The following is an archived copy of a message sent to the CASI Analysis List run by Cambridge Solidarity with Iraq.
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[ This message has been sent to you via the CASI-analysis mailing list ] This is an automated compilation of submissions to newsclippings@casi.org.uk Articles for inclusion in this daily news mailing should be sent to newsclippings@casi.org.uk. Please include a full reference to the source of the article. Today's Topics: 1. Riverbend/ Those Pictures... (Hassan) 2. Long but worthy read (CharlieChimp1@aol.com) --__--__-- Message: 1 Date: Sat, 1 May 2004 07:24:53 -0700 (PDT) From: Hassan <hasseini@DELETETHISyahoo.com> Subject: Riverbend/ Those Pictures... To: CASI newsclippings <newsclippings@casi.org.uk>, IAC discussion <iac-discussion@yahoogroups.com> Friday, April 30, 2004 Those Pictures... The pictures are horrific (http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/04/30/iraq.photos/). I felt a multitude of things as I saw them... the most prominent feeling was rage, of course. I had this incredible desire to break something- like that would make things somehow better or ease the anger and humiliation. We=92ve been hearing terrible stories about Abu Ghraib Prison in Baghdad for a while now, but those pictures somehow spoke like no words could. Seeing those naked, helpless, hooded men was like being slapped in the face with an ice cold hand. I felt ashamed looking at them- like I was seeing something I shouldn=92t be seeing and all I could think was, =93I might know one of those faceless men...=94 I might have passed him in the street or worked with him. I might have bought groceries from one of them or sat through a lecture they gave in college... any of them might be a teacher, gas station attendant or engineer... any one of them might be a father or grandfather... each and every one of them is a son and possibly a brother. And people wonder at what happened in Falloojeh a few weeks ago when those Americans were killed and dragged through the streets... All anyone can talk about today are those pictures... those terrible pictures. There is so much rage and frustration. I know the dozens of emails I=92m going to get claiming that this is an =91isolated incident=92 and that they are =91ashamed of the people who did this=92 but does it matter? What about those people in Abu Ghraib? What about their families and the lives that have been forever damaged by the experience in Abu Ghraib? I know the messages that I=92m going to get- the ones that say, =93But this happened under Saddam...=94 Like somehow, that makes what happens now OK... like whatever was suffered in the past should make any mass graves, detentions and torture only minor inconveniences now. I keep thinking of M. and how she was 'lucky' indeed (http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/2004_03_01_riverbendblog_archive.html#10= 8059254488988448). And you know what? You won't hear half of the atrocities and stories because Iraqis are proud, indignant people and sexual abuse is not a subject anyone is willing to come forward with. The atrocities in Abu Ghraib and other places will be hidden away and buried under all the other dirt the occupation brought with it... It=92s beyond depressing and humiliating... my blood boils at the thought of what must be happening to the female prisoners. To see those smiling soldiers with the Iraqi prisoners is horrible. I hope they are made to suffer... somehow I know they won=92t be punished. They=92ll be discharged from the army, at best, and made to go back home and join families and cronies who will drink to the pictures and the way =93America=92s finest=94 treated those =93Dumb I-raki terrorists=94. That horrible excuse of a human, Janis Karpinski, will then write a book about how her father molested her as a child and her mother drank herself into an early death- that=92s why she did what she did in Abu Ghraib. It makes me sick. Where is the Governing Council? Where are they hiding now? I want something done about it and I want it done publicly. I want those horrible soldiers who were responsible for this to be publicly punished and humiliated. I want them to be condemned and identified as the horrible people they are. I want their children and their children=92s children to carry on the story of what was done for a long time- as long as those prisoners will carry along with them the humiliation and pain of what was done and as long as the memory of those pictures remains in Iraqi hearts and minds... - posted by river @ 11:03 PM __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Win a $20,000 Career Makeover at Yahoo! HotJobs http://hotjobs.sweepstakes.yahoo.com/careermakeover --__--__-- Message: 2 From: CharlieChimp1@DELETETHISaol.com Date: Sat, 1 May 2004 10:51:01 EDT Subject: Long but worthy read To: newsclippings@casi.org.uk [ Presenting plain-text part of multi-format email ] : http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/FD30Ak01.html > Middle East Iraq's future: Dreams and nightmares By Herbert Docena End of casi-news Digest _______________________________________ Sent via the CASI-analysis mailing list To unsubscribe, visit http://lists.casi.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/casi-analysis All postings are archived on CASI's website at http://www.casi.org.uk