By KEN GUGGENHEIM

WASHINGTON (AP) - Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld warned members of Congress that the Iraq prison abuse scandal could worsen with the release of videos and more photographs depicting brutality.

With his future in the Cabinet in jeopardy, Rumsfeld apologized and told House and Senate committees Friday that he took full responsibility for the abuses at the Abu Ghraib prison. Rumsfeld offered "my deepest apology" to Iraqis abused by American soldiers and said he would seek compensation for them. He also said those responsible would be punished.

But it's not clear whether the hearings, broadcast live nationwide, would ease pressure on Rumsfeld to resign. Lawmakers said they were pleased by his apology, but some said his testimony left questions unanswered about who was giving orders and why Congress wasn't told earlier about the extent of the abuse.

Rumsfeld said he wouldn't resign "simply because people try to make a political issue out of it," but he didn't rule out the possibility of stepping down. He said if he could not be effective, "I certainly wouldn't want to serve. And I have to wrestle with that."

Asked by Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., if he would step down if that would help undo the some of the damage caused by the scandal, Rumsfeld said "that's possible."

President Bush reiterated his support for Rumsfeld, telling reporters on his campaign bus after traveling through western Wisconsin on Friday the secretary is a "great" Cabinet member.

"He'll remain in my Cabinet, period," the president said.

The photographs of stripped, hooded Iraqi prison inmates being sexually humiliated by their American captors has caused outrage throughout the world, aggravating anti-American sentiment throughout the Middle East and severely undermining American credibility in Iraq.

Rumsfeld said there are many more photographs and videos that have not been made public yet.

"It's going to get still more terrible, I'm afraid," he said.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said he wants to "prepare the public: Apparently the worst is yet to come potentially in terms of disturbing events."

He later told reporters, "The American public needs to understand we're talking about rape and murder here. We're not just talking about giving people a humiliating experience."

He did not elaborate, but a Senate aide, speaking on condition of anonymity, said senators have been told videotapes are believed to exist showing rape and the corpses of what are possibly murder victims. The tapes were described in an additional part of an investigative report. The Pentagon has not yet submitted that additional part of the report to senators, the aide said.

In his appearances, Rumsfeld offered Congress a rare display of public contrition, while continuing to defend the military's actions and questioning of his critics' political motivations.

His apology came one day after Bush offered his own regrets. Rumsfeld said the treatment of prisoners was "inconsistent with the values of our nation. It was inconsistent with the teachings of the military ... and it was certainly fundamentally un-American."

During a total of six hours of testimony, Rumsfeld sought to repair the damage done to American prestige aboard, to ease the anger of lawmakers caught off guard by the uproar and to shore up support for his own job.

He said bluntly, "These events occurred on my watch. As secretary of defense, I am accountable for them."

His testimony won praise from Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John Warner, R-Va.

Others lawmakers were more guarded. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said "I think the secretary did an effective job. I believe that there is a lot more that needs to be discussed and a lot more answers that need to be given." Another Republican, Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, also said "I still think there are many unanswered questions."

During the Senate hearing, the panel's top Democrat, Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., noted with "deep dismay" that Rumsfeld and Gen. Richard Myers, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had briefed lawmakers about Iraq in a classified session last week but did not mention the major story they knew was about to break on CBS.

But after the hearing, Levin wasn't ready to call for Rumsfeld's resignation.

"If I thought his resignation would change the policies of this administration relative to Iraq, I'd be all for it," he said.

Rumsfeld repeatedly told members of Congress he and Bush were "blindsided" by the photos when they were broadcast. He said the pictures had been leaked, and had not yet reached the Pentagon when they appeared on television.

He also said that Army officials had publicly disclosed the abuse when it was first reported and announced investigations into it. He said Pentagon officials did not press for details because they did not want to interfere with the investigation.

Rumsfeld said a panel of retired officials would report within 45 days on "the pace, the breadth, the thoroughness of the existing investigations" and determine whether more inquiries were needed.

After the hearing, he said the board was expected to include former Rep. Tillie Fowler of Florida, who has headed the Air Force Academy's oversight board into sexual assaults; James Schlesinger, a defense secretary from 1973 to 1975; and retired Air Force Gen. Chuck Horner. One other person is yet to be named.


