US Torture: The Truth Will Out

Salon.com has received a DVD with over 1,000 new photos, videos and documents from Abu Ghraib. They have published some of them here.

Photos not shown in their selection include 20 images of "a soldier with a Swastika drawn between his eyes".

Salon explain their decision here.

Beyond the collapse of military discipline and adherence to the basic rules of civilized behavior, Abu Ghraib also symbolized the failure of a democratic society to investigate well-documented abuses by its soldiers. After an initial flurry of outrage, the Republican-controlled Congress lost interest in investigating whether senior military officers -- and even Pentagon officials -- created a climate in which torture (yes, torture) flourished. In similar fashion, the Army still seems intent on ending this shameful story by jailing the likes of Lynndie England and Charles Graner. At least after the My Lai massacre during the Vietnam War, Lt. Calley was convicted.

Abu Ghraib cannot be allowed to fade away like some half-forgotten domestic political controversy, which may have prompted newsmagazine covers at the time, but now seems as irrelevant as the 2002 elections.

UPDATE: Chris Floyd says Bush must accept personal responsibility for these atrocities:

Let's lay the blame for these tortures squarely where it belongs: on the shoulders of the "Commander-in-Chief." It's only fair; if this gibbering goon is going to lay claim to unrestricted powers, then by God he will have to bear unrestricted, unmitigated responsibility as well...

What shall we say when history asks how such crimes came to be committed in the name of America? Will we say that we stood silently by, shrugging our shoulders, filling our bellies, closing our eyes? Or will we be able to say: We saw. We dissented. We resisted. We condemned.

Think about it: if YOU were President of the USA and this sort of thing was happening on YOUR watch, what would YOU do? Bush's failure to either speak up or step down is unforgiveable.