[infowar.de] NYT 09.11.02: Pentagon Seeks Who Spread Photos of Detainees

[Georg Schoefbaenker <schoefbaenker -! - aon - at>]

Infowar.de, http://userpage.fu-berlin.de/~bendrath/liste.html
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GS: Ein Fotos ist bei diesem link der NYT dabei

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/09/international/09PIX.html?pagewanted=print&position=top

November 9, 2002
Pentagon Seeks Who Spread Photos of Detainees
By NEIL A. LEWIS

WASHINGTON, Nov. 8 ? Defense Department officials said today that they were 
trying to determine who photographed and sent to media outlets a series of 
pictures showing what appears to be a group of manacled prisoners in 
Afghanistan sitting on the floor of a military airplane and tethered to the 
airplane's walls.

Pentagon officials said that they did not believe the pictures represented 
any improper treatment, but that their dissemination presented a problem 
because international treaties prohibit the display of prisoners in any way 
that could be considered dehumanizing.

Although the Pentagon has asserted that many of the people they have taken 
prisoner in Afghanistan are illegal combatants and not entitled to the 
protections of the Geneva Convention, officials have said the prisoners 
have not been mistreated.

"There is no indication that the treatment of the prisoners is not in 
accord with official procedures," Lt. Col. Dave Lapan, a Pentagon 
spokesman, said of the photos. "It is the taking and distributing of the 
pictures that is a concern."

Other officials said the photos appeared to have been taken in the spring 
and showed Afghan military personnel who had been taken captive on the 
battlefield and were being moved from one part of the country to another.

One official who spoke on the condition of anonymity said the photos were 
probably taken by a crew member on the C-130 transport plane in violation 
of regulations.

The official said it was unclear whether the crew member had a hand in 
distributing the pictures today to several media outlets.

The photos showed blindfolded prisoners, some in shorts, seated with their 
legs spread before them on the floor of the airplane with their hands 
manacled behind their backs. American military personnel, one with a 
military police armband, are seen standing over them. White straps tether 
each prisoner to the fuselage walls.

In January, the Bush administration faced a barrage of criticism from 
overseas after the Defense Department released photographs that showed some 
of the prisoners held at the naval base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, kneeling 
before their captors, their legs in shackles, their hands bound in 
manacles, their mouths covered by surgical masks and their eyes blinded by 
large goggles with black tape.

Victoria Clarke, the Pentagon's chief spokeswoman, said, "As you know, we 
have very, very tight restrictions on any images of the detainees, for 
security purposes and because we have no interest in potentially holding 
detainees up for any kind of public ridicule."

She said the Air Force and the military's Central Command were 
investigating the source of photos.




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