Well now, don't these fu&in' idiots feel proud to have undermined everything that the President and our allies were working towards in Iraq. Hand these knuckle-draggers over to the Iraqi officials.

Yeah, these are the real traitors to our country. Its just going to bring up more hate and get more soldiers killed. I wonder if they thought things through when they were taking the pictures.





As an aside I give it 2 weeks before an email comes out blaming it on Clinton or the liberals.

I do agree here Varth. It's a terrible thing to do in the first place, but the media here is our own worst enemy.

Can you please explain why the media is our enemy? And as a favor dont blame the liberals.

Well, it's not the media's fault these pics were taken or the atrocities performed, but is is their fault they were made public in the first place.

Whats wrong with the truth. Should we just always trust the government and know that they would have taken care of everything.

Well, nothing wrong with the truth, but some things are quite sensitive, and discretion should have been used before publishing these photos. I understand freedom of speech, but sometime restraint is the better part of valor. Now every westerner is in more danger overseas because of this, and there is no reason except sensationalism on the part of the media.

From my understanding CBS waited two weeks before releasing the pictures at request of the military. I think thats pretty darn good. I guess I dont trust our government to be completly honest unless they are forced to.

Yeah - but look at it this way: how much damage will be caused in the long run here, versus if the 'story' had not been made public?

I mean, let's talk in terms of human life here over the long run. Now, even more Americans all over the world will held in contempt for this. The situation in Iraq will not get better anytime soon now - even if we were to pull out completely and let them get to the business of putting their country back together. So now, instead of being able to scale back our operations and personnel in an orderly manner, we're going to have to make a swifter retreat or face the consquences of this turning back into a full-scale war and even escalating. Quite possibly with more help from others in the region.

The people in the region are not of the same mindset as we are when it comes to theirs having been wronged. While we are more apt to seek legal action and settlement, the people of the Middle East are still deeply into the 'An Eye for an Eye, a Tooth for a Tooth' mindset. This means there will be more killing and bloodshed for the sake of satisfying their demands of 'justice' and revenge.

Any good that was being done over there is now wiped away because of a handful of assholes that have no regard for anything but themselves - whether it be the offending soldiers, their chain of command, OR the media.

This is not going to go away anytime soon. In fact, I look to this as quite possibly being one of the last remaining straws for the proverbial camel's back, as far as the ongoing turmoil in the Middle East is concerned. Look for some major retaliation to begin soon - along the lines of 9-11, although maybe not on as great of a scale, but more random and frequent. It would be wise to start preparing for more terrorist activity to take place on our own soil.

And Varth, before you go there - I do indeed believe in Freedom of Speech, the public's right to know, and I agree that the actions of those involved in this are wrong and uncalled for. But when you weigh the pros and cons of any situation, there are some times when keeping something quiet can pay greater dividends than shouting it from the rooftops.

This is one of those times, I'm afraid.

It's funny that one of you guys talked about how stupid it was to take the pictures.

No, no, quite the contrary, it's stupid to have have treated the prisoners that way; them taking pictures is absolutely idiotic. I haven't been in the army so I don't know what kind of mentality rules overthere, but it's probably a revenge thing.

As for the media, of course it should have absolutely reported this, as it did. It's just that the war was started under the pretense of WMDs, and later the story was changed to a war of liberation, and the world is seeing the faces of some of these liberators smiling for pictures near naked prisoners simulating sexual positions and some people fear backlash.

The backlash started the day the first rockets struck Baghdad in 2003, and it's been increasing ever since. Although I certainly hope for it not to happen, a draft is quite possible in the near future, although it most certainly will be ruled out during election talks, later to resurface as absolutely neccessary. It could also be possible we get out of there, but as has already been said, that isn't going to happen anytime soon.

I do agree on your points fish, it shouldn't have happened in the first place. I do not condone or try to give any excuse for these despicable acts. The media didn't need to sensationalize the photos, as it put us, and Iraquis in danger. Hell, the radicals are killing more Iraquis than coalition forces.

