NEW images showing United States Navy Sea, Air, Land teams (SEALs) torturing Iraqi prisoners came to light in the US earlier this week thus sending more shock waves around the Arab world only six months after the Abu Ghraib prison scandal. The US military says it has launched a criminal investigation into these photographs that show US Navy SEALs in Iraq sitting on hooded and handcuffed detainees, and photos of what appear to be bloodied prisoners, one with a gun to his head. Some of the photos have date stamps suggesting they were taken in May 2003, which could make them the earliest evidence yet of prisoner abuse in Iraq. The Abu Ghraib prison scandal occurred months later. The pictures were discovered by an Associated Press reporter who found more than 40 of the pictures among hundreds in an album posted on a commercial photo-sharing website. They were uploaded by a woman who said her husband brought them back to the US from Iraq after his tour of duty. "These photographs raise a number of important questions regarding the treatment of prisoners of war and detainees," US Navy Commander Jeff Bender, a spokesman for the Naval Special Warfare Command in Coronado, said in a written response to questions. "I can assure you that the matter will be thoroughly investigated." But very few in the Arab world expect a serious investigation or deterring measures to be taken to stop further prisoner abuse in Iraq. This is abuse which is clearly carried out on a large scale -- far from the claims of US officials that these are "individual" cases. The photos were turned over to the US Naval Criminal Investigative Service, which instructed the SEAL command to determine whether they show any serious crimes, Bender said on Friday. According to Bender, the pictures violate Navy regulations that prohibit "photographing prisoners" other than for intelligence or administrative purposes. Seven US military police reservists have been charged in the Abu Ghraib scandal. But a New York-based human rights organisation is trying to put on trial top US officials who are believed to have given the go-ahead to the Abu Ghraib torture. On 30 November, the Centre of Constitutional Rights (CCR) filed a complaint in Germany against US officials over alleged torture at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. CCR, a non-profit legal group, is using a German law granting universal jurisdiction to ask the Federal Prosecutor's Office in Karlsruhe to investigate the allegations of abuse. Filed on behalf of four Iraqis who were detained at Abu Ghraib, the complaint lists 10 defendants. Including Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and former CIA director George Tenet, all of the defendants listed are senior officials in the US army, military police, intelligence services or government. The complaint is one of the first to be filed under the German Code of Crimes Against International Law since its implementation in June 2002.
