What's Still Being Hidden in Abu Ghraib?

We've all known for a while that there were more Abu Ghraib photos and other materials we haven't seen yet. A federal judge has demanded that the Defense Department turn those photos and videos over, but late on Thursday, the department refused to comply, stating that they'd explain themselves in a sealed brief yet to be filed. They previously tried to argue that release of the photos would embarrass and humiliate the prisoners who were victimized in them, as if the well-being of Abu Ghraib prisoners has been their primary concern all along, but the judge didn't buy it. Since the explanation is intended to be sealed, we may have to wait for someone to leak the information to see what's going on.

When we've got very few investigative reporters actively ferreting out information like this these days, we've got to get our insight where we can. Editor & Publisher has stepped into the breech this time and offered a summary of what we know about this material so far. The article by Greg Mitchell almost reads like a blog entry, as Mitchell goes back to a CNN report from last year that quoted Lindsey Graham: "We're talking about rape and murder--and some very serious charges." Rumsfeld himself described some of these still-secret acts as "blatantly sadistic, cruel, and inhuman." Mitchell also dug up a speech from last year by Seymour Hersh, one of the very few who can still unequivocally be called an investigative reporter. One example of his work is that he helped to bring the Abu Ghraib atrocities to light in the first place. Speaking before an ACLU convention last year, Hersh claimed some of the unseen material portrayed the rape of young boys in front of their mothers. He specifically had this to say: "The boys were sodomized with the cameras rolling. The worst about all of them is the soundtrack of the boys shrieking that your government has."

When you consider it, it's hardly surprising that the Defense Department would refuse to release material like this. Of course, as unpleasant as it might be, if this has been going on at Abu Ghraib in the name of the United States of America, we have to known about it. Just as crimes such as these cannot be acceptable, neither can covering them up.