Don't blame the messenger Ace. One of the things we are suppoedly bring to Iraq is free press which should help reveal the abuses of goverment, corporations, and individuals of the system for the common good, and hopefully prevent many of them as none of the above want to be exposed.
In this case other soldiers knowing what was going on was wrong, released the pictures.
The real problem is the current adminstration secret goverment policy. Had bush and rummy been more open as soon as the knew there was a problem, or taken steps to correct the abuses reported by the red cross for the last year, the damage to the US mission would be far less.
By hiding things until they were having to admit the rumors were true, shows that had nobody published it, it would have been allow to continue.
In fact it appears some ranking officer were encouraging the behavior or at least ignoring it. (and they can't pretend they didn't know the geneva conventions)
For the Iraqi's to see our actions as a parallel to Saddams secert ploice, it's not supprising the are angery and scared.
I am too!

I still say hand them over to the locals.

Still - no can do.

But - if they are punished for their crimes in a public manner that would satisfy justice, then it might be 'good enough.' But, that 'justice' would have to be controlled to the limit of the individual crimes of the offenders. If murder was committed, then the law and UCMJ is specific when it comes to those things - especially if considered a war crime, which I'm pretty sure this could qualify.

And they can't discount the complications to the mission that this has cost us as well... I'm pretty sure that under the circumstances, treason could still be considered, given consideration to future fallout from possible/probable terrorist activity.

Like I say, if warranted, public executions could go a long way here.

And as efishta kinda-sorta eluded to: this could've all been avoided if other actions were taken in the past. I mean, if Saddam would've just obeyed the UN sanctions, or if Clinton would've taken care of Bin Laden when he first became a problem or during any of the other numerous chances he had, or if Bush Sr. would've ignored the UN and taken Saddam out of power back in '91. Hell, for that matter if Bush had written a formal declaration of War and submitted it to Congress after 9/11 and let them vote on it, things would be different now.

Hindsight is 20/20, and the best thing to do about it is learn from the mistakes and try not to make them again - not place blame just for the sake of doing so. Who gives a rat's ass who was responsible at this point - 'how do we fix it' should be the focus right now.

Eric I usaully agree with you but, this isn't one of those times. You definitely know more anout the military justice system than I do and you probably know more about the region than I do. It's just my gut feeling that nothing short of giving these piece of shit assholes over to the locals will suffice for the Islamic sense of justice.

Well, if you really want to know - nothing is going to suffice for the 'Local' sense of justice. The sad thing is that the extremists are the ones that are the most vocal... and they're also the ones that are crying Jihad the loudest too - this will just bring more people around to their way of thinking. This is just the latest thing that's fueled their fires - except this one was the equivalent of a somewhat small grass fire and someone just drove a tanker truck full of gas right into the middle of it.

Now every American citizen gets to pay for the crimes of a few dirtbags.

I can't think of any better setting or ingredients for some of those 'end of days' scenarios the Bible talks about. I think if it's going to happen like that, we're certainly on the right track.

So then we're in complete agreement on the end result of this. It's time to get the hell out of Iraq. Feel free to leave these shitheads behind though.

Yes, I agree that we need to get out while we can. I am also in agreement that those sh1theads deserve whatever they have coming - and then some if justice is to be served.

But, I'm pretty sure the White House will not let the Iraqis do it to them... that's all.

How about Bush, Blair and all their advisors getting taken out of power, prosecuted for abusing their positions, all of them getting a kicking for being the idiots that they are, and finally flown to Iraq and forced to stay there until the country can stand on it's own two feet. After which time those who are still alive could be flown back to their own countries and put in prison to be hooded, manacled, chained up, pissed on, beaten up, shat on, and leashed like a dog, forced to watch videos of the terrorist attacks that they have inspired.

That'd be about even wouldn't it?

You'd have to impose that punishment on roughly 60% of the corporate world... from McDonald's shift managers on up for it to be effective.

Seems the first GI is about to go before a Court Martial.

The media in this country exploits anything for a story, atrocities like these go on daily in many countries and you never hear about it. How many pictures have you seen of Sadaam torturing people on Al Jazeera networks?

This crap is going to do wonders for American realtions around the world. These idiots filmed themselves... unbelieveable.

Nice. MSNBC is posting classified information for all to see. And particularly, information that was not meant for anyone's eyes outside of the US government and channels.

