Abu Ghraib Victim Exploiting His Own Torture?
NFL star Tiki Barber, a "Fox & Friends" guest host, asserted that an Abu Ghraib torture victim is "taking advantage" of his past by heading a prisoners' rights group.Truthdig says:
NFL star Tiki Barber, a “Fox & Friends” guest host, asserted that an Abu Ghraib torture victim is “taking advantage” of his past by heading a prisoners’ rights group.
Granted, the victim in question, Ali Shalal Qaissi, is the man whom the New York Times recently misidentified as being the person portrayed in a notorious photo of detainee abuse at Abu Ghraib–the one that shows a hooded man with electrical wires trailing from his arms. And Qaissi may have contributed to the Times’ mistake by using that very photo on his business card.
But Barber knows, or should have known before he went on TV to talk about the issue, that Qaissi was almost certainly tortured with those same electrical wires; so the suggestion that Qaissi is “taking advantage” of his past seems like the height of insensitivity, to say the least.
Think Progress:
Yesterday, the hosts of Fox News’ “Fox and Friends” questioned the motives of former Abu Ghraib detainee Ali Shalal Qaissi (aka “Clawman”) for speaking out about his situation.
HILL: Meanwhile, over the weekend if you read the New York Times you saw an article about a man who allegedly was the man featured in one of the photos from Abu Ghraib and he was dressed head to toe — that’s the one, arms stretched out, he had electrical wires sticking out of his arms. Well, they IDed him in this article as, Ali Shalal Qaissi, 43 years old, says he works for a human rights organization.
BARBER: He’s taking advantage of this in a lot of ways. He’s put this picture on his business card and is working for a human rights group, trumpeting this.
HILL: So this article is very sympathetic to this guy.
This year, the ground feels uncertain — facts are buried and those in power are working to keep them hidden. Now more than ever, independent journalism must go beneath the surface.
At Truthdig, we don’t just report what's happening — we investigate how and why. We follow the threads others leave behind and uncover the forces shaping our future.
Your tax-deductible donation fuels journalism that asks harder questions and digs where others won’t.
Don’t settle for surface-level coverage.
Unearth what matters. Help dig deeper.
Donate now.
Wounds of War
20 years after the Iraq War prison scandal, victims are still in court and Washington is still trying to forget.
Wounds of War
Two decades after being brutally tortured, three Iraqis have brought a lawsuit against the U.S. military contractors responsible.
Editorial Cartoons
George Orwell warned that a “lack of precision” in language can destabilize entire societies. America's 45th president is living proof.
American intelligence agencies are the nation’s enemy from within and the Praetorian Guard of sinister forces.
Aggressive policing, mass incarceration and inhumane detention facilities are products of overseas empire—imperial chickens come home to roost.
You need to be a supporter to comment.
There are currently no responses to this article.
Be the first to respond.