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Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse

April 20, 2023

During the early stages of the Iraq War, members of the United States Army and the Central Intelligence Agency committed a series of human rights violations and war crimes against detainees in the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, including physical abuse, sexual humiliation, both physical and psychological torture, rape, as well the killing of Manadel al-Jamadi and the desecration of his body.[3][4][5][6] The abuses came to public attention with the publication of photographs of the abuse by CBS News in April 2004. The incidents caused shock and outrage, receiving widespread condemnation within the United States and internationally.[7]

This image of a prisoner (Ali Shallal al-Qaisi) being tortured has become internationally infamous, eventually making it onto the cover of The Economist (see "Media coverage" below)[1][2]

The George W. Bush administration said that the abuses at Abu Ghraib were isolated incidents and not indicative of U.S. policy.[8][9]: 328  This was disputed by humanitarian organizations including the Red Cross, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch; these organizations stated that the abuses at Abu Ghraib were part of a wider pattern of torture and brutal treatment at American overseas detention centers, including those in Iraq, in Afghanistan, and at Guantanamo Bay.[9]: 328 

Documents popularly known as the Torture Memos came to light a few years later. These documents, prepared in the months leading up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq by the United States Department of Justice, authorized certain "enhanced interrogation techniques" (generally held to involve torture) of foreign detainees. The memoranda also argued that international humanitarian laws, such as the Geneva Conventions, did not apply to American interrogators overseas. Several subsequent U.S. Supreme Court decisions, including Hamdan v. Rumsfeld (2006), have overturned Bush administration policy, ruling that the Geneva Conventions do apply.

In response to the events at Abu Ghraib, the United States Department of Defense removed 17 soldiers and officers from duty. Eleven soldiers were charged with dereliction of duty, maltreatment, aggravated assault and battery. Between May 2004 and April 2006, these soldiers were court-martialed, convicted, sentenced to military prison, and dishonorably discharged from service. Two soldiers, found to have perpetrated many of the worst offenses at the prison, Specialist Charles Graner and PFC Lynndie England, were subject to more severe charges and received harsher sentences. Graner was convicted of assault, battery, conspiracy, maltreatment of detainees, committing indecent acts and dereliction of duty; he was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment and loss of rank, pay and benefits.[10] England was convicted of conspiracy, maltreating detainees and committing an indecent act and sentenced to three years in prison.[11] Brigadier General Janis Karpinski, the commanding officer of all detention facilities in Iraq, was reprimanded and demoted to the rank of colonel. Several more military personnel who were accused of perpetrating or authorizing the measures, including many of higher rank, were not prosecuted. In 2004, President George W. Bush and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld apologized for the Abu Ghraib abuses.

Background

War on terror

Main article: War on terror

The war on terror, also known as the Global War on Terrorism, is an international military campaign launched by the United States government after the September 11 attacks.[12] U.S. President George W. Bush first used the phrase "war on terrorism" on September 16, 2001,[13][14] and then used the phrase "war on terror" a few days later in a speech to Congress.[15][16] In the latter speech, Bush stated, "Our enemy is a radical network of terrorists and every government that supports them."[16][17]

Iraq War

Main article: Iraq War

The Iraq War began in March 2003 as an invasion of Ba'athist Iraq by a force led by the United States.[18][19] The Ba'athist government led by Saddam Hussein was toppled within a month. This conflict was followed by a longer phase of fighting in which an insurgency emerged to oppose the occupying forces and the post-invasion Iraqi government.[20] During this insurgency, the United States was in the role of an occupying power.[20]

Abu Ghraib prison

Further information: Abu Ghraib prison

The Abu Ghraib prison in the town of Abu Ghraib was one of the most notorious prisons in Iraq during the government of Saddam Hussein. The prison was used to hold approximately 50,000 men and women in poor conditions, and torture and execution were frequent.[21] The prison was located on about 110 hectares of land 32 kilometers west of Baghdad.[22] After the collapse of Saddam Hussein's government, the prison was looted and everything that was removable was carried away. Following the invasion, the U.S. army refurbished it and turned it into a military prison.[21] It was the largest of several detention centers in Iraq used by the U.S. military.[23] In March 2004, during the time that the U.S. military was using the Abu Ghraib prison as a detention facility, it housed approximately 7,490 prisoners.[24] At its peak, it held an estimated 8000 detainees.[25]

Three categories of prisoners were imprisoned at Abu Ghraib by the U.S. military. These were "common criminals", as well as individuals suspected of being leaders of the insurgency and individuals suspected of committing crimes against the occupational force led by the U.S.[26] Although most prisoners lived in tents in the yard, the abuses took place inside cell blocks 1a and 1b.[22] The 800th Military Police Brigade, from Uniondale, New York, was responsible for running the prison.[23] The brigade was commanded by Brigadier General Janis Karpinski, who was in charge of all of the U.S.-run prisons in Iraq. She did not have previous experience in running a prison.[26] The individuals who committed abuses at the prison were members of the 372nd Military Police Company, which was a constituent of the 320th Military Police Battalion, which was overseen by Karpinski's Brigade headquarters.[27]

The Fay Report noted that "contracting-related issues contributed to the problems at Abu Ghraib prison". Over half the interrogators working at the prison were employees of CACI International, while Titan Corporation supplied linguistics personnel. In his report, General Fay notes that "The general policy of not contracting for intelligence functions and services was designed in part to avoid many of the problems that eventually developed at Abu Ghraib".[28]

First reports of human rights abuses

 
Lynndie England holding a leash attached to a naked male prisoner, known to the guards as "Gus"

In June 2003, Amnesty International published reports of human rights abuses by the U.S. military and its coalition partners at detention centers and prisons in Iraq.[29] These included reports of brutal treatment at Abu Ghraib prison, which had once been used by the government of Saddam Hussein, and had been taken over by the United States after the invasion. On June 20, 2003, Abdel Salam Sidahmed, Deputy Director of AI's Middle East Program, described an uprising by the prisoners against the conditions of their detention, saying "The notorious Abu Ghraib Prison, centre of torture and mass executions under Saddam Hussein, is yet again a prison cut off from the outside world. On June 13, there was a protest in this prison against indefinite detention without trial. Troops from the occupying powers killed one person and wounded seven."[29]

On July 23, 2003, Amnesty International issued a press release condemning widespread human rights abuses by U.S. and coalition forces. The release stated that prisoners had been exposed to extreme heat, not provided clothing, and forced to use open trenches for toilets. They had also been tortured, with the methods including denial of sleep for extended periods, exposure to bright lights and loud music, and being restrained in uncomfortable positions.[30]

On November 1, 2003, the Associated Press presented a special report on the massive human rights abuses at Abu Ghraib. Their report began; "In Iraq's American detention camps, forbidden talk can earn a prisoner hours bound and stretched out in the sun, and detainees swinging tent poles rise up regularly against their jailers, according to recently released Iraqis." The report went on to describe abuse of the prisoners at the hands of their American captors: "'They confined us like sheep,' the newly freed Saad Naif, 38, said of the Americans. 'They hit people. They humiliated people.'" In response, U.S. Brigadier General Janis Karpinski, who oversaw all U.S. detention facilities in Iraq, claimed that prisoners were being treated "humanely and fairly".[31] The AP report also stated that as of November 1, 2003, there were two legal cases pending against U.S. military personnel; one involving the beating of an Iraqi prisoner, while the other arose out of the death of a prisoner in custody.[31]

Since the beginning of the invasion, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) had been allowed to oversee the prison, and submitted reports about the treatment of the prisoners. In response to an ICRC report, Karpinski stated that several of the prisoners were intelligence assets, and therefore not entitled to complete protection under the Geneva Conventions.[23] The ICRC reports led to Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, the commander of the Iraqi task force, appointing Major General Antonio Taguba to investigate the allegations on January 1, 2004.[23] Taguba submitted his findings (the Taguba Report) in February 2004, stating that "numerous incidents of sadistic, blatant, and wanton criminal abuses were inflicted on several detainees. This systemic and illegal abuse of detainees was intentionally perpetrated by several members of the military police guard force."[23] The report stated that there was widespread evidence of this abuse, including photographic evidence. The report was not released publicly.[21][32]

The scandal came to widespread public attention in April 2004, when a 60 Minutes II news report was aired on April 28 by CBS News, describing the abuse, including pictures showing military personnel taunting naked prisoners.[9][22][23][33] An article was published by Seymour M. Hersh in The New Yorker magazine, posted online on April 30 and published days later in the May 10 issue,[21] which also had a widespread impact.[33] The photographs were subsequently reproduced in the press across the world.[23] The details of the Taguba report were made public in May 2004. Shortly afterwards, U.S. President George W. Bush stated that the individuals responsible would be "brought to justice", while United Nations General Secretary Kofi Annan said that the effort to reconstruct a government in Iraq had been badly damaged.[23]

Authorization of torture

 
Sergeant Smith, a dog handler, uses a dog to scare a bound prisoner.
 
Sergeant Frederick interrogates a detainee chained to his cell wall in an uncomfortable position.

