Just Following Orders. posted by Richard Seymour

Those torture photos? Military intelligence ordered them to be taken :

The lawyer for one of the soldiers accused of being involved in the events which prompted outrage around the world said orders had been given for the photographs to be taken.

"They were part of the psychological manipulation of the prisoners being interrogated," Guy Womack, attorney for Charles Graner Jr, told NBC television.

"It was being controlled and devised by the military intelligence community and other governmental agencies, including the CIA," he said, adding that the soldiers were simply "following orders".

UPDATE: Tex at Antiwar.com draws my attention to the fact that the BBC has now changed the wording of the story I've linked to. Fortunately, Google News , while linking to the revised article, contains the wording of the original in its introductory summation: "... one of the soldiers accused of being involved in the events which prompted outrage around the world said orders had been given for the photographs to be taken. ... "

Tex comments: "The internet never forgets. Looks like either a soldier has been edited for making unapproved statements or the BBC misquoted him and failed to post a correction."

I shall make enquiries. Watch this space...

UPDATE: I e-mailed the BBC about why they had edited out the two paragraphs in question, and got the following response:

Our reports change many times a day, and as more details emerge it is
very common for us to edit the existing text. This is the case in the
example you quote, and although the precise paragraphs have gone, a
summary of Mr Womack's comments is still included.

If we were to keep all aspects of a story throughout the day, I am
afraid we would be left with a very long page that no-one would read. So
part of our job will always be to edit content to keep each update to a
reasonable length.

I hope this helps to clarify the situation.

Thankyou again for your interest in BBC News Online.

Yours sincerely,

Pete Clifton
Editor, BBC News Interactive


I'm happy to get a response from the BBC, especially the stellar Mr Clifton, but I feel he obfuscated on just one point, and replied, noting that:

I accept the need to revise and update stories. The detail, however, about the photographs being ordered taken as part of the torture [by Military Intelligence] seems to me rather significant. I have quoted the said paragraphs in written work and correspondence - I assume this can be done in good faith?

Presumably, if the BBC is not admitting to be under censure or censor, then I can reproduce these paragraphs at will. I await a reply.