British Torture Trial Backfires

Brown says troops home by July in surprise Baghdad visit

(NEWSER) - British Prime Minister Gordon Brown made a surprise visit to Baghdad today and announced that all but a handful of British troops will leave Iraq by July 2009. About 4,000 British service members remain in Iraq, mostly around Basra, though at the height of the war 100,000 were deployed. Since the war began 178 British troops have lost their lives, reports the Times of London. More»

Five men file suit, say soldiers killed and tortured 20 captives

(NEWSER) - British soldiers killed up to 20 Iraqi captives after a 2004 firefight, say lawyers representing five men taken prisoner that day, the BBC reports. The men—described by their lawyers as laborers, not insurgents—say they heard UK soldiers killing and torturing captives at a British base after the gun battle. The lawyers say soldiers also mutilated corpses. British defense officials deny the allegations. More»

Documentary wins Berlin prize, criticism for 'morbid voyeurism'

(NEWSER) - Documentary-maker Errol Morris has often spoken truth to power, but his new film about the Abu Ghraib prison scandal may tread too lightly, Geoffrey Macnab writes in the Guardian. Though Standard Operating Procedure explores the infamous prison photos in gritty detail, Morris’ interview style—focusing mainly on implicated American soldiers with an almost sympathetic attitude—has drawn criticism as well as acclaim. More»

(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. More»

(NEWSER) - The Pentagon denies a report that classified photos of prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib depict rape and sexual abuse, Reuters reports. Britain’s Daily Telegraph “completely mischaracterized the images,” a spokesman said today. “None of the photos in question depict the images that are described.” The article quotes a former US general as saying the photos show “torture, abuse, rape and every indecency.” More»