Executive order

On December 21, 2004, the American Civil Liberties Union released copies of internal memoranda from the Federal Bureau of Investigation that it had obtained under the Freedom of Information Act. These discussed torture and abuse at prisons in Guantanamo Bay detention camp, Afghanistan, and Iraq. One memorandum dated May 22, 2004 was from an individual described as the "On Scene Commander – Baghdad", but whose name had been redacted.[34] This individual referred explicitly to an executive order that sanctioned the use of extraordinary interrogation tactics by U.S. military personnel. The torture methods sanctioned included sleep deprivation, hooding prisoners, playing loud music, removing all detainees' clothing, forcing them to stand in so-called "stress positions", and the use of dogs. The author also stated that the Pentagon had limited use of the techniques by requiring specific authorization from the chain of command. The author identifies "physical beatings, sexual humiliation or touching" as being outside the Executive Order. This was the first internal evidence since the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse affair became public in April 2004 that forms of coercion of captives had been mandated by the president of the United States.[35]

Authorization from Ricardo Sanchez

Documents obtained by The Washington Post and the ACLU showed that Ricardo Sanchez, who was a Lieutenant General and the senior U.S. military officer in Iraq, authorized the use of military dogs, temperature extremes, reversed sleep patterns, and sensory deprivation as interrogation methods in Abu Ghraib.[36] A November 2004 report by Brigadier General Richard Formica found that many troops at the Abu Ghraib prison had been following orders based on a memorandum from Sanchez, and that the abuse had not been carried out by isolated "criminal" elements.[37] ACLU lawyer Amrit Singh said in a statement from the union that "General Sanchez authorized interrogation techniques that were in clear violation of the Geneva Conventions and the army's own standards."[38] In an interview for her hometown newspaper The Signal, Karpinski stated that she had seen unreleased documents from Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld which authorized the use of these tactics on Iraqi prisoners.[39]

Alleged authorization from Donald Rumsfeld

A 2004 report by the New Yorker stated that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld had authorized the interrogation tactics used in Abu Ghraib, and which had previously been used by the U.S. in Afghanistan.[40] In November 2006, Janis Karpinski, who had been in charge of Abu Ghraib prison until early 2004, told Spain's El País newspaper that she had seen a letter signed by Rumsfeld, which allowed civilian contractors to use techniques such as sleep deprivation during interrogation. "The methods consisted of making prisoners stand for long periods, sleep deprivation... playing music at full volume, having to sit in uncomfortably ... Rumsfeld authorized these specific techniques."[41] According to Karpinski, the handwritten signature was above his printed name, and the comment "Make sure this is accomplished" was in the margin in the same hand-writing.[41] Neither the Pentagon nor U.S. Army spokespeople in Iraq commented on the accusation. In 2006, a criminal complaint was filed in a German Court against Donald Rumsfeld by eight former soldiers and intelligence operatives, including Karpinski and former army counterintelligence special agent David DeBatto. Among other things, the complaint stated that Rumsfeld both knew of and authorized so-called "enhanced interrogation techniques" that he knew to be illegal under international law.[41][42][43][44][45]

 
An Iraqi detainee with human excreta smeared on his face and body

Prisoner abuse

Death of Manadel al-Jamadi

Main article: Manadel al-Jamadi

Manadel al-Jamadi, a prisoner at Abu Ghraib prison, died after CIA officer Mark Swanner[46] and a private contractor ("identified in military-court papers only as 'Clint C.'"[46]) interrogated and tortured him in November 2003. After al-Jamadi's death, his corpse was packed in ice; the corpse was in the background for widely reprinted photographs of grinning U.S. Army specialists Sabrina Harman and Charles Graner, each of whom offered a "thumbs-up" gesture. Al-Jamadi had been a suspect in a bomb attack that killed 12 people in a Baghdad Red Cross facility, even though there was no confirmation of his involvement in these attacks.[47] A military autopsy declared al-Jamadi's death a homicide. No one has been charged with his death. In 2011, Attorney General Eric Holder said that he had opened a full criminal investigation into al-Jamadi's death.[48] In August 2012, Holder announced that no criminal charges would be brought.[49]

Prisoner rape

 
Prisoners staged to make it appear they were performing sexual acts

Stripping prisoners of their clothes was a common form of sexual humiliation and degradation during the torture at Abu Ghraib.[citation needed] In 2004, Antonio Taguba, a major general in the U.S. Army, wrote in the Taguba Report that a detainee had been sodomized with "a chemical light and perhaps a broomstick."[50] In 2009, Taguba stated that there was photographic evidence of American soldiers and translators having raped detainees at Abu Ghraib.[51] An Abu Ghraib detainee told investigators that he heard an Iraqi teenage boy screaming, and saw an Army translator raping him, while a female soldier took pictures.[52] A witness identified the alleged rapist as an American-Egyptian who worked as a translator. In 2009, he was the subject of a civil court case in the United States.[51] Another photo shows an American soldier apparently raping a female prisoner.[51] Other photos show interrogators sexually assaulting prisoners with objects including a truncheon, wire and a phosphorescent tube, and a female prisoner having her clothing forcibly removed to expose her breasts.[51] Taguba supported United States President Barack Obama's decision not to release the photos, stating, "These pictures show torture, abuse, rape and every indecency."[51] Obama, who had initially agreed to release the photographs, changed his mind after lobbying from senior military figures; Obama stated that their release could put troops in danger and "inflame anti-American public opinion".[51]

In other instances of sexual abuse, soldiers were found to have raped female inmates. Senior U.S. officials admitted that rape had taken place at Abu Ghraib.[53][54] Some of the women who had been raped became pregnant, and in some cases, were later killed by their family members in what were thought to be instances of honor killing.[55] In addition, journalist Seymour Hersh alleged in July 2004 that the Department of Defense had in its possession videos showing male children being raped by Iraqi prison staff in front of women prisoners.[56]

Other abuses

 
Specialist Charles A. Graner punching handcuffed Iraqi prisoners

In May 2004, The Washington Post reported evidence given by Ameen Saeed Al-Sheikh, detainee No. 151362. It quoted him as saying; "They said we will make you wish to die and it will not happen ... They stripped me naked. One of them told me he would rape me. He drew a picture of a woman to my back and made me stand in shameful position holding my buttocks."[52] "'Do you pray to Allah?' one asked. I said yes. They said, '[Expletive] you. And [expletive] him.' One of them said, 'You are not getting out of here health[y], you are getting out of here handicapped. And he said to me, 'Are you married?' I said, 'Yes.' They said, 'If your wife saw you like this, she will be disappointed.' One of them said, 'But if I saw her now she would not be disappointed now because I would rape her.'" "They ordered me to thank Jesus that I'm alive." "I said to him, 'I believe in Allah.' So he said, 'But I believe in torture and I will torture you.'"[52]

On January 12, 2005, The New York Times reported on further testimony from Abu Ghraib detainees. The abuses reported included urinating on detainees, pounding wounded limbs with metal batons, pouring phosphoric acid on detainees, and tying ropes to the detainees' legs or penises and dragging them across the floor.[57]

 
Sabrina Harman poses for a photo behind naked Iraqi detainees forced to form a human pyramid, while Charles Graner watches.

In her video diary, a prison guard said that prisoners were shot for minor misbehavior, and claimed to have had venomous snakes used to bite prisoners, sometimes resulting in their deaths. The guard said that she was "in trouble" for having thrown rocks at the detainees.[58] Hashem Muhsen, one of the naked prisoners in the human pyramid photo, later said the men were also forced to crawl around the floor naked while soldiers rode them like donkeys.[59]

Systematic torture

 
A detainee handcuffed in the nude to a bed with underwear covering his face

On May 7, 2004, Pierre Krähenbühl, operations director for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), stated that inspection visits made by the ICRC to detention centers run by the U.S. and its allies showed that acts of prisoner abuse were not isolated acts, but were part of a "pattern and a broad system". He went on to say that some of the incidents they had observed were "tantamount to torture".[60]

Many of the torture techniques used were developed at Guantánamo detention center, including prolonged isolation; the frequent flyer program, a sleep deprivation program whereby people were moved from cell to cell every few hours so they could not sleep for days, weeks, or even months; short shackling in painful positions; nudity; extreme use of heat and cold; the use of loud music and noise; and preying on phobias.[61]

Armed forces in the U.S. and the UK are jointly trained in techniques known as resistance to interrogation (R2I) techniques. These R2I techniques are taught ostensibly to help soldiers cope with, or resist, torture if they are captured. On May 8, 2004, The Guardian reported that according to a former British special forces officer, the acts committed by the Abu Ghraib prison military personnel resembled the techniques used in R2I training.[62]

The same report stated the following:

The US commander in charge of military jails in Iraq, Major General Geoffrey Miller, has confirmed that a battery of 50-odd special "coercive techniques" can be used against enemy detainees. The general, who previously ran the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, said his main role was to extract as much intelligence as possible.

