Webcast News Service, May 14, 2004

The Boston Globe yesterday apologized for publishing fake pictures of Iraqi prisoner abuse.

The pictures, ostensibly depicting the gang rape of an Iraqi woman by an American soldier, originated from an internet pornography site.

The Globe, owned by the New York Times, published the photos in an article about Boston City Councilor Chuck Turner, who held a press conference to display photos he said showed Iraqi women being raped by US soldiers. Many news outlets didn't report on the press conference because the photos were unverified. But the Globe staff decided to publish the pornographic photos without further verification.

An investigation by the internet news publication WorldNetDaily revealed that the porn photos published by the Globe had been circulated by Arab propagandists and were originally taken from U.S. and Hungarian pornographic websites. The photos feature "actors" in military uniforms pretending to rape women.

WorldNetDaily publisher Joseph Farah said that the Boston Globe staff "was furious at WorldNetDaily for exposing their gaffe." In an article published Friday in WorldNetDaily, Farah said, "Within minutes of the posting of the story, the Globe reporter and editors were angrily demanding WND editors [to] retract the story, pull it from the website, make it go away."

Boston Globe photo editor Catie Aldrich, who approved the publication of the fake photos, said, "There should have been a lot of checks and balances and, for whatever reason, there weren't," She calls error a "huge embarrassment."

"There was a lapse in judgments and procedures, and we apologize for it," said Globe editor Martin Baron. He said that the pornographic nature of the photos and their lack of authentication made them unsuitable for publication.

The Boston Globe photos were published on Tuesday, the same day that Iraqi terrorists announced that they had beheaded an American in Iraq in retaliation for the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by American soldiers. A video clip released by an Iraqi terrorist group linked to Al-Qaeda showed the beheading of American civilian Nicholas Berg, 26, who was taken hostage in Iraq last month.

Berg's ritual killing mirrored that of US journalist Daniel Pearl who was beheaded in Pakistan in 2002. Berg, like Pearl, was Jewish.

Unfaked photographs of U.S. soldiers subjecting Iraqi prisoners to abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison were first shown on U.S. television in late April and broadcast throughout the world in the days that followed. President Bush and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld have apologized for the abuses, and Pentagon and Congressional investigations are ongoing. Four American soldiers have been scheduled for courts martial and others may be charged.

The Boston Globe Globe isn't the only newspaper that has been caught publishing fake photos of Iraqi prisoner abuse. Fake photos allegedly depicting abuse of Iraqi prisoners by British soldiers were published by London's Daily Mirror newspaper.

The Daily Mirror today fired editor Piers Morgan for publishing the fake pictures of Iraqi prisoner abuse. The Boston Globe pornographers remain in their jobs.