Rumsfeld bans camera phones in Iraq
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-05-24 08:46

Cellphones fitted with digital cameras have been banned in U.S. army installations in Iraq on orders from Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, a business newspaper reported.

US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Cellphones fitted with digital cameras have been banned in US army installations in Iraq on orders from Rumsfeld, a business newspaper reported. [AFP]

Quoting a Pentagon source, The Business newspaper said the U.S. Defense Department believes that some of the damning photos of U.S. soldiers abusing Iraqis at Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad were taken with camera phones.

"Digital cameras, camcorders and cellphones with cameras have been prohibited in military compounds in Iraq," it said, adding that a "total ban throughout the U.S. military" is in the works.

Disturbing new photos of Iraqi prisoner abuse, which the U.S. government had reportedly tried to keep hidden, were published Friday in the Washington Post newspaper.

The photos emerged along with details of testimony from inmates at Abu Ghraib who said they were sexually molested by female soldiers, beaten, sodomized and forced to eat food from toilets.