— The Guardian

Historian Alfred W. McCoy, who authored a book on torture in the Philippines armed forces, noted similarities in the abusive treatment of prisoners at Abu Ghraib and the techniques described in the KUBARK Counterintelligence Interrogation manual published by the United States Central Intelligence Agency in 1963. He asserts that what he calls "the CIA's no-touch torture methods" have been in continuous use by the CIA and the U.S. military intelligence since that time.[63][64]

Casualties

A 2006 study tried to count the number of deaths by looking at public domain reports, as total figures had not been given by the U.S. government. It counted 63 detainee deaths at Abu Ghraib from all causes. Of these, 36 occurred due to insurgent mortar attacks, others were due to natural causes and homicide.[65]

The issue of deaths due to mortar attack received criticism. The Geneva Convention requires prisoners not be kept at facilities vulnerable to artillery attack.[65] As Abu Ghraib was located in the combat zone,[66] its vulnerability to such an attack had been raised early on, but ultimately it was decided to keep the prisoners there.[65][67] No other U.S. detention facility in Iraq suffered casualties due to mortar attacks.[65]

Media coverage

Associated Press report, 2003

 
A victim is intimidated, or threatened, by at least two dogs

On November 1, 2003, the Associated Press published a lengthy report on inhumane treatment, beatings, and deaths at Abu Ghraib and other American prisons in Iraq.[68] This report was based on interviews with released detainees, who told journalist Charles J. Hanley that inmates had been attacked by dogs, made to wear hoods, and humiliated in other ways.[69] The article gained little notice.[70] One freed detainee said that he wished somebody would publish pictures of what was happening.[69]

When the U.S. military first acknowledged the abuse in early 2004, much of the United States media showed little initial interest. On January 16, 2004, United States Central Command informed the media that an official investigation had begun involving abuse and humiliation of Iraqi detainees by a group of U.S. soldiers. On February 24, it was reported that 17 soldiers had been suspended. The military announced on March 21, 2004, that the first charges had been filed against six soldiers.[71][72] None of these stories received significant coverage in the mainstream press.[citation needed]

60 Minutes II broadcast, 2004

 
Lynndie England pointing to a naked prisoner being forced to masturbate in front of her[73]
 
Sergeant Ivan Frederick sitting on an Iraqi detainee between two stretchers

In late April 2004, the U.S. television news-magazine 60 Minutes II, a franchise of CBS, broadcast a story on the abuse. The story included photographs depicting the abuse of prisoners.[74] The news segment was delayed by two weeks at the request of the Department of Defense and Richard Myers, an air force general and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. After learning that The New Yorker magazine planned to publish an article and photographs on the topic in its next issue, CBS proceeded to broadcast its report on April 28.[75] In the CBS report, Dan Rather interviewed then-deputy director of Coalition operations in Iraq, Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, who said:

The first thing I'd say is we're appalled as well. These are our fellow soldiers. These are the people we work with every day, and they represent us. They wear the same uniform as us, and they let their fellow soldiers down ... Our soldiers could be taken prisoner as well. And we expect our soldiers to be treated well by the adversary, by the enemy. And if we can't hold ourselves up as an example of how to treat people with dignity and respect ... We can't ask that other nations do that to our soldiers as well. ... So what would I tell the people of Iraq? This is wrong. This is reprehensible. But this is not representative of the 150,000 soldiers that are over here ... I'd say the same thing to the American people ... Don't judge your army based on the actions of a few.[74]

Kimmitt also acknowledged that he knew of other cases of abuse during the American occupation of Iraq.[74] Bill Cowan, a former Marine lieutenant colonel, was also interviewed, and said: "We went into Iraq to stop things like this from happening, and indeed, here they are happening under our tutelage."[74] In addition, Rather interviewed Army Reserve Staff Sergeant Ivan Frederick, who was party to some of the abuses. Frederick's civilian job was as a corrections officer at a Virginia prison. He said, "We had no support, no training whatsoever. And I kept asking my chain of command for certain things ... like rules and regulations, and it just wasn't happening."[74] Frederick's video diary, sent home from Iraq, provided some of the images used in the story. In it he listed detailed, dated entries that chronicled abuse of CIA prisoners, as well as their names: "The next day the medics came in and put his body on a stretcher, placed a fake [intravenous drip] in his arm and took him away. This [CIA prisoner] was never processed and therefore never had a number."[76] Frederick implicated the Military Intelligence Corps as well, saying "MI has been present and witnessed such activity. MI has encouraged and told us great job [and] that they were now getting positive results and information."[76]

New Yorker article, 2004

In 2004, Seymour M. Hersh authored an article in The New Yorker magazine discussing the abuses in detail, relying on a copy of the Taguba report for substantiation. Under the direction of editor David Remnick, the magazine also posted a report on its website by Hersh, along with a number of images of the torture taken by U.S. military prison guards. The article, entitled "Torture at Abu Ghraib", was followed in the next two weeks by two further articles on the same subject, "Chain of Command" and "The Gray Zone", also by Hersh.[75]

Later coverage, 2006

In February 2006, previously unreleased photos and videos were broadcast by SBS, an Australian television network, on its Dateline program. The Bush administration attempted to prevent release of the images in the U.S., arguing that their publication could provoke antagonism. These newly released photographs depicted prisoners crawling on the floor naked, being forced to perform sexual acts, and being covered in feces. Some images also showed prisoners killed by the soldiers, some shot in the head and some with slit throats. BBC World News stated that one of the prisoners, who was reportedly mentally unstable, was considered by prison guards as a "pet" for torture.[77] The UN expressed hope that the pictures would be investigated immediately, but the Pentagon stated that the images "have been previously investigated as part of the Abu Ghraib investigation."[78]

On March 15, 2006, Salon published what was then the most extensive documentation of the abuse.[79] A report accessed by Salon included the following summary of the material: "A review of all the computer media submitted to this office revealed a total of 1,325 images of suspected detainee abuse, 93 video files of suspected detainee abuse, 660 images of adult pornography, 546 images of suspected dead Iraqi detainees, 29 images of soldiers in simulated sexual acts, 20 images of a soldier with a Swastika drawn between his eyes, 37 images of Military Working dogs being used in abuse of detainees and 125 images of questionable acts."[79]

Reactions

 
Sabrina Harman stitching a wound on a bound Iraqi detainee
 
Charles A. Graner applies sutures to the chin of a bound detainee
 
Megan Ambuhl forces an injection into a bound detainee

Response of U.S. government

The Bush administration did not initially acknowledge the abuses at Abu Ghraib. After the pictures were published and the evidence became incontrovertible, the initial reaction from the administration characterized the scandal as an isolated incident uncharacteristic of U.S. actions in Iraq.[9] Bush described the abuses as the actions of a few individuals, who were disregarding the values of the US.[9] This view was widely disputed, notably in Arab countries. In addition, the International Red Cross had been making representations about abuse of prisoners for more than a year before the scandal broke.[80] Vice President Dick Cheney's office had played a central role in eliminating limits on coercion in U.S. custody, commissioning and defending legal opinions that the administration later portrayed as the initiatives of lower-ranking officials.[81]

On May 7, 2004, President Bush publicly apologized for the abuse of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib, stating that he was "sorry for the humiliations suffered by the Iraqi prisoners and the humiliations suffered by their families". In an appearance with King Abdullah II of Jordan, Bush said he had told the king that he was "equally sorry that the people that have been seeing those pictures did not understand the true nature and the heart of America, and I assured him that Americans like me didn't appreciate what we saw and it made us sick to our stomachs". Describing the abuse as "abhorrent" and "a stain on our country's honor and our country's reputation", Bush added that "those responsible for the maltreatment 'will be brought to justice'" and that he would prevent the occurrence of future abuses.[82]

On the same day, United States Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said the following in a hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee:

These events occurred on my watch. As Secretary of Defense, I am accountable for them. I take full responsibility. It is my obligation to evaluate what happened, to make sure those who have committed wrongdoing are brought to justice, and to make changes as needed to see that it doesn't happen again. I feel terrible about what happened to these Iraqi detainees. They are human beings. They were in U.S. custody. Our country had an obligation to treat them right. We didn't do that. That was wrong. To those Iraqis who were mistreated by members of U.S. armed forces, I offer my deepest apology. It was un-American. And it was inconsistent with the values of our nation.[83]

He also commented on the very existence of the evidence of abuse:

We're functioning in a—with peacetime restraints, 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, when they had not even arrived in the Pentagon.[84]

Rumsfeld was careful to draw a distinction between abuse and torture: "What has been charged so far is abuse, which I believe technically is different from torture. I'm not going to address the 'torture' word."[85]

Several senators commented on Rumsfeld's testimony. Lindsey Graham stated that "the American public needs to understand we're talking about rape and murder here."[86] Norm Coleman said that "It was pretty disgusting, not what you'd expect from Americans".[87] Ben Nighthorse Campbell said "I don't know how the hell these people got into our army".[88][89]

James Inhofe, a Republican member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services, stated that the events were being blown out of proportion: "I'm probably not the only one up at this table that is more outraged by the outrage than we are by the treatment ... [They] are not there for traffic violations. ... these prisoners—they're murderers, they're terrorists, they're insurgents. ... Many of them probably have American blood on their hands. And here we're so concerned about the treatment of those individuals."[90]

On May 26, 2004, Al Gore gave a sharply critical speech on the scandal and the Iraq War. He called for the resignations of Rumsfeld, National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, CIA Director George Tenet, Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Douglas J. Feith, and Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence Stephen A. Cambone, for encouraging policies that led to the abuse of Iraqi prisoners and fanned hatred of Americans abroad. Gore also called the Bush administration's Iraq war plan "incompetent" and described Bush as the most dishonest president since Richard Nixon. Gore commented; "In Iraq, what happened at that prison, it is now clear, is not the result of random acts of a few bad apples. It was the natural consequence of the Bush Administration policy."[91][better source needed]

The revelations were also the impetus for the creation of the Fay Report, named for its lead author George Fay, as well as the Taguba Report.[citation needed]

Following the outcry, Major General Douglas Stone was assigned to oversee the reform of the U.S. detention system in Iraq. Conditions for detainees were reportedly improved by the time of U.S. withdrawal.[92]

Iraqi response

 
A naked detainee who made himself hang upside down from his bed

The news website AsiaNews quoted Yahia Said, an Iraqi scholar at the London School of Economics, as saying: "The reception [of the news about Abu Ghraib] was surprisingly low-key in Iraq. Part of the reason was that rumors and tall stories, as well as true stories, about abuse, mass rape, and torture in the jails and in coalition custody have been going round for a long time. So compared to what people have been talking about here the pictures are quite benign. There's nothing unexpected. In fact what most people are asking is: why did they come up now? People in Iraq are always suspecting that there's some scheming going on, some agenda in releasing the pictures at this particular point."[93] CNN reporter Ben Wedeman reported that Iraqi reaction to George W. Bush's apology for the Abu Ghraib abuses was "mixed": "Some people react[ed] positively, saying that he's come out, he's dealing frankly and openly with the problem and that he has said that those involved in the abuse will be punished. On the other hand, there are many others who says it simply isn't enough, that they—many people noted that there was not a frank apology from the president for this incident. And, in fact, I have a Baghdad newspaper with me right now from—it's called 'Dar-es-Salaam.' That's from the Islam Iraqi Islamic Party. It says that an apology is not enough for the torture ... of Iraqi prisoners."[94]

