Good post. I agree with you fully, and I think you brought up some excellent points. As disturbing as the photo is, without much evidence linking to what, where, and who and why, it's nothing more than speculation that will probably do more harm than good.
Unfortunately I have seen this picture and many like it during my time serving with the MP unit who was responsible for the security of Camp Ashraf Iraq. Camp Ashraf housed, and I think still does, the Peoples Mujahideen of Iran, a terrorist organization that used to work for Saddam Hussein. Their officially stated goal is to remove the current government in Iran and to replace it with an Islamo/Marxist style government. The US Military is responsible for keeping the thousands of PMOI members under "house arrest" on Camp Ashraf, while simultaneously protecting them from outside parties in Iraq that wish to do them harm. Members of the PMOI defect from the organization, as it is extremely cult like and strict, and must go to the US element on the camp to ask to defect. Unfortunately, the US is not able to let them leave the camp as the Iraqi Government will not let them live in Iraq. This causes the US to keep them in a detention facility...as they cannot leave the camp. The defectors get tired of being stuck in the camp and often stage scenes like this as a way to protest the US not releasing them from Camp Ashraf. Bottom line: the wounds were self inflicted by the detainee (an Iranian/persian ethnicity) and were meant to act as a sign of protest to the MP guards and other detainees in the camp. The MPs have to take official photographs of the incident and conduct an investigation to ensure that no US persons were involved and that there was no evidence of abuse. The photo is from 2004, I forget which date it was originally taken; it is of a PMOI defector in US custody; and the wounds were self inflicted by the detainee (to sew the mouth shut sybolizing his lack of voice over his current state as a detainee).
[edit on 24-7-2008 by Azurus]