Without going into too much detail, notice how every paragraph of the report has a letter in parenthesis after the number? Only the ones marked with '(U)' are unclassified. And notice how many others have something other than '(U)' on them. Also, if a document has even one instance of something other than '(U)' on it, the whole thing is classified. Do the math.

THIS is the very reason the media can be our enemy at times, Varth.

Of course it was all a bit different a year ago wasn't it? When the bombs started to fall the Media were sent to film all of this ' Shock and Awe' so that everyone could ooh and ahh at the might of the Allied forces.
Media units were sent along with troops to film the plight of the soldiers and their unwavering bravery in the face of the enemy weren't they?

Scared the shit out of the Iraqis didn't it?

Now that the media is revealing the dirtier facts about this war, they are treated as a national threat.


I smell hypocrisy.


If you want to blame anyone for smearing shit all over the reputation of the US/UK, you need look no further than MY idiot Prime Minister, and YOUR idiot President, and all the advisors that are trying to cover up what is happening, and supplying whimpering, pathetic apologies for shit that they cannot control.

They are a fuckin' disgrace and worse still, they are a REAL threat to world peace.


Don't blame the media for doing their job, blame the shitheads with power for NOT being able to do theirs.


have a nice day.

Hey, I'm not blaming the media for what the accused did to the Iraqi prisoners in the least - they f00ked up... and the media reported it. All I'm saying is that there are sometimes when the media steps over the line of what's best in the interest of the US (or UK, I'm sure as well) to get a story. This is one of those times.

Not to mention having posted classified information to the public - which is against the law in any country that allows the media to report on the doings of their governments, I'm sure.

How do you think WWII would've turned out if one of your major newspapers had printed a story that said there was going to be a major offensive launched on the beach of Normandy on the date D-Day occurred? You could be waking up to morning headlines printed 'auf Deutche' right now, I suspect.

There's stuff that should and should not be released to the public for whatever reason... and this is one of those times. The information that's been classified may not seem like a big deal to you, but to the folks who have knowledge of things you don't, it could be huge and mean the difference between life and death of a few, or a thousand.

And as to whether or not the media is our enemy - that's purely an opinion shared by myself and a handful of people around here that actually get it where Operational Security and the impact such things can have for not only our troops - but all of our citizens as well... yours included.

It's not my fault you can't see the big picture.

Here's a decent perspective on the current debacle.

I found this interesting/disturbing:

"The one result of all this media uproar is that U.S. interrogation methods will become less forceful, and less effective. So this Summer there will be news stories of ineffective interrogations leading to avoidable combat deaths of American troops. Unfortunately, this is an old pattern in American politics and its relationship with the media and the military. There are similar examples going back 150 years (to before the American Civil War.) But the media has no memory, particularly when it comes to their own abuses."

http://www.strategypage.com//fyeo/qndguide...target=IRAQ.HTM

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States is considering whether or not to make public graphic videos and photographs of abuse of Iraqi prisoners, the Pentagon said on Monday.

"We haven't ruled it (release) in or out," Defense Department spokesman Lawrence Di Rita told reporters. Photographs of the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by the U.S. military were first broadcast by CBS, but additional photographs and videos have not been made public by the Defense Department.

A Defense Department official, who asked not to be identified, said President Bush had been shown photographs of the abuse during a visit to the Pentagon on Monday. The pictures are part of a record being used in several U.S. investigations of the issue, which has caused deep anger in the Arab world.



I feel we should give equal time for all atrocities. Let's see, for every photo of a dead American or a tortured prisoner, we should show 2800 photos of Sadaams torture victims...

<sarcasm> But - that's not fair -=rex=-. We're America after all. We're not allowed to stoop to their level. </sarcasm>

But rest assured - I'm sure MSNBC will run the photos and videos anyway.

Damned if ya do... anything!

Maybe its because we dont expect americans to use those methods and are not shocked when Saddam does.

Well, that certainly explains the outrage and disgust of the citizens. But that only goes to show the naiivity of the common citizen. Like it or not, POWs are going to be interrogated - on either side. As to what methods are used, and what limits are followed, depends on the interrogators.

While I understand that this kind of thing goes on, I don't necessarily condone it. There's a big difference... for you people who can't read English.

