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The U.S. as Torturers

John Nichol, an RAF navigator in Gulf War I, was shot down over Iraq and paraded on tv. Here is his reaction to the photos of Iraqi prisoners allegedly abused at Abu Ghraib prison. He begins:

They are the images I thought I would never have to see again, sickening pictures of Iraqi prisoners, naked, tortured and humiliated. Surely liberation from Saddam Hussein's brutal, evil regime had seen an end to all of that? Yet here they are, photographs of American soldiers abusing prisoners in Iraq's notorious Abu Ghraib's dungeon and of British servicemen brutalising captives in Basra.

They have sent shock waves around the world and shivers down my spine. During the Gulf war in 1991, I was shot down over Iraq, taken prisoner, tortured, humiliated and paraded on TV in pictures that provided an enduring image of that war. Now, perhaps, these horrific new pictures from Iraq will be the lasting image of so-called liberation.

Update: Amnesty International has reports of torture as well.

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