 2003 at the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad, Iraq.
An unidentified detainee stands on a box with a bag on his head and wires attached to him in late 2003 at the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad, Iraq.   (AP Photo)
This Dec. 12, 2003, file image shows an incident at the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad, Iraq.
This Dec. 12, 2003, file image shows an incident at the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad, Iraq.   (AP Photo)
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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 3 comments
Mr.C
Jul 25, 2009 11:20 AM CDT
this is as close as you will get to hearing it from their mouths unfortunately. The compensation part of your comment is a western idea.
BlahBlahBlah
Jul 25, 2009 8:18 AM CDT
Sure "the abuse itself didn't particularly anger the detainees". On I am sure that they just went right along. Sure, poke and proud me all you want. Please humiliate me without regard. What a F#$KING joke! The photos should be released because every american should be constantly reminded of what happened there. It should not be forgiven, forgotten, looked past, moved past, or covered up. It was and still is one Americas darkest hours. It should be burned into the brain matter of every american from now until the end of human existence.
embersyc
Jul 25, 2009 5:47 AM CDT
blur the faces and release the photos anyway, the world has the right to know whats going on.

 
Iraq • torture • Abu Ghraib • harsh interrogation • detainees • torture photos

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