The Daily Populous Friday December 12nd, 2025 night edition
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2dudesinapod on December 11st, 2025 at 21:15 UTC »

Reminder that the majority of the Abu Ghraib photos have never been released because they’re too disturbing.

And then people wonder why they’re hated.

> "We have heard that half a million [Iraqi] children have died [because of American sanctions]. I mean, that is more children than died in Hiroshima," Stahl said. "And, you know, is the price worth it?"

> "I think that is a very hard choice," Albright answered, "but the price, we think, the price is worth it."

Gayfetus on December 11st, 2025 at 21:29 UTC »

An update on the girl, Samar Hassan, 6 years later.

Excerpt from the article:

> “I’ve taken them many times to the hospital, where they get pills” for emotional problems, Mr. Ali [a relative taking care of the surviving children] said. “All of them take pills.”

> He says Samar’s 8-year-old brother, Muhammad, talks to himself when he is alone. “When we go out and see a family, they get sad,” he said. Sometimes he finds the children in a room together, crying. “When they remember the accident, it’s like they just died.”

How Samar was doing at that point:

> Samar left school last year because she was too shy and not doing well, Mr. Ali said, although Samar said she would like to return and hoped to be a doctor when she grew up. She leaves the house only on infrequent family excursions and has two friends who visit to play with dolls and chat.

9 years later, a crew working on a documentary about the photographer Chris Hondros tracked down Samar, this time with an apology from Brad Hammond, one of the soldiers who killed her parents. Per this article, here's her reply:

> “Everybody knows my story and saw my picture,” she tells the filmmakers [...].

> “But it’s not going to help me with anything.” She remembers that night. It’s never gone from her thoughts. “I hear them screaming in my head and the sound of shooting.” “What would sorry do?” she asks. “They’re gone. Is sorry going to bring them back? No, it won’t. That’s it. It’s done.”

After a pause, she adds:

> “I will never forgive them. I will just leave it to God. God will punish them,” she says, her voice rising in anger.

> “If they were in front of me, I would want to drink their blood,” she says.

> “Even then I wouldn’t be satisfied.”

Edited to add: I'm actually watching Hondros, the documentary right now and have corrected some errors in my post (Samar was interviewed by that documentary crew in 2014, not 2017, the year the documentary came out). Having watched that part of the documentary, the "I will never forgive them" part is directly about the soldiers who shot her family and part of her answer to Hammond's apology.

eclecticexperience on December 11st, 2025 at 21:30 UTC »

The absolute horror in this photo is all-encompassing. She can't be more than 8 or 9 years old. Her tiny hands are covered in her parents' blood - their blood is everywhere. Soldiers more than twice her size with rifles are standing over her. Nobody is comforting her. She is alone in the dark in the most gut-wrenching moment of her entire life. I am so devastated for her and by her expression. For their sake, I hope there is a peaceful afterlife. There are very few people on this planet who ever deserved anything like this.