I can't seem to shake the images in this story. I wanted to write ore as the story broke but I felt I need to wait. Images are part of the "situational awareness" and they are high value currency in information age campaigns.
The story of Abu Ghraib and Rumsfelds own comments are a powerful example of the changing dynamics in the age of connectivity. The links across the globe amplify the power of information in a connected world. The sad truth is that no one knows how long military would have left the commanders in place without the leaked images. The images of abuse changed the situation on the ground.
All struggles are visual. Now visuals can be distributed farther and faster than ever before.
The link to the BBC story contains graphic images of abuse to human beings. I have grabbed the relevant quotes here.
In his testimony to congressional committees, Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld indicated that the flood of pictures was now beyond the US authorities' control."There are a lot more photographs and videos that exist," he said. "If these are released to the public, obviously it is going to make matters worse... I looked at them last night and they are hard to believe."
Unapproved footage
Mr Rumsfeld was indignant at the publication of such images: "We're functioning with peacetime constraints, with legal requirements, in a wartime situation in the Information Age, where people are running around with digital cameras and taking these unbelievable photographs and then passing them off, against the law, to the media, to our surprise."
However, he admitted that he had not realised the seriousness of the allegations until the pictures were leaked to the media.
There is an old saying that says the true test of character is to see what people do when they are alone. Digital cameras are going to increasingly document our collective failure of character in dramatic and powerful resolution. What are the images of your work? What are the images of your opposition's activities they expect will never see the light of day? How is your campaign organizing the collection and distribution of powerful images?
