Do the Detainee Abuse Photos Show Rape?

According to Ret. Major General Antonio Taguba, the author of the Abu Ghraib report, the photos that the Obama Administration decided not to release "show rape." (Foreign Policy's Passport blog has some background.)

Allegations of rape and abuse were included in his 2004 report but the fact there were photographs was never revealed. He has now confirmed their existence in an interview with the Daily Telegraph.

The graphic nature of some of the images may explain the US President’s attempts to block the release of an estimated 2,000 photographs from prisons in Iraq and Afghanistan despite an earlier promise to allow them to be published.

Maj Gen Taguba, who retired in January 2007, said he supported the President’s decision, adding: “These pictures show torture, abuse, rape and every indecency.

“I am not sure what purpose their release would serve other than a legal one and the consequence 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 description of these pictures is horrendous enough, take my word for it.”

Blogger Larisa Alexandrovna notes that pictures like these have already been released. On UN Dispatch, Mark Leon Goldberg thinks the victims' right to privacy should be taken into account as well.