General Stanley McChrystal, who held several command positions in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, said that, "In my experience, we found that nearly every first-time jihadist claimed Abu Ghraib had first jolted him into action."[95] He also said that, "mistreating detainees would discredit us. ... The pictures [from] Abu Ghraib represented a setback for America's efforts in Iraq. Simultaneously undermining U.S. domestic confidence in the way in which America was operating, and creating or reinforcing negative perceptions worldwide of American values, it fueled violence".[96]

On May 7, 2004, Nick Berg, an American businessman who went to Iraq after the U.S. invasion, was captured and decapitated on video by the Islamist militant organization al-Ansars in response to Abu Ghraib.[97]

United States media

 
A headline from The Economist, calling for Secretary Rumsfeld's resignation

Several periodicals, including The New York Times and The Boston Globe, called for Rumsfeld's resignation.[98]

Right-wing radio host Rush Limbaugh contended that the events were being blown out of proportion, stating that "this is no different than what happens at the Skull and Bones initiation, and we're going to ruin people's lives over it and we're going to hamper our military effort, and then we are going to really hammer them because they had a good time. You know, these people are being fired at every day. I'm talking about people having a good time, these people, you ever heard of emotional release? You [ever] heard of need to blow some steam off?"[7][99] Conservative talk show host Michael Savage said, "Instead of putting joysticks, I would have liked to have seen dynamite put in their orifices", and that "we need more of the humiliation tactics, not less." He repeatedly referred to Abu Ghraib prison as "Grab-an-Arab" prison.[100][101]

Global reaction

 
A picture, released in 2006, shows several naked Iraqis in hoods, of whom one has the words "I'm a rapeist" (sic) written on his hip.

The torture? A more serious blow to the United States than September 11, 2001 attacks. Except that the blow was not inflicted by terrorists but by Americans against themselves.

— Archbishop Giovanni Lajolo, foreign minister of the Holy See.[102]

The cover of the British periodical, The Economist, which had backed President Bush in the 2000 election, carried a photo of the abuse with the words "Resign, Rumsfeld".

The Bahraini English-language newspaper Daily Tribune wrote on May 5, 2004, that "The blood-boiling pictures will make more people inside and outside Iraq determined to carry out attacks against the Americans and British." The Qatari Arabic-language Al-Watan predicted on May 3, 2004 that due to the abuse, "The Iraqis now feel very angry and that will cause revenge to restore the humiliated dignity."[103]

On May 10, 2004, swastika-covered posters of Abu Ghraib abuse photographs were attached to several graves at the Commonwealth military cemetery in Gaza City. Thirty-two graves of soldiers killed in World War I were desecrated or destroyed.[104] In November 2008, Lord Bingham, the former UK Law Lord, describing the treatment of Iraqi detainees in Abu Ghraib, said: "Particularly disturbing to proponents of the rule of law is the cynical lack of concern for international legality among some top officials in the Bush administration."[105]

Scholarly analysis

In 2008, scholars Alette Smeulers and Sander van Niekerk published an article entitled "Abu Ghraib and the War on Terror—a case against Donald Rumsfeld?".[9] According to the authors, the September 11 attacks led to demands from the public that U.S. president George W. Bush take actions that would prevent further attacks.[9] This pressure led to the launch of the War on Terror.[9][better source needed] Smeulers and van Niekerk argued that because the perceived enemies in the War on Terror were stateless individuals, and because the perceived threats included extreme strategies such as suicide bombing, the Bush administration was under pressure to act decisively in the War on Terror.[9] In addition, these tactics created the perception that the "legitimate" techniques used in the Cold War would not be of much use. The article noted that Vice President Dick Cheney has stated that the United States "[had] to work sort of on the dark side", and that it had to "use any means at [its] disposal".[9] Smeulers and van Niekerk opined that the abuses at Abu Ghraib constituted state-sanctioned crimes.[9] Scholar Michelle Brown agreed.[8]

A number of feminist academics have examined how ideas of masculinity and race likely influenced the violence perpetrated at Abu Ghraib.[106] Laura Sjoberg, for example, has argued that the sexual humiliation of detainees was meant to mark "the victory of hegemonic American manliness over subordinated Iraqi masculinities."[107] Similarly, Jasbir Puar’s book Terrorist Assemblages: Homonationalism in Queer Times (2007) examines the feminist, queer, and American government’s response to the Abu Ghraib photographs. Puar draws upon queer theory and biopolitics, among other frameworks, in her analysis and coins the term "homonationalism," short for "homonormative nationalism."[108] She discusses ideas that the soldiers’ beliefs of American cultural supremacy over the "sexually repressed" and "homophobic" Muslim detainees were used to dehumanize the victims.[109]

Repercussions

Convictions of soldiers

 
Naval Consolidated Brig, Miramar, where England and Harman served their sentences

Eleven soldiers were convicted of various charges relating to the incidents, with all of the convictions including the charge of dereliction of duty. Most soldiers only received minor sentences. Three other soldiers were either cleared of charges or were not charged. No one was convicted for the murders of the detainees.

  • Colonel Thomas Pappas was relieved of his command on May 13, 2005, after receiving non-judicial punishment for two instances of dereliction of duty, including that of allowing dogs to be present during interrogations. He was fined $8000 under the provisions of Article 15 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (non-judicial punishment). He also received a General Officer Memorandum of Reprimand which effectively ended his military career. He did not face criminal prosecution.[110]
  • Lieutenant Colonel Steven L. Jordan became the second highest-ranking officer to have charges brought against him in connection with the Abu Ghraib abuse on April 29, 2006.[111] Prior to his trial, eight of the twelve charges against him were dismissed, including two of the most serious, after Major General George Fay admitted that he did not read Jordan his rights before interviewing him. On August 28, 2007, Jordan was acquitted of all charges related to prisoner mistreatment and received a reprimand for disobeying an order not to discuss a 2004 investigation into the allegations.[112]
  • Specialist Charles Graner was found guilty on January 14, 2005, of conspiracy to maltreat detainees, failing to protect detainees from abuse, cruelty, and maltreatment, as well as charges of assault, indecency, adultery, and obstruction of justice. On January 15, 2005, he was sentenced to 10 years in prison, dishonorable discharge, and reduction in rank to private.[10][113] Graner was paroled from the U.S. military's Fort Leavenworth prison on August 6, 2011, after serving six-and-a-half years.[114]
  • Staff Sergeant Ivan Frederick pleaded guilty on October 20, 2004, to conspiracy, dereliction of duty, maltreatment of detainees, assault and committing an indecent act, in exchange for other charges being dropped. His abuses included forcing three prisoners to masturbate. He also punched one prisoner so hard in the chest that he needed resuscitation. He was sentenced to eight years in prison, forfeiture of pay, a dishonorable discharge and a reduction in rank to private.[115][116][117][118] He was released on parole in October 2007, after four years in prison.[119]
  • Sergeant Javal Davis pleaded guilty on February 4, 2005, to dereliction of duty, making false official statements, and battery. He was sentenced to six months in prison, a reduction in rank to private, and a bad conduct discharge. Davis had admitted to stepping on the hands and feet of a group of handcuffed detainees and falling with his full weight on top of them.[120]
  • Specialist Jeremy Sivits was sentenced on May 19, 2004, by a special court-martial to the maximum one-year sentence, in addition to a bad conduct discharge and a reduction of rank to private, upon his guilty plea.[121] He died from COVID-19 in 2022.
  • Specialist Armin Cruz was sentenced on September 11, 2004, to eight months' confinement, reduction in rank to private and a bad conduct discharge in exchange for his testimony against other soldiers.[122]
  • Specialist Sabrina Harman was sentenced on May 17, 2005, to six months in prison and a bad conduct discharge after being convicted on six of the seven counts. Previously, she had faced a maximum sentence of five years.[123] Harman served her sentence at Naval Consolidated Brig, Miramar.[124]
  • Specialist Megan Ambuhl was convicted on October 30, 2004, of dereliction of duty. She was dishonorably discharged, reduced in rank to private, and ordered to forfeit half a month of pay.[125]
  • Private First Class Lynndie England was convicted on September 26, 2005, of one count of conspiracy, four counts of maltreating detainees and one count of committing an indecent act. She was acquitted on a second conspiracy count. England had faced a maximum sentence of ten years. She was sentenced on September 27, 2005, to three years' confinement, forfeiture of all pay and allowances, reduction to Private (E-1) and received a dishonorable discharge.[117] England served her sentence at Naval Consolidated Brig, Miramar.[126] She was paroled on March 1, 2007, after having served one year and five months.[126]
  • Sergeant Santos Cardona was convicted of dereliction of duty and aggravated assault, the equivalent of a felony in the U.S. civilian justice system. Cardona was sentenced to 90 days of hard labor, which he served at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.[127] He was also fined and demoted. Cardona was unable to re-enlist due to his conviction. However, on September 29, 2007, Cardona left the Army with an honorable discharge.[128] In 2009, he was killed in action while working as a government contractor in Afghanistan.[128]
  • Specialist Roman Krol pleaded guilty on February 1, 2005, to conspiracy and maltreatment of detainees at Abu Ghraib. He was sentenced to ten months' confinement, reduction in rank to Private, and a bad conduct discharge.[129]
  • Specialist Israel Rivera, who was present during abuse on October 25, was under investigation but was never charged and testified against other soldiers.[130][122]
  • Sergeant Michael Smith was found guilty on March 21, 2006, of two counts of prisoner maltreatment, one count of simple assault, one count of conspiracy to maltreat, one count of dereliction of duty and a final charge of an indecent act, and sentenced to 179 days in prison, a fine of $2,250, a demotion to private, and a bad conduct discharge.[131]

