Photos show rape and sex abuse in Iraq jails-paper
Wed May 27, 2009

http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSLS172193

LONDON, May 28 (Reuters) - Photographs of Iraqi prisoner abuse which U.S.
President Barack Obama does not want released include images of apparent
rape and sexual abuse, Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper reported on
Thursday.

The images are among photographs included in a 2004 report into prisoner
abuse at Abu Ghraib prison conducted by U.S. Major General Antonio Taguba.

Taguba included allegations of rape and sexual abuse in his report, and on
Wednesday he confirmed to the Daily Telegraph that images supporting those
allegations were also in the file.

"These pictures show torture, abuse, rape and every indecency," Taguba, who
retired in January 2007, was quoted as saying in the paper.

He said he supported Obama's decision not to release them, even though Obama
had previously pledged to disclose all images relating to abuses at Abu
Ghraib and other U.S.-run prisons in Iraq.

"I am not sure what purpose their release would serve other than a legal
one," Taguba said. "The sequence would be to imperil our troops, the only
protectors of our foreign policy, when we most need them, and British troops
who are trying to build security in Afghanistan.

"The mere depiction of these pictures is horrendous enough, take my word for
it."

The newspaper said at least one picture showed an American soldier
apparently raping a female prisoner while another is said to show a male
translator raping a male detainee.

Others are said to depict sexual assaults with objects including a
truncheon, wire and a phosphorescent tube.

The photographs relate to 400 alleged cases of abuse carried out at Abu
Ghraib and six other prisons between 2001 and 2005. (Reporting by Luke
Baker; Editing by Jon Boyle)