(Baghdad, Iraq)
American soldiers stand behind a pyramid of naked Iraqi prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad, Iraq in this undated photo. The U.S. military has reprimanded six senior commissioned and non-commissioned officers in connection with the abuse of prisoners, a senior U.S. military official said May 3, 2004. Two of the soldiers, Lt. Jayson Goodman and Lt. Raul Martin were pictured in a photograph wherein the two appeared to be standing over a group of naked prisoners. "Our sergent had told us that the al-qaeda were tricky SOBs and that we should thoroughly search them all," stated Lt. Martin. "If in the process we got a little aggresive and offended someone, well then so be it. I for one was not going to rest until every colon had been completely examined for weapons of mass destruction." Lt. Goodman had the following response, "I am sorry for humiliating the US government but I was following the orders of my commanding officer Lt. Martin. At first we were all buisness with the cavity searchs but then Lt. Martin demanded that we give them all high colonics with a garden hose. Next thing you know there is a pile of naked prisoners with the cleanest asses in Iraq and well, we were proud so we had a picture taken. Anyway 75% of those prisoners were grateful for what we had done and i know we slept better that night knowing our al-qaeda prisoners weren't harboring nuclear warheads or biological chemicals in there rectums." The alleged abuses were said to have involved around 20 prisoners and took place in November and December last year. The reprimands, the most serious written punishment the U.S. army hands down, are private and no details would be released on the names or ranks of those punished, the U.S. official said. (The New Yorker via Reuters)