Media Sitting on Saddam's Torture Videos The U.S. backed Arab-language news network Al Hurra broadcast video on Wednesday depicting grisly acts of torture on Iraqi citizens ordered by Saddam Hussein. But so far at least, the shocking new video remains embargoed by U.S. media outlets. The Washington Post admitted on Friday that it was in possession of some of the gruesome torture images - but did not publish them in a report on the video buried on Page A21. Instead, Post editors decided to front-page stale images of U.S. abuse of suspected terrorists held at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison. "The [Hussein torture] video reached news outlets," the paper explained, "as senior spokesmen for the Bush administration began to express frustration that the treatment of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. troops had overshadowed well-documented human rights horrors of the Hussein era." In video yet to be broadcast by any U.S. outlet, Hussein torture victims are shown being flogged and having fingers chopped off. One detainee is filmed as he is thrown from a roof, another beheaded by a sword-weilding member of Saddam's elite Fedayeen unit. According to the Post, video of the beheading shows a man placing the severed head on the victim's prone body. Another scene shows a man's tongue being cut out. As NewsMax.com reported on Sunday, other gruesome images from the embargoed video include scenes of Kurdish detainees being castrated and babies being gassed to death. During the beheading, the executioner reportedly sings "Happy Birthday, Saddam." Al Hurra news director Mouafac Harb told the Post that he obtained the new torture video on Monday and deemed the images both authentic and newsworthy. "I was approached with a tape, which I had not seen before," he explained. "I had not seen on the popular Arabic satellite channels any program like this."
It's just an absolute crime that there's not one single conservative media in the U.S., not a one. And the big bad conspiracy of total liberal media is preventing this important film from being shown (not sure why it's important as there have been lots of dictators throughout history who have tortured their citizens and we never preemptively invaded nor occupied their countries....). Probably the liberal programming schedules are all filled up with pictures of returning soldier caskets, reports on the economy, Michael Moore films, etc. Poor FOX News, Sinclair Broadcasting, etc. I guess they've all gone over to the total liberal media conspiracy too.
no kidding. look at poor Jessica Lynch, hardly anyone heard her heroic tale of valor. and the learned philosophers of the pnac, basically blacklisted by the liberals from revealing the truth. and what about all the patriotic embedded reporters that were censored from reciting the pentagon's scripts by the leftist conspiracy? a true shame that the liberals won't let the administration get its message out to the real americans.
You guys are missing the point. I don't mind seeing all the torture that American Soldiers are doing to Iraqi's and when I say I don't mind, I mean, I don't mind that they are broadcasting it and making us aware of what's going on over there. But what about some balance. I don't get why we have to see American soldiers performing sex acts on Iraqi's 24 hours a day and yet we have in our hands footage of Saddam committing acts of torture and none of it gets broadcast. Whatever happened to having some balance here. Or should we just pretend that the Iraq's are angels and American soldiers are vicious, brutal, heartless soldiers? I'm just saying there is a very clear double standard here, that's all.
I think that it would be rather naive to compare the two sides of the coin here because there really are no sides of this coin. This isn't about "tit for tat". It's about our U.S. Military being held accountable for not performing their duties like "professional" soldiers. We are trying to hold ourselves accountable to the "standards" of the Geneva Convention. Period. Atrocities by Saddaam? That's an entirely different subject, and there is no point in comparing the two.
OK, this is my fault. I must be speaking Greek here. I am not talking about torture here. We could be talking about European models as far as I care. I am talking about the agenda of the media to selectively report what they want to report. Forget about Saddam and the torture. My point is we have a blatant example here where the media is intentionally holding a video that many would consider newsworthy while at the same time, playing up the American abuse videos around the clock. That's my point. I'm not talking about comparing tit for tat but rather the bias of the media. It kind of reminds me of that Iraqi Information Minister, Tarik (sp) guy during the shock and awe campaign when he was on Al Jareeza TV saying things like we have beat the Americans, the war is over, we have the situation under control. Is our media in this country really as manipulative as Al Jareeza? I thought we were better then that. My bad.
The question is whether these videos are news. Maybe, but they are old, and it is not news as revealing something we didn't know. Saddam's use of torture, and tales of torture are legion. But how would there be any balance if shown? What is your point, that the American abuses of Iraqis are not as bad as were Saddam's?. We aren't equating our GIs with the Iraqis of Saddam's regime. If the videos of Saddam's people torturing Iraqis show a Baathist torturer who was in turn a prisoner in the Abu Ghraib prison, then that would certainly provide a compelling an interesting news angle, not to mention justice.
OK, man this is frustrating. I am not talking about the Saddam torture. I am talking about how our media selectively reports. What do you mean it's old news? Like let's say, I don't know, the Vietnam War perhaps? Yet, I see more coverage of John Kerry and Vietnam then I do of local sports coverage. Shit, you would think that Kerry just got back from Vietnam yesterday. That was over 30 years ago! So don't tell me about how the Saddam news is old. It's old news when it's convenient for the left to make it old news, and if it's old news but pertinent to Kerry or Democrats, suddenly it's newsworthy. LOL. You guys can't have it both ways. Also, as far as the Saddam videos go, I think it would help Americans understand exactly what we are dealing with over there. Saddam is just what the Iraqi militants are on a macro level. I think it would help people understand why they cut the head off Berg. I couldn't believe how many people I heard saying things like, how could they do that, or why would they do such a thing? Clearly there are many people in this country that have no clue what we dealing with over in Iraq. So yes, I think the Saddam video is newsworthy.