“There were some awful scenes. It felt like you were descending into one of the wings of hell and sadly it was our own creation,” said Sen. Richard Durbin, an Illinois Democrat. “And when you think of the sadism, the violence, the sexual humiliation, after a while you just turn away, you just can’t take it any more. “I still cannot believe that this happened without the knowledge of those at higher levels,” Durbin added.
Lawmakers said images showed inmates apparently being coerced to commit sodomy, wounds possibly from dog bites, a number of dead bodies, and examples of “sadistic torture” and “sexual humiliation.”
Some top Republicans urged that the still pictures and video not be released publicly, saying they could endanger U.S. forces overseas.
Congress is trying to establish whether the mistreatment was encouraged by intelligence personnel to “soften up” prisoners for interrogations, maybe THIS EXPLAINS what Durbin said while describing one of the pics: “a picture of a man with half his head “blown off,” lying on the ground in blood and gore”… They sure were trying to “SOFTEN UP” prisoners for interrogation, not for DEATH!
Rep. Jane Harman, a California Democrat described images of a nearly naked man “handcuffed to a wall, beating his head against the wall, recoiling back and forward, probably trying to knock himself unconscious and avoid having to live through the experience.”
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