The truly sad thing in this whole deal, is that because we don't have the entire story (by design or not), we've already formulated our opinions and began placing blame. If it's a cheap political tactic during an election year, then it's working wonderfully. If it's not, then it's too bad we will probably not ever hear the whole story.

Regardless of the motivations - this whole thing is causing all sorts of damage and placing ALL Americans and Allied country citizens at risk.

As I said somewhere else, I dont care about torture and abuse if it is justified. It seems that the pictures show that they were doing it for the fun of it not toget out information.



[QUOTE]Regardless of the motivations - this whole thing is causing all sorts of damage and placing ALL Americans and Allied country citizens at risk.



This is the main reason I hope they get punished wether it be those involved or those who ordered it.

Seriously, What difference does it make to anyone what Hussein got up to?

*off topic rant*
Not a word was spoke of him in the UK since '91, and then, after New York got hit and everyone went rushing off to fly the flag and partially destroy/help to ignite the Taliban in Afghanistsan (to very little effect), a link was made to Iraq (with their HUGE fucking arsenal of WMD, remember the WMD?) after which an even more dubious link was made to Iraq training Al Queda operatives and maybe harbouring Bin Laden, along with about a hundred other countries, (hey, one of the WTC pilots was born here in England!), that Bliar was reminded by Bush about a fight a few years ago that his old man ran away from.
Even though the rest of the planet thought it might be a better idea to NOT bomb the hell out out of them just for being born in Iraq into the Islam faith and having a madman dictator as a boss, until some sort of PROOF was found that Iraq needed a western style kick up the ass, MY spineless, docile, muppet of a PM decided to bend over and pull his cheeks apart awating his Bush injection, and agreed that the UN's lack of confidence was enough reason to start a fight with the worlds largest madman religious following and that it would all be over very soon.
It wasn't/isn't

*back to the point*
The abuse of Iraqi prisoners shows that even though the upstanding ambassadors of the western civilization that you refer to as our brave ALLIED troops, are no different from trained troops of any army. They do what they are trained to do, and I should think that they do it very well. Especially, ahem...'interrogation' techniques.

There will be more and more and more and more reports of abuse that will help to illustrate my point entirely. I don't beleive that the few incidents are isolated, I don't beleive that this sort of shit doesn't exist in ALL armies. I DO beleive that the US government is selling this war to their troops and paranoid nationals as some sort of sick payback for something that Iraq may not have even been involved with, and I DO beleive that Bush/Bliar have started something VERY bad that they will live to regret.

The fact is that the Allied forces have chosen the word LIBERATION as their new old word for justification of this war, and then EVERYONE is shown that when it comes to the crunch, the ALLIED forces have nothing new or decent to offer the people that they claim to be helping, so what difference WOULD it make if pictures from Husseins torture sessions were shown?

None whatsoever.

That's that biggest picture I can see I'm afraid.

Here's the bigger picture: While Americans and Allied country citizens were already somewhat at risk for possible terrorist activity - they are at even more risk now for probably terrorist activity, based on the general psychological make-up of the Middle-Eastern fundamentalist terrorist organizations.

The accused and the media have just unzipped and placed it on the table - for everybody.

Again, I'm not solely blaming the media for this - if there weren't wrongdoings going on, there wouldn't be much of a story to report, now would there? But I blame the media for being irresponsible - in their haste to get the story out, they have provided only a portion of the story, and left the rest to speculation - much like we're doing right here, right now.

Moreover, that speculation turns into supposition, which turns into hate and aggression, which eventually turns into retalitation... against the wrong people - the citizens of the country the accused are from.

A lot of mistakes have been made in the past. We need to focus on how to clean it up and gracefully make an exit at this point. And by that, I mean certain inconsistencies need to be addressed and Iraq needs to be left in a state that they can do for themselves - which ever way they choose to go.

*sniff, sniff*. Do I smell a dead horse in here? Must be, so quit beating on it!

*sniff, sniff* Hmmm - not quite what I'm smelling, cuz I'm smelling an interesting conversation/discussion happening that's not turning out snotty or anything. But maybe it's just me.

Just messing with ya guys. Yes, it's quite civil, and my comment wasn't comming from me with my admin hat on.