Senior personnel

  • Brigadier General Janis Karpinski, who had been commanding officer at the prison, was demoted to colonel on May 5, 2005. In a BBC interview, Janis Karpinski said that she was being made a scapegoat, and that the top U.S. commander for Iraq, General Ricardo Sanchez, should be asked what he knew about the abuse.[132] Karpinski told a reporter in 2014 that military intelligence personnel had told her that 90 percent of the inmates were innocent of the crimes of which they had been accused and had been detained simply by virtue of having been in the wrong place at the wrong time.[133]
  • Donald Rumsfeld stated in February 2005 that as a result of the Abu Ghraib scandal, he had twice offered to resign from his post of Secretary of Defense, but U.S. President George W. Bush declined both offers.[134]
  • Jay Bybee, the author of the Justice Department memo defining torture as activity producing pain equivalent to the pain experienced during death and organ failure,[135] was nominated by President Bush to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, where he began service in 2003.[136]
  • Michael Chertoff, who as head of the Justice Department's criminal division advised the CIA on the outer limits of legality in coercive interrogation sessions, was selected by President Bush to fill the cabinet-level vacancy at Secretary of Homeland Security created by the departure of Tom Ridge.[137][138]
  • Karpinski's immediate operational supervisor and Sanchez's deputy, Major General Walter Wojdakowski, was cleared of all charges, and was subsequently appointed Chief of the U.S. Army Infantry School at Fort Benning.[139]
  • Pappas's boss, Barbara Fast, was subsequently appointed Chief of the U.S. Army Intelligence Center at Fort Huachuca.[140]

The Final Report of the Independent Panel to Review Department of Defense detention operations specifically absolved U.S. military and political leadership from culpability: "The Panel finds no evidence that organizations above the 800th MP brigade or the 205th MI Brigade-level were directly involved in the incidents at Abu Ghraib."[141]

Legal issues

International law

The United States has ratified the United Nations Convention against Torture and the Third and Fourth Geneva Conventions. The Bush Administration took the position that: "Both the United States and Iraq are parties to the Geneva Conventions. The United States recognizes that these treaties are binding in the war for the 'liberation of Iraq'".[142]

 
Detainee after dog bite

The Convention Against Torture defines torture in the following terms:

For the purposes of this Convention, the term "torture" means any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person, information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity. It does not include pain or suffering arising only from, inherent in or incidental to lawful sanctions.

— United Nations Convention Against Torture, (Article 1)
 
A prisoner with possible wounds from non-lethal ammunition.

According to Human Rights Watch:

Al-Qaeda detainees would likely not be accorded Prisoner of War (POW) status, but the Conventions still provide explicit protections to all persons held in an international armed conflict, even if they are not entitled to POW status. Such protections include the right to be free from coercive interrogation, to receive a fair trial if charged with a criminal offense, and, in the case of detained civilians, to be able to appeal periodically the security rationale for continued detention.[143]

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) concluded in its confidential February 2004 report to the Coalition Forces (CF) that it had documented "serious violations" of international law in connection with prisoners held in Iraq. The ICRD added that its report "establishes that persons deprived of their liberty face the risk of being subjected to a process of physical and psychological coercion, in some cases tantamount to torture, in the early stages of the internment process".[80] There were several major violations described in the ICRC report. These included brutality against protected persons upon capture and initial custody, sometimes causing death or serious injury; absence of notification of arrest of persons deprived of their liberty to their families causing distress among persons deprived of their liberty and their families; physical or psychological coercion during interrogation to secure information; prolonged solitary confinement in cells devoid of daylight; excessive and disproportionate use of force against persons deprived of their liberty resulting in death or injury during their period of internment.[80]

Some legal experts have said that the United States could be obligated to try some of its soldiers for war crimes.[citation needed] Under the Third and Fourth Geneva Conventions, prisoners of war and civilians detained in a war may not be treated in a degrading manner, and violation of that section is a "grave breach". In a November 5, 2003 report on prisons in Iraq, the Army's provost marshal, Major General Donald J. Ryder, stated that the conditions under which prisoners were held sometimes violated the Geneva Conventions.[citation needed]

United Nations resolution 1546

In December 2005, John Pace, human rights chief for the United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI), criticized the U.S. military's practice of holding Iraqi prisoners in Iraqi facilities such as Abu Ghraib. Pace stated that this practice was not mandated by UN Resolution 1546, according to which the U.S. government has claimed a legal mandate permitting its ongoing occupation of Iraq. Pace said, "All except those held by the Ministry of Justice are, technically speaking, held against the law because the Ministry of Justice is the only authority that is empowered by law to detain, to hold anybody in prison. Essentially none of these people have any real recourse to protection and therefore we speak ... of a total breakdown in the protection of the individual in this country."[144]

Torture Memos

Alberto Gonzales and other senior administration lawyers argued that detainees at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp and other similar prisons should be considered "unlawful combatants" and were not protected by the Geneva Conventions. These opinions were issued in multiple memoranda, known today as the "Torture Memos", in August 2002, by the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) in the U.S. Justice Department.[145] They were written by John Yoo, deputy assistant attorney-general in the OLC, and two of three were signed by his boss Jay S. Bybee. (The latter was appointed as a federal judge in 2003, starting March 21, 2003.) An additional memo was issued on March 14, 2003, after the resignation of Bybee, and just prior to the American invasion of Iraq. In it, Yoo concluded that federal laws prohibiting the use of torture did not apply to U.S. practices overseas.[146] Gonzales observed that denying coverage under the Geneva Conventions, "substantially reduces the threat of domestic criminal prosecution under the War Crimes Act."[147] Congresswoman Elizabeth Holtzman wrote that Gonzales's statement suggested that policy was crafted to ensure that the actions of U.S. officials could not be considered war crimes.[147][148][149][150]

Other legal proceedings

In Hamdan v. Rumsfeld (2006), the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Common Article Three of the Geneva Conventions applied to all detainees in the War on Terror. It said that the military tribunals used to try these suspects were in violation of U.S. and international law. It said that the president could not unilaterally establish such tribunals, and that Congress needed to authorize a means by which detainees could confront their accusers and challenge their detention.[151]

On June 27, 2011, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the appeals of lawsuits from a group of 250 Iraqis who wanted to sue CACI International Inc. and Titan Corp. (now a subsidiary of L-3 Communications), the two private contractors at Abu Ghraib, over claims of abuse by interrogators and translators at the prison. The suits had been dismissed by the lower courts on the grounds that the companies held a derivative sovereign immunity from suits based on their status as government contractors pursuant to a battle-field preemption doctrine.[152][153]

 
Charles Graner poses over Manadel al-Jamadi's corpse, after he was tortured to death by CIA personnel.[46][79]
 
Sabrina Harman poses over the corpse of Manadel al-Jamadi, after he was tortured to death by CIA personnel.[46][79]

On November 14, 2006, legal proceedings invoking universal jurisdiction were begun in Germany against Donald Rumsfeld, Alberto Gonzales, John Yoo, George Tenet and others for their alleged involvement in prisoner abuse under the command responsibility.[154][155] On April 27, 2007, the German Public Prosecutor General, Monika Harms, announced that the government would not pursue charges against Rumsfeld and the 11 other U.S. officials, stating the accusations did not apply, in part because there was insufficient evidence that the acts occurred on German soil, and because the accused did not live in Germany.[156]

In June 2011, the Justice Department announced it was opening a grand jury investigation into CIA torture which killed a prisoner.[157][158]

In June 2014, the U.S. court of appeals in Richmond, Virginia, found that an 18th-century law known as the Alien Tort Statute, allowed non-US citizens access to U.S. courts for violations of "the law of nations or a treaty of the United States". This would enable abused Iraqis to file suit against contractor CACI International. Employees of CACI International are being accused of encouraging torture and abuse as well as taking part in it as the four Iraqis contend that they were "repeatedly shot in the head with a taser gun", "beaten on the genitals with a stick", and forced to watch the "rape [of] a female detainee", during their time at the prison.[159]

Military Commissions Act of 2006

Critics consider the Military Commissions Act of 2006 an amnesty law for crimes committed in the War on Terror by retroactively rewriting the War Crimes Act.[160] It abolished habeas corpus for foreign detainees, effectively making it impossible for detainees to challenge crimes committed against them.[161][162][163][164]

Later developments

On October 29, 2007, the memoir of a soldier stationed in Abu Ghraib, Iraq from 2005 to 2006 was published. It was called Torture Central and chronicled many events previously unreported in the news media, including torture that continued at Abu Ghraib over a year after the abuse photos were published.[165]

In 2010, the last of the prisons were turned over to the Iraqi government to run. An Associated Press article said

Despite Abu Ghraib- or perhaps because of reforms in its wake- prisoners have more recently said they receive far better treatment in American custody than in Iraqi jails.[166]

