10  theSun | FRIDAY MAY 29 2009

news without borders

Photos show rape and sex abuse in Iraq jails US charity

LONDON: Photographs of Iraqi prisoner abuse
which US President Barack Obama does not
want released include images of apparent
rape and sexual abuse, Britain’s Daily Telegraph
newspaper reported yesterday. The images are
among photographs included in a 2004 report
into prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib prison con-
ducted by US Maj-Gen Antonio Taguba.
Taguba included allegations of rape and
sexual abuse in his report, and on Wednesday
he confirmed to the Daily Telegraph that images
PESHAWAR (Pakistan): Two
supporting those allegations were also in the file.
“These pictures show torture, abuse, rape and
every indecency,” Taguba, who retired in January
2007, was quoted as saying in the paper.
He said he supported Obama’s decision not
to release them, even though Obama had previ-
ously pledged to disclose all images relating to
abuses at Abu Ghraib and other US-run prisons
in Iraq.
“I am not sure what purpose their release
would serve other than a legal one,” Taguba said.
“The sequence would be to imperil our troops,
the only protectors of our foreign policy, when
we most need them, and British troops who are
leaders get 65
trying to build security in Afghanistan.
The newspaper said at least one picture
showed an American soldier apparently raping
years in jail for
a female prisoner while another is said to show
a male translator raping a male detainee. Others
are said to depict sexual assaults with objects
Hamas support
including a truncheon, wire and a phosphores- DALLAS: Two leaders of what was once the
cent tube. – Reuters largest Muslim charity in the United States
were sentenced to 65 years in jail on Wednes-
day for supporting Palestinian militants. The
Texas-based Holy Land Foundation and five

Bombs, gun battle rock

bombs exploded in a market in of its leaders were convicted late last year of
the northwestern Pakistani city funnelling more than US$12 million (RM42
of Peshawar yesterday, killing six million) to Hamas in the largest terror financ-
people, and gunmen on rooftops ing case in US history.
ambushed police as they arrived at Jurors returned guilty verdicts on 108
the scene, police said. charges of providing material support to ter-
A short while later, a suicide rorists, money laundering and tax fraud.
bomber attacked a paramilitary
checkpost in another part of the
city, killing five soldiers, a wounded
soldier said.
“He was on foot and as we
saw him, he ran and blew him-
Pakistan’s Peshawar “These sentences should serve as a strong
warning to anyone who knowingly provides
financial support to terrorists under the guise
of humanitarian relief,” said David Kris,
assistant US attorney-general for national
security.
Holy Land chief executive officer Shukri
self when he got close to us,” ernment minister Bashir Ahmed recent string of more sophisticated port for the Afghan Taliban and the
Wasiullah, a paramilitary soldier Bilour told Reuters. militant attacks in Pakistan since United States has been heartened Abu Baker, whose brother Jamal Issa is the
wounded in the attack, told Reuters Soon afterwards, gunmen on a group of gunmen launched a by the Swat offensive and by public head of Hamas operations in Yemen, was
as he arrived at a hospital. Police rooftops began firing at police in coordinated assault on the Indian support for it. sentenced to 65 years in jail. Chairman and
confirmed the attack. lanes below. Television showed city of Mumbai in November. But there have been seven co-founder Ghassan Elashi, who is related
The violence came hours after policemen firing back while col- The army moved against the attacks since fighting in the Swat by marriage to Hamas political leader Mousa
the Pakistani Taliban claimed leagues strapped on bullet-proof Taliban in their Swat valley strong- region intensified in late April and Abu Marzook, received the same sentence.
responsibility for Wednesday’s vests. Police later said two gunmen hold last month after the militants there is a danger the violence could “I would like to declare my innocence of
suicide car-bomb and gun attack had been killed and two suspects had seized a district 100km from erode public support. Hakimul- all the charges,” said a defiant Ghassan, who
in the eastern city of Lahore that detained. the capital and a peace pact col- lah Mehsud, speaking before the called the case an “unjust political prosecu-
killed 24 people, saying it was in “We’re carrying out searches as lapsed. Peshawar blasts, warned of more tion.”
revenge for an army offensive in others could be hiding,” city police Pakistan is vital for US plans to violence. Holy Land co-founder Mohammad
the Swat region. chief Sifwat Ghayyur said. defeat al Qaeda and cut sup- “We plan major attacks El-Mezain, a cousin of Marzook, and Ab-
“We were looking for this target The attack appeared to be the against government fa- dulrahman Odeh, the charity’s New Jersey
for a long time. It was a reaction latest in a cilities in coming days and representative, both received 15 years. The
to the Swat operation,” weeks,” he told Reuters by two men declared they were innocent in
Hakimullah Mehsud, a telephone. remarks to the judge and courtroom.
militant commander loyal The government has or- Fundraiser Mufid Abdulqader, brother
to Pakistani Taliban leader dered cities to be on alert. of Hamas political leader Khaled Meshaal,
Baitullah Mehsud, said by Mohammad Naveed received 20 years.
telephone. Khan, chief of police in “I do acknowledge the verdict in this
Militant violence in North West Frontier Prov- trial,” Abdulqader said during the sentencing
nuclear-armed Pakistan, ince, of which Peshawar is hearing.
an important US ally, has capital, was defiant. “I believe in the system. My faith has not
surged since mid-2007, with “The battle is on and been shaken, it’s been inspired. But it is un-
attacks on the security forces, we’ll keep fighting,” he told American to ignore suffering and starving
as well as on government reporters. women and children.”
and Western targets, and the The military released The Holy Land case was a major victory in
Taliban yesterday threatened late on Wednesday what former president George W. Bush’s “war on
more violence. it said was a tape of an terror.” Holy Land was one of several Muslim
The two bombs were intercepted telephone organisations the Bush administration shut
planted on motorbikes in call between the Taliban down in the wake of the Sept 11, 2001 ter-
the Storytellers Bazaar in Relatives surround deceased spokesman in Swat, rorist attacks for allegedly raising money for
Peshawar’s old city and policeman Mohammed Muslim Khan, and an Islamic extremists overseas. – AFP
caused extensive damage. Six unidentified militant in
REUTERSPIX

Naveed, a victim of the car

people were killed and about
70 wounded, provincial gov-
bomb attack, after receiving which Khan urges re-
his body in Lahore. venge attacks. – Reuters
Dead Aussies
land cash
windfall
CANBERRA: Thousands of dead Austral-
ians landed windfall cash payments to help
stimulate the recession-hit economy, while
thousands of others living overseas also
received money, the government said yes-
terday. The money was paid out as part of a
stimulus package worth A$52 billion (RM145
billion) since September as the country slid
into recession and the government forecast
unemployment would double to one million
by late next year.
Much of the money was tax refunds to
poor and middle-income earners, pensioners
and families with young children, but A$14
million (RM39 million) was paid to 16,000
dead citizens and A$25 million (RM70 mil-
lion) to 25,000 Australians living abroad.
“Grateful dead get a raise from Kev,” said
one headline, referring to Prime Minister
Kevin Rudd, whose Labour government’s
economic management credentials have
long been its achilles heel.
Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner insisted
the money was well spent and would still
find its way into the economy.
“Even where they go to people who are
dead, of course they go to the estate,” he told
local television. The estate typically is going
to consist of ordinary Australians who will in
turn get the payments, and on balance over
time, will spend those payments,” Tanner
said. He said it was impossible to determine
from recent tax return records who was dead
or alive. – Reuters