SYDNEY, February 15, 2006 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Australian public broadcaster SBS Wednesday, February 15, showed what it said were previously unpublished photographs and video images of the abuse of prisoners in Iraq's notorious Abu Ghraib prison by US soldiers.

"These are the photographs the American government doesn't want you to see," the SBS announcer said, warning that some of the images shown on the "Dateline" program could be disturbing, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

The pictures showed one man covered in what appeared to be excrement, another with a gash in his throat and an interrogation room covered in blood.

Some pictures showed scenes similar to those already seared into the public mind, including different angles of a hooded man with wires attached to his fingers, naked men stacked on top of one another, a naked man hanging upside down from a bunk, and terrified prisoners being menaced by dogs.

The man covered in what appears to be his own excrement was apparently mentally disturbed and was described as a "plaything" of his American guards who "experimented with ways to restrain him" rather than try to help him.

One man displayed what looked to be burn marks on his left forearm, while another with serious head injuries was covered in blood and lying on a stretcher.

A video image showed one desperate prisoner bashing his own head against a wall, while other photographs appear to show corpses

The release of the photographs follows earlier pictures of abuse by US forces at the Baghdad prison leaked in 2004, which provoked outrage around the world.

US President George W. Bush said in a January interview about the first Abu Ghraib photos: "There's no question ... we were disgraced."

Iraq is not the only scene of US torture policy. A new UN report disclosed on Monday, February 13, that the United States committed acts amounting to torture at the notorious Guantanamo detention camp, Cuba.

"Full Horror"

Some of the US guards who have already been sentenced for their part in the abuse, including Private Lynndie England, are seen in the new photographs.

A US military jury sentenced torture ringleader Charles Graner to 10 years in prison last year for his leading role in the 2003 Abu Ghraib torture of Iraqi prisoners. His former lover, England, was later sentenced to three years for her role in the abuse.

"When the original Abu Ghraib photographs were leaked to the press, members of Congress were given a private viewing of photographs, including the images which appear in this Dateline program. They were shocked by what these extra images revealed of the full horror of the abuses taking place at Abu Ghraib," SBS said.

The pictures are the subject of a legal battle in the United States, where the government is trying to prevent their public release, the broadcaster said.

A spokeswoman for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Amrit Singh, told "Dateline" that it hoped the release of the pictures would pressure the US government to hold senior military officers accountable for the abuse.

A US court granted the ACLU access to the photographs under Freedom of Information Act provisions but the US government had appealed the decision and the pictures had not been previously shown publicly, SBS said.

"The extent of the abuse shown in the photos suggests that the torture and abuse that occurred at Abu Ghraib in 2004 is much worse than is currently understood," the broadcaster said.