The UK government claimed for the first time on Monday night that the London-based Daily Mirror's Iraq "abuse" photographs were fakes, saying an investigation had revealed doubts about their authenticity.
Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon told the House of Commons of "strong indications" that a truck seen in the pictures was not used in Iraq, and said later on Channel 4 News that they were fakes.
He also cast doubt on the use of testimony by a third soldier who talked to the Mirror at the weekend, saying the offenses he detailed had already been widely reported and investigated.
The Mirror reacted angrily to the comments, saying Hoon was attempting to divert attention from the real story of abuse.
In the House of Commons, Hoon said the Royal Military Police special investigation branch had told him there were strong indications that the vehicle in which the photographs were taken was not in Iraq during the relevant period.
He said the branch had interviewed the soldier described by the Mirror as "soldier C" and investigated the allegation at the center of his evidence concerning the death in custody of Baha Mousa.
Mousa, 26, a hotel receptionist, was allegedly beaten to death in Basra last September.
"These allegations were widely covered in other newspapers many months ago," Hoon said. "I leave it to the House to judge why they have been recycled in this way."
Hoon also questioned why the pictures were in black and white.
Later, on Channel 4 News, anchorman Jon Snow asked him: "So let's hear it, they are fakes?"
He replied: "Well it appears to be the case, yes."
He said it was "important that the Mirror now answer why they have perpetrated this hoax."
Of the disputed truck, he said: "This is the evidence we have -- that this particular truck was not in Iraq."
"It's now really a matter for the Daily Mirror to indicate whether they are willing to co-operate as they said they would in investigating what increasingly looks like a hoax," he said.
The Mirror issued a strong rebuttal, accusing Hoon of attempting to divert attention from the "bigger and more important" issue of soldier abuse.
The paper said that it re-mained "absolutely confident that those pictures accurately illustrate a serious abuse of a detainee by members of the Queen's Lancashire Regiment."
"We note that Hoon does not deny the incident happened," it said.
Asian perspectives of the US have shifted from a country once perceived as a force of “moral legitimacy” to something akin to “a landlord seeking rent,” Singaporean Minister for Defence Ng Eng Hen (黃永宏) said on the sidelines of an international security meeting. Ng said in a round-table discussion at the Munich Security Conference in Germany that assumptions undertaken in the years after the end of World War II have fundamentally changed. One example is that from the time of former US president John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address more than 60 years ago, the image of the US was of a country
‘UNUSUAL EVENT’: The Australian defense minister said that the Chinese navy task group was entitled to be where it was, but Australia would be watching it closely The Australian and New Zealand militaries were monitoring three Chinese warships moving unusually far south along Australia’s east coast on an unknown mission, officials said yesterday. The Australian government a week ago said that the warships had traveled through Southeast Asia and the Coral Sea, and were approaching northeast Australia. Australian Minister for Defence Richard Marles yesterday said that the Chinese ships — the Hengyang naval frigate, the Zunyi cruiser and the Weishanhu replenishment vessel — were “off the east coast of Australia.” Defense officials did not respond to a request for comment on a Financial Times report that the task group from
BLIND COST CUTTING: A DOGE push to lay off 2,000 energy department workers resulted in hundreds of staff at a nuclear security agency being fired — then ‘unfired’ US President Donald Trump’s administration has halted the firings of hundreds of federal employees who were tasked with working on the nation’s nuclear weapons programs, in an about-face that has left workers confused and experts cautioning that the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE’s) blind cost cutting would put communities at risk. Three US officials who spoke to The Associated Press said up to 350 employees at the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) were abruptly laid off late on Thursday, with some losing access to e-mail before they’d learned they were fired, only to try to enter their offices on Friday morning
STEADFAST DART: The six-week exercise, which involves about 10,000 troops from nine nations, focuses on rapid deployment scenarios and multidomain operations NATO is testing its ability to rapidly deploy across eastern Europe — without direct US assistance — as Washington shifts its approach toward European defense and the war in Ukraine. The six-week Steadfast Dart 2025 exercises across Bulgaria, Romania and Greece are taking place as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine approaches the three-year mark. They involve about 10,000 troops from nine nations and represent the largest NATO operation planned this year. The US absence from the exercises comes as European nations scramble to build greater military self-sufficiency over their concerns about the commitment of US President Donald Trump’s administration to common defense and
RSS