FOLLOW-UP: see this post for the missing image, and more
I can't find it anywhere on the NYTimes site or through Google News, but our print edition of the paper this morning carries an extremely important photograph on page A6 by Ashley Gilbertson. The image is of three heavily-armed and armored American soldiers interrogating an Iraqi man who is wearing casual pants and a t-shirt sitting in his own home while his family stands in the background. Significantly, the family's large floor covering has been folded back and away from the area occupied by the four men.
The full caption reads:
We'll just Need to Scan Your Eyes for Our FilesThere is no related article. I agree with Barry's comment that this image and this program would be unlikely to be buried on an inside page (on a Saturday yet) in the Arab media.
Imad Salman Ichleef, 37, was questioned yesterday by American soldiers about insurgent activity in his neighborhood of Ghazaliya in baghdad. Using a biometric recording device, one of the soldiers scanned Mr. Ichleef's retinas, collected his fingerprints and photographed his face. The interview was part of a strategy to put Iraqi males into a database [my italics]. Mr. Ichleef's family waited patiently so they could get back to their lunch.
Actually, neither the technology nor the increasingly-widespread U.S. goverernment practice is news, as the 18-month-old post on the site where I found the January 2005 image below reminds us. But rather once again it's a picture that makes the impression, in this case it's the picture I haven't yet been able to locate on line.
Is this the new face of occupation? [caption from bagnewsnotes]
[image from bagnewsnotes]
Not the greatest of films, but it's certainly bringing up images of "Minority Report" cornea scan technology.
Truly disturbing.
do you think that the rug may be pulled away because it isn't something to walk on with your shoes on, and it was just easier than having the three servicemen unlace and take off their boots?
I have no doubt that's the case, Martin, but you can probably agree with me that the point is that this wouldn't be the way any guests would be welcomed - or would themselves behave - in an Iraqi home.
These Americans are not guests.