CLAIMS that images of tortured prisoners in Iraq would trigger renewed violence were "a joke", the producer of the program that broadcast the new footage said today.
SBS'sprogram last night aired the images of naked prisoners, some bloodied and apparently lying dead on the floor, that were taken about the same time as earlier photos that led to protests and outrage in the Middle East in 2004.
Dateline's executive producer Mike Carey today said the program's researchers had unearthed new cases of apparent prisoner abuse at the US-run Abu Ghraib prison even though the US and Iraqi governments claimed the footage shown was part of material that had already been investigated and dealt with by US authorities.
Mr Carey said the new images represented "a quantum leap" in the depravity of anything previously seen from the Baghdad jail.
"There needs to be further investigation to find out how those corpses came to be in Abu Ghraib and find out whether they were killed while they were in Abu Ghraib under US care."
More than 25 people have already been held accountable for criminal acts and other failures at Abu Ghraib.
"(But) I don't think anybody has been punished for murder or killing people," Mr Carey said.
He said the program aired the pictures as soon it could after receiving them.
The White House and Iraqi government have condemned the broadcasting of the pictures, fearing they could trigger renewed violence and lead to coalition troops being threatened.
Mr Carey said that fear was "a joke".
"Troops are already at great risk in Iraq," he said.
"I don't think anything that we do here in Australia is going to make their risk any greater or smaller."
The footage has further enraged Iraqis already incensed by the publication on Sunday of images of British soldiers apparently beating Iraqi youths and by cartoons in European newspapers satirising the prophet Mohammed.
Mr Carey said it was a coincidence that this story so closely followed the two other events.
"I'm a reporter. We got these pictures showing an order of abuse higher in magnitude than what appears to have happened there," Mr Carey said.
"We put them to air because it's our responsibility as reporters to get this stuff on air.
"To say that somehow or another that we (timed) it on purpose is just bullshit."
Mr Carey said some of the video footage apparently shows one prisoner bashing his own head against a wall, while some photographs appear to show corpses.
The program said some prisoners at Abu Ghraib were killed when US soldiers ran out of rubber bullets as they tried to quell a jail riot, and resorted to using live rounds.
One picture showed what looked like cigarette burns on a man's buttocks.
Mr Carey said other images featured prisoners in sexually humiliating acts that were deemed too graphic to broadcast.
He said it was a coincidence that this story so closely followed the two other events.
Dateline intends to air more pictures from Abu Ghraib in its program next week that will also include interviews with a US soldier convicted of prisoner abuse and another former US soldier who witnessed the crimes.
''The Australian'' has reported today that the  has confirmed the authenticity of the images aired by Australian television network . Contradicting claims made by some media outlets, SBS Dateline's executive producer Mike Carey claimed on Thursday that the program's researchers have found cases of  prisoner abuse that have not been dealt with by US authorities. He described the new images available to SBS as a "quantum leap" compared to the previously broadcast pictures.

Carey announced that next week's program will show more abuse pictures, but he noted that some images featuring prisoners in sexually humiliating acts will not be broadcast, as they were deemed too graphic. Next week's program will also include interviews with a US soldier that has been convicted of prisoner abuse and another former soldier who witnessed the crimes. 

The ''Washington Post'' has noted, as suggested by SBS, that several news outlets including themselves have "not published a substantial number of photographs they are holding." The ''Washington Post'' further explains that "Newspapers that have held these images have been constrained, in large part, by the sheer graphic nature of them, especially the nudity."

The ''Washington Post'' also cites SBS's ability to circumvent "the U.S. government's efforts to keep Abu Ghraib images out of the public eye" as another reason why the images were not first published by other media outlets.

The U.S. internet news site '''' has now published some of their own previously held back pictures and confirmed that they possess "files and other electronic documents from an internal Army investigation into the Abu Ghraib prisoner-abuse scandal", which include the originally published pictures, as well as the ones published by SBS. 

''Salon'' notes that some of the files from the Criminal Investigation Command refer to CIA agents that interrogated prisoners at Abu Ghraib, but that no CIA officers have been prosecuted "despite the death of at least one Iraqi during a CIA interrogation there", underscoring the claim made by SBS that some of the pictures document previously unprosecuted abuse. 

The US government expressed concerns about the new abuse pictures being published. John Bellinger of the State Department told ''BBC'', "We felt that it was an invasion of the privacy of the detainees themselves to have these photographs come out... (and that the publication could also) fan the flames around the world and cause potentially further violence".