Quote:
Originally posted by Hank Chinaski
But just like bush lied, you have a motive problem. What possible reason would someone higher up the food chain encourage the photos?
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That's quite a switcheroo. I don't know whether they encouraged the photos. They probably didn't.* Certainly, they didn't encourage the circulation of the photos on the Internet to wind up on Reuters. However, I see circumstantial evidence that they encouraged the
conduct depicted in the photos. The existence of the photos is evidence of the tacit approval of the conduct. Conversely, I would say non-existence of the photos would be an indication the Abu Ghraib guards knew they were violating military policy and international law.
*Then again, the things we're now hearing about sexual humiliation and extortion as an interrogation technique ("Talk, or I post this picture of you with a lightstick up your butt all over your neighborhood") tend to indicate the photos were a vital component of what was happening there, so who knows?
