PhotoDude.com

Sun. May 09, 2004

Every Picture Tells A Story

It’s now coming out how the Abu Ghraib photos first got out into the media. It seems it started when one of the six reservists’ father, Ivan Frederick, asked his brother-in-law for help. Fearing that Frederick’s son was being made a scapegoat when he claimed he’d just been following orders, William Lawson, the brother-in-law, sent an e-mail to retired officer and frequent military critic David Hackworth’s web site, and that led to the contact with 60 Minutes II.

The irony, Mr. Lawson said, is that the public spectacle might have been avoided if the military and the federal government had been responsive to his claims that his nephew was simply following orders. Mr. Lawson said he sent letters to 17 members of Congress about the case earlier this year, with virtually no response, and that he ultimately contacted Mr. Hackworth’s Web site out of frustration, leading him to cooperate with a consultant for “60 Minutes II.”

“The Army had the opportunity for this not to come out, not to be on 60 Minutes,” he said. “But the Army decided to prosecute those six G.I.’s because they thought me and my family were a bunch of poor, dirt people who could not do anything about it.”

NY Times: “Soldier’s Family Set in Motion Chain of Events on Disclosure”

At this point Kevin Drum interjects, “If that means what it sounds like it means, Lawson basically tried to blackmail the Army into dropping charges against the six. Or am I missing something.” Are we? With six hours of charged testimony to choose from, this exchange hasn’t gotten much focus, but sure jumped out at me.

Lt. Gen. Lance Smith, deputy commander of forces in the region, testifying Friday before Congress, said he was still unclear how that happened. “It was a surprise that it got out,” General Smith said.

Military officials were aware of two disks with photographs on them that were part of continuing investigations, one in Iraq and another in Washington, he said.

“That was the limit of the pictures, and we thought we had them all,” General Smith said.

NY Times: “Soldier’s Family Set in Motion Chain of Events on Disclosure”

Uh-huh. Now before someone screams “cover up,” that’s not exactly how it struck me. I don’t think a cover up would have resulted in an investigation, and charges against these six. Too risky and too much documentation for a cover up. I think “The Powers That Be” simply thought they had it “contained.” They’d filed charges, sealed the evidence … done deal, next case.

They failed to fully appreciate [1] the nature of our digital age, when copies are mere clicks away, and [2], the anger of families when they felt they were getting the shaft: ”[Lawson] shared his frustration in his March 23 e-mail message to Mr. Hackworth’s Web site, writing: ‘We have contacted the Red Cross, Congress both parties, Bill O’Reilly and many others. Nobody wants to touch this.’”

Now, think about that. Maybe it’s just me, but these two family members sound pretty … Republican. Mr. Frederick is proud of his son’s duty, Mr. Lawson knew about David Hackworth’s web site and his reputation, and it appears early on they turned to one name in the media they thought might be friendly to their view. And even Bill O’Reilly let them down. They make the point of saying that they sent letters to 17 members of Congress, from “both parties.” They knew that Democrats might jump on this quicker than the Republicans they’d likely vote for, and they were willing to give that a try, if that’s what it took to get attention. We’ve also heard in recent days from David Kay, the Red Cross, and Paul Bremer, stating in one way or another they’d warned the Pentagon of problems at the prison, to no avail.

“Nobody wants to touch this.” In the end, they found a surefire way to get attention. Pictures. Pictures the whole world couldn’t ignore.

I’ve seen some chastise CBS for broadcasting these images at all (even though they delayed it two weeks at Pentagon request), saying that it serves no purpose but to make a bad situation worse. First of all, from everything we’ve heard, what we’ve seen is actually tame compared to what’s alleged in the reports. These few pictures don’t distort reality, they are a tame, cleansed, blurred, and pixelated representation of the reality at that prison. Blaming CBS for all this shows an awareness of the strategic impact of these photos, but fails to realize it’s the act that is the offense, not some pixels burned to a CD, or the broadcast of them.

Secondly, this reminds me of the photos of the people who jumped from the World Trade Center on 9/11. Many people said it was horrible to show those pictures, that it was just being used to manipulate people’s emotions. Others pointed out, yes, it’s ugly, but it is a tame representation of the reality of that day. It is Truth.

Thirdly, if the photos had never made it to the media (and given what we know now, I’d say the odds on that were always less that 25%), would there have been any pressure to look into the fact civilian interrogators were determining conditions at the prison, or the fact they still operate with no regulatory guidance at all from CPA? Would the fact that entire battalion was apparently a near basket case have been acted upon? Would there be pressure on Military Intelligence or the CIA to investigate how their people might have been involved? Or would it just have been the six soldiers whose smiling faces we’ve come to know and loathe?

And what about those happy-go-lucky attitudes shown in all the photos? Never mind whether they were ordered to take pictures or not, doesn’t their carefree demeanor in those images indicate they didn’t think they had anything to worry about from their superiors if they saw the photos? Either due to approval of the acts, or well known laxity? Without the pictures, would any of that have come out, or been explored? Where would the buck have stopped? At NCO level?

Fourthly, and most importantly, if those photos had never been released … would justice have been served, on behalf of the Iraqi people?

I think deep down we all know the answers to these questions. And they are as disturbing as the photos themselves.

We needed to know these things. And clearly, there’s a whole lot of people who would have refused to believe any of it … unless they saw it with their own eyes.