In September 2010, Amnesty International warned in a report titled New Order, Same Abuses; Unlawful Detentions and Torture in Iraq that up to 30,000 prisoners, including many veterans of the U.S. detention system, remain detained without rights in Iraq and are frequently tortured or abused. Furthermore, it describes a detention system that has not evolved since Saddam Hussein's regime, in which human rights abuses were endemic with arbitrary arrests and secret detention common and a lack of accountability throughout the military forces. Amnesty's Middle East and North Africa director, Malcolm Smart went on to say: "Iraq's security forces have been responsible for systematically violating detainees' rights and they have been permitted. U.S. authorities, whose own record on detainees' rights has been so poor, have now handed over thousands of people detained by U.S. forces to face this catalogue of illegality, violence and abuse, abdicating any responsibility for their human rights."[167]

On October 22, 2010, nearly 400,000 secret United States Army field reports and war logs, detailing torture, summary executions and war crimes, were passed on to the British paper, The Guardian, and several other international media organisations through the whistleblowing website WikiLeaks. Among other things, the logs detail how U.S. authorities failed to investigate hundreds of reports of abuse, torture, rape, and even murder by Iraqi police and soldiers, whose conduct appeared to be systematic and normally unpunished, and that U.S. troops abused prisoners for years even after the Abu Ghraib scandal.[168][169]

In 2013, Associated Press stated that Engility Holdings, of Chantilly, Virginia, paid $5.28 million in a settlement to 71 former inmates held at Abu Ghraib and other U.S.-run detention sites between 2003 and 2007. The settlement was the first successful attempt by the detainees to obtain reparations for the abuses they had experienced.[170]

In 2014, Abu Ghraib prison was closed indefinitely by the Iraqi government over concerns that ISIL would take over the facility.[171]

See also

Incidents and coverage

Other

References

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Sources

  • Hersh, Seymour M. (2004). Chain of Command: The Road from 9/11 to Abu Ghraib. New York: Harper Collins. ISBN 0-06-019591-6.
  • Master Sargeant Michael Clemens, Special Investigator (2010). The Secrets of Abu Ghraib Revealed: American Soldiers on Trial. Dulles, Virginia: Potomac Books. ISBN 978-1-59797-441-7.
  • McChrystal, Stanley A. (2013). My share of the task: A memoir. Penguin. ISBN 978-1-59184-475-4.
  • Greenberg, Karen J.; Dretel, Joshua L. (2005). The Torture Papers: The Road to Abu Ghraib. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521853248.

Further reading

  • Tucker, Bruce and Sia Triantafyllos (2008). "Lynndie England, Abu Ghraib, and the New Imperialism". Canadian Review of American Studies. 38 (1): 83–100. doi:10.3138/cras.38.1.83.
  • Clemens, Michael (2010). . Potomac Books. ISBN 978-1-59797-441-7. Archived from the original on October 1, 2011. Retrieved May 31, 2010.
  • Zimbardo, Philip (2007). The Lucifer effect: How good people turn evil. Rider. ISBN 978-1-84604-103-7. from the original on December 19, 2008. Retrieved January 11, 2009.
  • Meštrović, Stjepan (January 8, 2016). The Trials of Abu Ghraib: An Expert Witness Account of Shame and Honor. ISBN 9781317250111.
  • Markovitz, Jonathan (June 2011). "New Media and Abu Ghraib". Racial Spectacles: Explorations in Media, Race, and Justice. ISBN 9781136911262.
  • U.S. government documents related to Abu Ghraib
  • Zimbardo, Philip (January 19, 2005). "You can't be a sweet cucumber in a vinegar barrel" (Interview). 'When you put that set of horrendous work conditions and external factors together, it creates an evil barrel,' writes the eminent situationist psychologist Philip Zimbardo, known for his famous Stanford Prison Experiment in the early 70s.
  • Moise, Edwin. "Bibliography: Iraq Wars: Prisons and Prisoner Abuse" – via clemson.edu.
  • Gourevitch, Philip; Errol Morris (2008). The Ballad of Abu Ghraib. Penguin Books. ISBN 978-0-14-311539-7.

External links

  •   Media related to Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse at Wikimedia Commons
  • "Introduction: The Abu Ghraib files". Salon.com. March 14, 2006.
  • "Dateline, Abu Ghraib – The Sequel (Transcript)". Dateline. from the original on March 31, 2006 – via sbs.com.au.
  • The Torture Archive at The National Security Archive
  • "Abu Ghraib". JURIST.
  • "The Road to Abu Ghraib". Human Rights Watch. June 9, 2004. Retrieved April 14, 2021.