I think the people involved should be shot . For that matter i think we should of went in , killed sadam and his family and left saying there , do it again and we come back!

carnt comment on us pics

but the british one most of em look fake
the ones that do look true are just normal trophy photos which have been happening for yrs

I was listening to a little bit of the testimony today. Ted Kennedy is a prick. The guy was doing his best to answer questions and Kennedy would never let him finish. He would always interupt him. What happened to simple respect

I reference the "3 stooges" pic.

Here's a blurb from the NY Post:

THE Abu Ghraib prison scandal is being used by many Democrats and Leftists to discredit the war in Iraq and the Bush administration's prosecution of the War on Terror as a whole. Period.

One of the more sentimental notions of our time is that everybody in America "supports the troops." Even if you oppose what they're fighting for, you are obliged to state that you support the troops in their efforts to protect America.

Well, let's talk a little about what it means to "support the troops." It means you don't make sleazy analogies between the heroes in Afghanistan and the sadists and thugs at Abu Ghraib prison.

It also means you have to hold those sadists and thugs totally accountable for their actions and not try to palm off responsibility onto the Pentagon for failing to offer "training" in how not to be a sadist and thug. To blame it on training lapses is to excuse conduct that 99.99 percent of the other 150,000 U.S. service personnel in harm's way in Afghanistan and Iraq would not engage in.

And, most important, if you want to "support the troops," you don't go around explaining that their mission has already failed and that there's no point in going on. That's been happening a lot in the last couple of days.

That's what that poster child for personal irresponsibility, Sen. Teddy Kennedy, did at a hearing on Friday when he stated, "To the people in the Middle East, and too often today, the symbol of America is not the Statue of Liberty, it's the prisoner standing on a box wearing a dark cape and a dark hood on his head, wires attached to his body, afraid that he's going to be electrocuted."

Kennedy said this approvingly - by which I mean that I think he actually agrees that this image is the correct image of the United States and not an infamous slander.

This infamous slander was then repeated - not once, but twice, during the same hearing by other Democratic senators. The first time it was Sen. Robert Byrd, who knows something about horrifying images, having spent some time in his youth wearing a Ku Klux Klan hood.

Then came Sen. Jack Reed: "For the next 50 years in the Islamic world and many other parts of the world, the image of the United States will be that of an American dragging a prostrate naked Iraqi across the floor on a leash. This is unfair to the honor and the courage of our soldiers, but unfortunately I think it's become a fact."

Here's the true fact: Our soldiers deserve better from Jack Reed than the gleeful trumpeting of anti-American propaganda that makes their mission in Iraq appear to be pointless or worse. What they deserve is to be defended by Jack Reed and everybody else in America from being lumped in with the monsters of Abu Ghraib.

But hey, there's an election to win! And never let it be said that Jack Reed, Teddy Kennedy and Robert Byrd aren't willing to do or say just about anything to help their party succeed - no matter the cost.

Sad but true. Those types never have, and never will truly 'serve' any thing but their own causes and agendas, let alone their country.

FYI - I contacted the authorities on our base about the report that MSNBC published, and they BLEW ME OFF!! They weren't even concerned with it. In fact, they acted very much like I was annoying them since it was the 'umpteenth dozen' call they've received on the topic already.

Oh well... I did my job by reporting it.

The democrats should just shut up and let the news come out. It looks bad for Bush regardless of what he knows.

Oh this is one that is surely the fault of the Democrats.

I don't care what kind of war your fighting; moral, immoral whatever you care to call it or your intentions, in the end it always corrupts; people, corporations and governments.
Always has, always will.
You never have to look very hard to find it at all levels.
Not just a few grunts caught on camera.

BTW Congrads. on the new site look.

The only thing that makes this different than any other war, is the digital age. This stuff has been going on in every war, from every country, since the beginning of time. This time the proliferation of digital cameras and laptop computers let the rest of the world see the true horrors of war, that have gone on ever since there ever was war.

