WTF?! Hussein-era videos released to contrast prison scandal.

[Solomon]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A44064-2004May20.html

Video images of brutal treatment of prisoners by Saddam Hussein's government resurfaced this week as part of an effort by some members of the Bush administration and Congress to remind viewers in Iraq and the United States of the previous horrors.

Scenes of floggings, forced amputations and a beheading were distributed to a small number of news organizations in the hope that viewers and readers would see the U.S.invasion of Iraq more favorably and draw a sharp contrast with abuses by American troops, said an administration official who described the publicity effort.

The administration has wanted to "demonstrate the true nature of Saddam's regime, but it's unknown through most of Western Europe and even in the United States", said the official, who requested anonymity because of the issue's sensitivity. "What's really surprising is it's even unknown in parts of Iraq."


I think I've reached critical mass. I'm about to blow a gasket.

[GiovanniC]

1. Like Jon Stewart Said...

"We're not as bad as Saddam Hussein... now that's one hell of a moral argument."

[GreenPartyVoter]

3. Yeah.. There's a lot of that this year..Not as bad as Hussein.. I'm not

Bush.

[lovedems]

6. Giant Mess-o-potamia. eom

[SheepyMcSheepster]

12. that sentiment sticks in my head all day.

i think i saw a different episode, i seem to remember it like:

"we are not as bad as saddam, thanks for clearing that up"

[keithyboy]

24. And just where did these videos come from?

Former regime members, escaped prisoners? Was Saddam's men as stupid as our military to put this shit on film? And, was Saddam anymore responsible than Bush? I mean if we can't hold the leader responosible in one case, we can't in the other case either.

[jayfish]

25. Excellent Point.

If Saddam is responsible for Iraq's atrocities then isn't * responsible for ours. I would like to here one media person ask a tough question like this. Of course it wouldn't be CPC to compare the two.

Jay

[zbird]

2. USA! We're not as bad as Saddam.

Great slogan, Karl.

[lovedems]

4. I guess it has slipped their minds that we are suppose to be the good

"guys, ridding the world of Saddam. Everyone is suppose to be safer now, the torture chambers were closed when America rolled into Iraq".

I am sure that idiot Inhofe is behind this. I really, really pity those who think it is OK "because we weren't as bad as Saddam". That is a lame standard of judgement. :cry:

[Catfight]

5. But Saddam isn't in power anymore, so these things should

not be still occurring, right? But under the new Bush regime, we respect ALL human life. Bush, the great hypocrite. Now Irag gets to choose between the lesser of two evils?

[rooboy]

7. More arguments for leaving Hussein where he was. n/t

[Solomon]

8. What gets me is the comment "What's really surprising is it's even

unknown in parts of Iraq".

These are the people who are leading our country?

[markses]

9. It's on account of the moral clarity

:eyes:

Comparative Torture 101 is now a mandatory class for the American populace.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

10. at least one Arab network broadcast them

...Al Hurra, the satellite channel financed by the United States government, carried its own related exclusive, apparently aimed at comparing the abuses at Abu Ghraib at the hands of Americans with far worse abuses under Saddam Hussein. The channel broadcast explicit video, which it said had been found in Iraqi intelligence files, of hands being chopped off, of beatings and lashings, of a man being burned in the face and hands with a hot wire. "We have even worse tapes but we can't show them on television because they are so graphic," the announcer said over the video.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/20/international/middleeast/20ARAB.html?pagewanted=print&position=

[thebigidea]

17. yeah, "Al Hurra" is an "Arab Network" the way I'm Conrad Baine.

[Malva Zebrina]

11. stirring up more hatred and revenge

for when Bush invades Syria or Iran. Same guys--it's those dirty
Arabs who need to have a regime change. They sponser terrorists. This will certainly become the reliable base of conservative Repulicanism -- ignorant people who yearn, who lust, to attack and kill believeing perhaps, it shows how powerful, how many, how very Machiavelli they are.

[underpants]

13. By comparing us to Saddam they are putting us in the same category

which is frankly un-American to do. Sure we have made horrible mistakes in the far and not so far past but the right (and that is who wants this done) trying to play the "we aren't as bad as them" whining game or doing just that, putting us in the same category/league as a butcher such as Saddam.

[Catfight]

14. Why don't we just send Bush over there to be their new president

if he's so much better than Saddam. Let the Iraqi people decide how they like Bush. And America can get back to doing business the democratic way once again. Also, all those little right wingers and conservatives can follower their prophet/puppet to the promise land. I think that is the best answer for the world. And Bush can float in a raft in his oil pools.

[Solomon]

15. But Bush is already the dicktater of Iraq.

[underpants]

16. That is an excellent idea-The Conservative promised land

all the oil you could want, hell you can bathe in it if you want. Drive cars that get -5 MPH who cares?

That would be hilarious when they find out that the policies they have been supporting all these years illustrate their actual position in Repube society.

[Mike Daniels]

18. I'd love one, just one, reporter to ask at the press conference

that if we were so concerned with the torture going on in Saddam's regime then why did we tolerate it all through the Reagan and Bush years?

Love to see the answer to that one.

[Straight Shooter]

19. Ahem. What about the rights of these people not to be displayed?

Wasn't that one of Rummy's arguments, that we are violating prisoners' rights if we show their photos? They were prisoners under Saddam, some of them are still alive, the families of those people are still alive, but they aren't allowed to have their privacy respected. What about the women who are abused, and now shame will be cast upon them and their families, what are they to do when their faces and bodies are displayed for all the Arab world to see.

The bush administration has turned into a Freak Fest, a ghoulish display of one-upmanship. Moral relativism is reaching its flashpoint.

[Tansy_Gold]

22. They have no rights. DUers wanna see THE PIX

Their RIGHT to see those pix trumps everything else, dontcha know? There are some -- many? -- on DU who do not care that there are real people in those pictures, people who have families, lives, children. . . .nope, here they're just something to stare at.

Oh, they'll give the excuse/justification that AMERICA needs to see these pix to wake up and fly straight, but don't even mention Geneva Convention. It only applied to Shoshanna Johnson, not nameless detainees.

:puke:

If some of you are disgusted by what America has become, there are times when I'm disgusted at what DU has become.

And you can go right ahead with your "don't let the door hitcha in the ass": I ain't leavin'. Just add me to your ignore list.

[July]

23. DUers don't want evidence of wrongdoing hidden.

Without the first batch of pictures, we wouldn't even know what our government has condoned and kept from us (don't forget that Bush and friends have known about Abu Ghraib for several months).

We can't undo what's been done. But we can't prevent it from happening again if we don't even know about it.

I doubt that there are many -- if any -- DUers who enjoy looking at these pictures. But looking at pictures of things done in our name is a hell of a lot easier than experiencing what the people in the pictures have gone through. I consider it a form of witnessing. How much do you think the stories of torture, abuse, humiliation, murder, and rape would be believed without the pictures? Even those of us who are skeptical of our government want to believe that we know how to treat prisoners humanely. We have to face it and try to get something done about it. And it troubles me that pictures are being held back now. That is a clear effort to minimize the political damage, now that a good portion of the public is horrified.

[mike_c]

20. no, no, no-- those are the mil. intel training films....

eom

[Karenina]

21. What's the name

of that river in Egypt again?

[OKNancy]

26. It's the Twilight Zone

Saddam was a murderous thug who tortured the CITIZENS of Iraq...and we are doing the same thing to the CITIZENS.

This is not a war on terror, it is a war on the people of Iraq.

( I know that is a "duh" kind of statement, but I just had to type it out )