April 20, 2023
ghraib, torture, prisoner, abuse, during, early, stages, iraq, members, united, states, army, central, intelligence, agency, committed, series, human, rights, violations, crimes, against, detainees, ghraib, prison, iraq, including, physical, abuse, sexual, hum. During the early stages of the Iraq War members of the United States Army and the Central Intelligence Agency committed a series of human rights violations and war crimes against detainees in the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq including physical abuse sexual humiliation both physical and psychological torture rape as well the killing of Manadel al Jamadi and the desecration of his body 3 4 5 6 The abuses came to public attention with the publication of photographs of the abuse by CBS News in April 2004 The incidents caused shock and outrage receiving widespread condemnation within the United States and internationally 7 This image of a prisoner Ali Shallal al Qaisi being tortured has become internationally infamous eventually making it onto the cover of The Economist see Media coverage below 1 2 The George W Bush administration said that the abuses at Abu Ghraib were isolated incidents and not indicative of U S policy 8 9 328 This was disputed by humanitarian organizations including the Red Cross Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch these organizations stated that the abuses at Abu Ghraib were part of a wider pattern of torture and brutal treatment at American overseas detention centers including those in Iraq in Afghanistan and at Guantanamo Bay 9 328 Documents popularly known as the Torture Memos came to light a few years later These documents prepared in the months leading up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq by the United States Department of Justice authorized certain enhanced interrogation techniques generally held to involve torture of foreign detainees The memoranda also argued that international humanitarian laws such as the Geneva Conventions did not apply to American interrogators overseas Several subsequent U S Supreme Court decisions including Hamdan v Rumsfeld 2006 have overturned Bush administration policy ruling that the Geneva Conventions do apply In response to the events at Abu Ghraib the United States Department of Defense removed 17 soldiers and officers from duty Eleven soldiers were charged with dereliction of duty maltreatment aggravated assault and battery Between May 2004 and April 2006 these soldiers were court martialed convicted sentenced to military prison and dishonorably discharged from service Two soldiers found to have perpetrated many of the worst offenses at the prison Specialist Charles Graner and PFC Lynndie England were subject to more severe charges and received harsher sentences Graner was convicted of assault battery conspiracy maltreatment of detainees committing indecent acts and dereliction of duty he was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment and loss of rank pay and benefits 10 England was convicted of conspiracy maltreating detainees and committing an indecent act and sentenced to three years in prison 11 Brigadier General Janis Karpinski the commanding officer of all detention facilities in Iraq was reprimanded and demoted to the rank of colonel Several more military personnel who were accused of perpetrating or authorizing the measures including many of higher rank were not prosecuted In 2004 President George W Bush and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld apologized for the Abu Ghraib abuses Contents 1 Background 1 1 War on terror 1 2 Iraq War 1 3 Abu Ghraib prison 2 First reports of human rights abuses 3 Authorization of torture 3 1 Executive order 3 2 Authorization from Ricardo Sanchez 3 3 Alleged authorization from Donald Rumsfeld 4 Prisoner abuse 4 1 Death of Manadel al Jamadi 4 2 Prisoner rape 4 3 Other abuses 4 4 Systematic torture 4 5 Casualties 5 Media coverage 5 1 Associated Press report 2003 5 2 60 Minutes II broadcast 2004 5 3 New Yorker article 2004 5 4 Later coverage 2006 6 Reactions 6 1 Response of U S government 6 2 Iraqi response 6 3 United States media 6 4 Global reaction 6 5 Scholarly analysis 7 Repercussions 7 1 Convictions of soldiers 7 2 Senior personnel 8 Legal issues 8 1 International law 8 2 United Nations resolution 1546 8 3 Torture Memos 8 4 Other legal proceedings 8 5 Military Commissions Act of 2006 9 Later developments 10 See also 10 1 Incidents and coverage 10 2 Other 11 References 11 1 Sources 12 Further reading 13 External linksBackground EditWar on terror Edit Main article War on terror The war on terror also known as the Global War on Terrorism is an international military campaign launched by the United States government after the September 11 attacks 12 U S President George W Bush first used the phrase war on terrorism on September 16 2001 13 14 and then used the phrase war on terror a few days later in a speech to Congress 15 16 In the latter speech Bush stated Our enemy is a radical network of terrorists and every government that supports them 16 17 Iraq War Edit Main article Iraq War The Iraq War began in March 2003 as an invasion of Ba athist Iraq by a force led by the United States 18 19 The Ba athist government led by Saddam Hussein was toppled within a month This conflict was followed by a longer phase of fighting in which an insurgency emerged to oppose the occupying forces and the post invasion Iraqi government 20 During this insurgency the United States was in the role of an occupying power 20 Abu Ghraib prison Edit Further information Abu Ghraib prison The Abu Ghraib prison in the town of Abu Ghraib was one of the most notorious prisons in Iraq during the government of Saddam Hussein The prison was used to hold approximately 50 000 men and women in poor conditions and torture and execution were frequent 21 The prison was located on about 110 hectares of land 32 kilometers west of Baghdad 22 After the collapse of Saddam Hussein s government the prison was looted and everything that was removable was carried away Following the invasion the U S army refurbished it and turned it into a military prison 21 It was the largest of several detention centers in Iraq used by the U S military 23 In March 2004 during the time that the U S military was using the Abu Ghraib prison as a detention facility it housed approximately 7 490 prisoners 24 At its peak it held an estimated 8000 detainees 25 Three categories of prisoners were imprisoned at Abu Ghraib by the U S military These were common criminals as well as individuals suspected of being leaders of the insurgency and individuals suspected of committing crimes against the occupational force led by the U S 26 Although most prisoners lived in tents in the yard the abuses took place inside cell blocks 1a and 1b 22 The 800th Military Police Brigade from Uniondale New York was responsible for running the prison 23 The brigade was commanded by Brigadier General Janis Karpinski who was in charge of all of the U S run prisons in Iraq She did not have previous experience in running a prison 26 The individuals who committed abuses at the prison were members of the 372nd Military Police Company which was a constituent of the 320th Military Police Battalion which was overseen by Karpinski s Brigade headquarters 27 The Fay Report noted that contracting related issues contributed to the problems at Abu Ghraib prison Over half the interrogators working at the prison were employees of CACI International while Titan Corporation supplied linguistics personnel In his report General Fay notes that The general policy of not contracting for intelligence functions and services was designed in part to avoid many of the problems that eventually developed at Abu Ghraib 28 First reports of human rights abuses Edit Lynndie England holding a leash attached to a naked male prisoner known to the guards as Gus In June 2003 Amnesty International published reports of human rights abuses by the U S military and its coalition partners at detention centers and prisons in Iraq 29 These included reports of brutal treatment at Abu Ghraib prison which had once been used by the government of Saddam Hussein and had been taken over by the United States after the invasion On June 20 2003 Abdel Salam Sidahmed Deputy Director of AI s Middle East Program described an uprising by the prisoners against the conditions of their detention saying The notorious Abu Ghraib Prison centre of torture and mass executions under Saddam Hussein is yet again a prison cut off from the outside world On June 13 there was a protest in this prison against indefinite detention without trial Troops from the occupying powers killed one person and wounded seven 29 On July 23 2003 Amnesty International issued a press release condemning widespread human rights abuses by U S and coalition forces The release stated that prisoners had been exposed to extreme heat not provided clothing and forced to use open trenches for toilets They had also been tortured with the methods including denial of sleep for extended periods exposure to bright lights and loud music and being restrained in uncomfortable positions 30 On November 1 2003 the Associated Press presented a special report on the massive human rights abuses at Abu Ghraib Their report began In Iraq s American detention camps forbidden talk can earn a prisoner hours bound and stretched out in the sun and detainees swinging tent poles rise up regularly against their jailers according to recently released Iraqis The report went on to describe abuse of the prisoners at the hands of their American captors They confined us like sheep the newly freed Saad Naif 38 said of the Americans They hit people They humiliated people In response U S Brigadier General Janis Karpinski who oversaw all U S detention facilities in Iraq claimed that prisoners were being treated humanely and fairly 31 The AP report also stated that as of November 1 2003 there were two legal cases pending against U S military personnel one involving the beating of an Iraqi prisoner while the other arose out of the death of a prisoner in custody 31 Since the beginning of the invasion the International Committee of the Red Cross ICRC had been allowed to oversee the prison and submitted reports about the treatment of the prisoners In response to an ICRC report Karpinski stated that several of the prisoners were intelligence assets and therefore not entitled to complete protection under the Geneva Conventions 23 The ICRC reports led to Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez the commander of the Iraqi task force appointing Major General Antonio Taguba to investigate the allegations on January 1 2004 23 Taguba submitted his findings the Taguba Report in February 2004 stating that numerous incidents of sadistic blatant and wanton criminal abuses were inflicted on several detainees This systemic and illegal abuse of detainees was intentionally perpetrated by several members of the military police guard force 23 The report stated that there was widespread evidence of this abuse including photographic evidence The report was not released publicly 21 32 The scandal came to widespread public attention in April 2004 when a 60 Minutes II news report was aired on April 28 by CBS News describing the abuse including pictures showing military personnel taunting naked prisoners 9 22 23 33 An article was published by Seymour M Hersh in The New Yorker magazine posted online on April 30 and published days later in the May 10 issue 21 which also had a widespread impact 33 The photographs were subsequently reproduced in the press across the world 23 The details of the Taguba report were made public in May 2004 Shortly afterwards U S President George W Bush stated that the individuals responsible would be brought to justice while United Nations General Secretary Kofi Annan said that the effort to reconstruct a government in Iraq had been badly damaged 23 Authorization of torture Edit Sergeant Smith a dog handler uses a dog to scare a bound prisoner Sergeant Frederick interrogates a detainee chained to his cell wall in an uncomfortable position Executive order Edit On December 21 2004 the American Civil Liberties Union released copies of internal memoranda from the Federal Bureau of Investigation that it had obtained under the Freedom of Information Act These discussed torture and abuse at prisons in Guantanamo Bay detention camp Afghanistan and Iraq One memorandum dated May 22 2004 was from an individual described as the On Scene Commander Baghdad but whose name had been redacted 34 This individual referred explicitly to an executive order that sanctioned the use of extraordinary interrogation tactics by U S military personnel The torture methods sanctioned included sleep deprivation hooding prisoners playing loud music removing all detainees clothing forcing them to stand in so called stress positions and the use of dogs The author also stated that the Pentagon had limited use of the techniques by requiring specific authorization from the chain of command The author identifies physical beatings sexual humiliation or touching as being outside the Executive Order This was the first internal evidence since the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse affair became public in April 2004 that forms of coercion of captives had been mandated by the president of the United States 35 Authorization from Ricardo Sanchez Edit Documents obtained by The Washington Post and the ACLU showed that Ricardo Sanchez who was a Lieutenant General and the senior U S military officer in Iraq authorized the use of military dogs temperature extremes reversed sleep patterns and sensory deprivation as interrogation methods in Abu Ghraib 36 A November 2004 report by Brigadier General Richard Formica found that many troops at the Abu Ghraib prison had been following orders based on a memorandum from Sanchez and that the abuse had not been carried out by isolated criminal elements 37 ACLU lawyer Amrit Singh said in a statement from the union that General Sanchez authorized interrogation techniques that were in clear violation of the Geneva Conventions and the army s own standards 38 In an interview for her hometown newspaper The Signal Karpinski stated that she had seen unreleased documents from Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld which authorized the use of these tactics on Iraqi prisoners 39 Alleged authorization from Donald Rumsfeld Edit A 2004 report by the New Yorker stated that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld had authorized the interrogation tactics used in Abu Ghraib and which had previously been used by the U S in Afghanistan 40 In November 2006 Janis Karpinski who had been in charge of Abu Ghraib prison until early 2004 told Spain s El Pais newspaper that she had seen a letter signed by Rumsfeld which allowed civilian contractors to use techniques such as sleep deprivation during interrogation The methods consisted of making prisoners stand for long periods sleep deprivation playing music at full volume having to sit in uncomfortably Rumsfeld authorized these specific techniques 41 According to Karpinski the handwritten signature was above his printed name and the comment Make sure this is accomplished was in the margin in the same hand writing 41 Neither the Pentagon nor U S Army spokespeople in Iraq commented on the accusation In 2006 a criminal complaint was filed in a German Court against Donald Rumsfeld by eight former soldiers and intelligence