Rumsfeld bans camera phones

Mobile phones fitted with digital cameras have been banned in US army installations in Iraq on orders from Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, The Business newspaper reported today.

Quoting a Pentagon source, the paper said the US Defence Department believes that some of the damning photos of US soldiers abusing Iraqis at Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad were taken with camera phones.

“Digital cameras, camcorders and cellphones with cameras have been prohibited in military compounds in Iraq,” it said, adding that a “total ban throughout the US military” is in the works.

Disturbing new photos of Iraqi prisoner abuse, which the US government had reportedly tried to keep hidden, were published on Friday in the Washington Post newspaper.

The photos emerged along with details of testimony from inmates at Abu Ghraib who said they were sexually molested by female soldiers, beaten, sodomised and forced to eat food from toilets.

[Source: SMH]

If you can’t (or don’t want to) stop the people abusing prisoners, you can always stop the people taking the pictures!

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Mohamed Marwen Meddah

Mohamed Marwen Meddah is a Tunisian-Canadian, web aficionado, software engineering leader, blogger, and amateur photographer.

3 thoughts on “Rumsfeld bans camera phones”

  1. Last night, while I was switching radio channels, I came across “Sawa” the American -Arabic spoken- radio channel, and I heard one of their short segments where they ask a question and people from different Arab countries answer.

    Last night’s question was “What do you think of exposing the punishment of criminals to the public?”.

    Nearly all of the answers were in favour of that, which made me stop for a second and think about the many subliminary messages “Sawa” is trying to spread in our young generation’s minds..

    Asking such question in such times, didn’t come from nowhere.

    I personally think we should take more serious actions regarding the media we are being exposed to. It is a US government-backed radio station.

    We need to know more about what we are listening to, just as we try to do with what we watch and read.

  2. I totally agree with you.
    The US has launched a number of such initiatives like: Sawa radio station, Al Hurra satellite tv channel and Hi magazine.

    These are all efforts to brainwash Arab minds, especially those of the younger generations.

    I think this is very dangerous and people should be very careful about what they and their children hear, watch and read.

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