Consider this scenario: You're on patrol and a group of people jump out and start firing at you, then one launched a rocket propelled grenade and kilss 5 of your buddies. Now you capture them. When you get ahold of them, do you say "sir, please turn around"................NOT!!!!! It's more like "You A$$H)L!! <POW>, WHERE ARE THE REST OF YOUR BUDDIES? <POW>.

http://www.nypost.com/news/nationalnews/20802.htm



May 13, 2004 -- WASHINGTON - Shocking shots of sexcapades involving Pfc. Lynndie England were among the hundreds of X-rated photos and videos from the Abu Ghraib prison scandal shown to lawmakers in a top-secret Capitol conference room yesterday.
"She was having sex with numerous partners. It appeared to be consensual," said a lawmaker who saw the photos.

And, videos showed the disgraced soldier - made notorious in a photo showing her holding a leash looped around an Iraqi prisoner's neck - engaged in graphic sex acts with other soldiers in front of Iraqi prisoners, Pentagon officials told NBC Nightly News.

"Almost everybody was naked all the time," another lawmaker said.

Many members of Congress left the 45-minute viewing session early, thereby missing the porno performance by England, but there were enough other images of torture, humiliation and intimidation to sicken anyone.

"It was pretty disgusting, not what you'd expect from Americans," said Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.). "There was lots of sexual stuff - not of the Iraqis, but of our troops."

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who also characterized the photos as "disgusting," agreed, noting, "It's hard to believe that this actually is taking place in a military facility."



The shocking photos and videos, provided on computer disks by Pentagon officials, showed attack dogs snarling at cowering prisoners, Iraqi women forced to expose their breasts, and naked prisoners tied together on the floor, senators revealed as they emerged from the heavily guarded conference room.

"It was significantly worse than I had anticipated," said Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore). "Take the worst case and multiply it over several times."

"I don't know how these people got into our Army," said Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell (R-Colo.), who reported seeing "several pictures of Iraqi women who were disrobed or putting their shirts up."

Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) described the images as "more detailed and more graphic than the pictures that have been released publicly," referring to the disturbing photos of Iraqis being abused at Abu Ghraib prison that surfaced two weeks ago, and which Islamic terrorists claim led to this week's revenge beheading of American Nick Berg.

"Normally, I side with disclosure and openness, but in this case, these photos are evidence," Schumer said, indicating that he favors keeping the lid on the alarming pictures, as Vice President Dick Cheney and Sen. John Warner (R-Va.) have urged.

Rep. Jane Harman (Calif.), ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said she was most appalled by a video of a handcuffed prisoner beating his head against a wall in an apparent bid to knock himself unconscious to escape abuse.

In another video clip, she said, a group of men were shown masturbating.

Before the pictures of England's sex romps were shown to Congress, the 21-year-old reservist from West Virginia tried to portray herself as a reluctant participant who was just following orders.

"I didn't really, I mean, want to be in any pictures," England told a Denver TV station.

"I was instructed by persons in higher rank to 'stand there, hold this leash, look at the camera,' and they took picture for PsyOps [psychological operations]," she told KCNC-TV.

England acknowledged "it was kind of weird" when she was photographed smiling, with a cigarette in her mouth, as she leaned forward and pointed at the genitals of a naked, hooded Iraqi at Abu Ghraib prison.

England has refused to identify who gave her the orders, saying only that they came from "persons in my chain of command."

England faces a military court-martial that includes charges such as conspiracy to maltreat prisoners and assault consummated by battery.

She could face punishment ranging from a reprimand to more than 15 years in prison













Has anyone seen pics of this lady??????? She is far from a foxy babe

Here's an interesting personal experience:

Wednesday my road trip had me in Raleigh, NC where we made our sales calls, had lunch with a customer and then we went to a company that makes amino acids. Spent time with the process people talking about the new products we have and then were on the way out. At the guard house we happened to run into a US Army reservist who had just returned from Iraq. He was bringing his wife flowers as a surprise and she just happened to work for our contact in the plant. Turns out that the Corporal did partake in live round exchanges and was quite happy to be home with his wife. We exchanged some pleasantries and introductions immediatley after which he said:

"Please don't pay attention or listen to what the media is saying right now, there is a lot more good than bad being done there right now."

Great huh? Here's a guy about 27 or 28, married and doing his duty and he feels a need to explain what's going on in Iraq! The uncomfortable way in which he said it was just too much. I hope they just leave these idiots out in the desert for the Iraqis to find. Oh, put Rumsfeld with them.