Kirk Watson: “We are all shocked, saddened, and outraged by recent reports of the abuse of prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan. The…”

“We are all shocked, saddened, and outraged by recent reports of the abuse of prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan. The evidence cannot be in dispute. Graphic photos have gone from one end of the earth to the other that show stripped young Iraqi men forced to lie in a naked pile with a male and female soldier standing over them and hamming for the camera. Whether we like it or not, the picture of a hooded, wired prisoner, which one commentator described as an eerie throwback to drawings from the Spanish Inquisition, has become the new image of the U.S. occupation of Iraq. And this hooded image may be one of the kinder and gentler images to have yet seen the light of day. A highly critical report completed by the Pentagon in March paints a much more graphic and disturbing picture of prisoner abuse. The report outlines a number of intentional abuses, and I will quote partly from it: ``videotaping and photographing naked male and female detainees; forcibly arranging detainees in various sexually explicit positions for photographing,'' and ``a male MP guard having sex with a female detainee; sodomizing a detainee with a chemical light and perhaps a broomstick; and threatening male detainees with rape.'' Yes, we are all sickened and outraged by the photos and the reports.…”