operatives including Karpinski and former army counterintelligence special agent David DeBatto Among other things the complaint stated that Rumsfeld both knew of and authorized so called enhanced interrogation techniques that he knew to be illegal under international law 41 42 43 44 45 An Iraqi detainee with human excreta smeared on his face and bodyPrisoner abuse EditDeath of Manadel al Jamadi Edit Main article Manadel al Jamadi Manadel al Jamadi a prisoner at Abu Ghraib prison died after CIA officer Mark Swanner 46 and a private contractor identified in military court papers only as Clint C 46 interrogated and tortured him in November 2003 After al Jamadi s death his corpse was packed in ice the corpse was in the background for widely reprinted photographs of grinning U S Army specialists Sabrina Harman and Charles Graner each of whom offered a thumbs up gesture Al Jamadi had been a suspect in a bomb attack that killed 12 people in a Baghdad Red Cross facility even though there was no confirmation of his involvement in these attacks 47 A military autopsy declared al Jamadi s death a homicide No one has been charged with his death In 2011 Attorney General Eric Holder said that he had opened a full criminal investigation into al Jamadi s death 48 In August 2012 Holder announced that no criminal charges would be brought 49 Prisoner rape Edit Prisoners staged to make it appear they were performing sexual acts Stripping prisoners of their clothes was a common form of sexual humiliation and degradation during the torture at Abu Ghraib citation needed In 2004 Antonio Taguba a major general in the U S Army wrote in the Taguba Report that a detainee had been sodomized with a chemical light and perhaps a broomstick 50 In 2009 Taguba stated that there was photographic evidence of American soldiers and translators having raped detainees at Abu Ghraib 51 An Abu Ghraib detainee told investigators that he heard an Iraqi teenage boy screaming and saw an Army translator raping him while a female soldier took pictures 52 A witness identified the alleged rapist as an American Egyptian who worked as a translator In 2009 he was the subject of a civil court case in the United States 51 Another photo shows an American soldier apparently raping a female prisoner 51 Other photos show interrogators sexually assaulting prisoners with objects including a truncheon wire and a phosphorescent tube and a female prisoner having her clothing forcibly removed to expose her breasts 51 Taguba supported United States President Barack Obama s decision not to release the photos stating These pictures show torture abuse rape and every indecency 51 Obama who had initially agreed to release the photographs changed his mind after lobbying from senior military figures Obama stated that their release could put troops in danger and inflame anti American public opinion 51 In other instances of sexual abuse soldiers were found to have raped female inmates Senior U S officials admitted that rape had taken place at Abu Ghraib 53 54 Some of the women who had been raped became pregnant and in some cases were later killed by their family members in what were thought to be instances of honor killing 55 In addition journalist Seymour Hersh alleged in July 2004 that the Department of Defense had in its possession videos showing male children being raped by Iraqi prison staff in front of women prisoners 56 Other abuses Edit Specialist Charles A Graner punching handcuffed Iraqi prisoners In May 2004 The Washington Post reported evidence given by Ameen Saeed Al Sheikh detainee No 151362 It quoted him as saying They said we will make you wish to die and it will not happen They stripped me naked One of them told me he would rape me He drew a picture of a woman to my back and made me stand in shameful position holding my buttocks 52 Do you pray to Allah one asked I said yes They said Expletive you And expletive him One of them said You are not getting out of here health y you are getting out of here handicapped And he said to me Are you married I said Yes They said If your wife saw you like this she will be disappointed One of them said But if I saw her now she would not be disappointed now because I would rape her They ordered me to thank Jesus that I m alive I said to him I believe in Allah So he said But I believe in torture and I will torture you 52 On January 12 2005 The New York Times reported on further testimony from Abu Ghraib detainees The abuses reported included urinating on detainees pounding wounded limbs with metal batons pouring phosphoric acid on detainees and tying ropes to the detainees legs or penises and dragging them across the floor 57 Sabrina Harman poses for a photo behind naked Iraqi detainees forced to form a human pyramid while Charles Graner watches In her video diary a prison guard said that prisoners were shot for minor misbehavior and claimed to have had venomous snakes used to bite prisoners sometimes resulting in their deaths The guard said that she was in trouble for having thrown rocks at the detainees 58 Hashem Muhsen one of the naked prisoners in the human pyramid photo later said the men were also forced to crawl around the floor naked while soldiers rode them like donkeys 59 Systematic torture Edit A detainee handcuffed in the nude to a bed with underwear covering his face On May 7 2004 Pierre Krahenbuhl operations director for the International Committee of the Red Cross ICRC stated that inspection visits made by the ICRC to detention centers run by the U S and its allies showed that acts of prisoner abuse were not isolated acts but were part of a pattern and a broad system He went on to say that some of the incidents they had observed were tantamount to torture 60 Many of the torture techniques used were developed at Guantanamo detention center including prolonged isolation the frequent flyer program a sleep deprivation program whereby people were moved from cell to cell every few hours so they could not sleep for days weeks or even months short shackling in painful positions nudity extreme use of heat and cold the use of loud music and noise and preying on phobias 61 Armed forces in the U S and the UK are jointly trained in techniques known as resistance to interrogation R2I techniques These R2I techniques are taught ostensibly to help soldiers cope with or resist torture if they are captured On May 8 2004 The Guardian reported that according to a former British special forces officer the acts committed by the Abu Ghraib prison military personnel resembled the techniques used in R2I training 62 The same report stated the following The US commander in charge of military jails in Iraq Major General Geoffrey Miller has confirmed that a battery of 50 odd special coercive techniques can be used against enemy detainees The general who previously ran the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay said his main role was to extract as much intelligence as possible The Guardian Historian Alfred W McCoy who authored a book on torture in the Philippines armed forces noted similarities in the abusive treatment of prisoners at Abu Ghraib and the techniques described in the KUBARK Counterintelligence Interrogation manual published by the United States Central Intelligence Agency in 1963 He asserts that what he calls the CIA s no touch torture methods have been in continuous use by the CIA and the U S military intelligence since that time 63 64 Casualties Edit A 2006 study tried to count the number of deaths by looking at public domain reports as total figures had not been given by the U S government It counted 63 detainee deaths at Abu Ghraib from all causes Of these 36 occurred due to insurgent mortar attacks others were due to natural causes and homicide 65 The issue of deaths due to mortar attack received criticism The Geneva Convention requires prisoners not be kept at facilities vulnerable to artillery attack 65 As Abu Ghraib was located in the combat zone 66 its vulnerability to such an attack had been raised early on but ultimately it was decided to keep the prisoners there 65 67 No other U S detention facility in Iraq suffered casualties due to mortar attacks 65 Media coverage EditAssociated Press report 2003 Edit A victim is intimidated or threatened by at least two dogs On November 1 2003 the Associated Press published a lengthy report on inhumane treatment beatings and deaths at Abu Ghraib and other American prisons in Iraq 68 This report was based on interviews with released detainees who told journalist Charles J Hanley that inmates had been attacked by dogs made to wear hoods and humiliated in other ways 69 The article gained little notice 70 One freed detainee said that he wished somebody would publish pictures of what was happening 69 When the U S military first acknowledged the abuse in early 2004 much of the United States media showed little initial interest On January 16 2004 United States Central Command informed the media that an official investigation had begun involving abuse and humiliation of Iraqi detainees by a group of U S soldiers On February 24 it was reported that 17 soldiers had been suspended The military announced on March 21 2004 that the first charges had been filed against six soldiers 71 72 None of these stories received significant coverage in the mainstream press citation needed 60 Minutes II broadcast 2004 Edit Lynndie England pointing to a naked prisoner being forced to masturbate in front of her 73 Sergeant Ivan Frederick sitting on an Iraqi detainee between two stretchers In late April 2004 the U S television news magazine 60 Minutes II a franchise of CBS broadcast a story on the abuse The story included photographs depicting the abuse of prisoners 74 The news segment was delayed by two weeks at the request of the Department of Defense and Richard Myers an air force general and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff After learning that The New Yorker magazine planned to publish an article and photographs on the topic in its next issue CBS proceeded to broadcast its report on April 28 75 In the CBS report Dan Rather interviewed then deputy director of Coalition operations in Iraq Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt who said The first thing I d say is we re appalled as well These are our fellow soldiers These are the people we work with every day and they represent us They wear the same uniform as us and they let their fellow soldiers down Our soldiers could be taken prisoner as well And we expect our soldiers to be treated well by the adversary by the enemy And if we can t hold ourselves up as an example of how to treat people with dignity and respect We can t ask that other nations do that to our soldiers as well So what would I tell the people of Iraq This is wrong This is reprehensible But this is not representative of the 150 000 soldiers that are over here I d say the same thing to the American people Don t judge your army based on the actions of a few 74 Kimmitt also acknowledged that he knew of other cases of abuse during the American occupation of Iraq 74 Bill Cowan a former Marine lieutenant colonel was also interviewed and said We went into Iraq to stop things like this from happening and indeed here they are happening under our tutelage 74 In addition Rather interviewed Army Reserve Staff Sergeant Ivan Frederick who was party to some of the abuses Frederick s civilian job was as a corrections officer at a Virginia prison He said We had no support no training whatsoever And I kept asking my chain of command for certain things like rules and regulations and it just wasn t happening 74 Frederick s video diary sent home from Iraq provided some of the images used in the story In it he listed detailed dated entries that chronicled abuse of CIA prisoners as well as their names The next day the medics came in and put his body on a stretcher placed a fake intravenous drip in his arm and took him away This CIA prisoner was never processed and therefore never had a number 76 Frederick implicated the Military Intelligence Corps as well saying MI has been present and witnessed such activity MI has encouraged and told us great job and that they were now getting positive results and information 76 New Yorker article 2004 Edit In 2004 Seymour M Hersh authored an article in The New Yorker magazine discussing the abuses in detail relying on a copy of the Taguba report for substantiation Under the direction of editor David Remnick the magazine also posted a report on its website by Hersh along with a number of images of the torture taken by U S military prison guards The article entitled Torture at Abu Ghraib was followed in the next two weeks by two further articles on the same subject Chain of Command and The Gray Zone also by Hersh 75 Later coverage 2006 Edit In February 2006 previously unreleased photos and videos were broadcast by SBS an Australian television network on its Dateline program The Bush administration attempted to prevent release of the images in the U S arguing that their publication could provoke antagonism These newly released photographs depicted prisoners crawling on the floor naked being forced to perform sexual acts and being covered in feces Some images also showed prisoners killed by the soldiers some shot in the head and some with slit throats BBC World News stated that one of the prisoners who was reportedly mentally unstable was considered by prison guards as a pet for torture 77 The UN expressed hope that the pictures would be investigated immediately but the Pentagon stated that the images have been previously investigated as part of the Abu Ghraib investigation 78 On March 15 2006 Salon published what was then the most extensive documentation of the abuse 79 A report accessed by Salon included the following summary of the material A review of all the computer media submitted to this office revealed a total of 1 325 images of suspected detainee abuse 93 video files of suspected detainee abuse 660 images of adult pornography 546 images of suspected dead Iraqi detainees 29 images of soldiers in simulated sexual acts 20 images of a soldier with a Swastika drawn between his eyes 37 images of Military Working dogs being used in abuse of detainees and 125 images of questionable acts 79 Reactions Edit Sabrina Harman stitching a wound on a bound Iraqi detainee Charles A Graner applies sutures to the chin of a bound detainee Megan Ambuhl forces an injection into a bound detainee Response of U S government Edit The Bush administration did not initially acknowledge the abuses at Abu Ghraib After the pictures were published and the evidence became incontrovertible the initial reaction from the administration characterized the scandal as an isolated incident uncharacteristic of U S actions in Iraq 9 Bush described the abuses as the actions of a few individuals who were disregarding the values of the US 9 This view was widely disputed notably in Arab countries In addition the International Red Cross had been making representations about abuse of prisoners for more than a year before the scandal broke 80 Vice President Dick Cheney s office had played a central role in eliminating limits on coercion in U S custody commissioning and defending legal opinions that the administration later portrayed as the initiatives of lower ranking officials 81 On May 7 2004 President Bush publicly apologized for the abuse of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib stating that he was sorry for the humiliations suffered by the Iraqi prisoners and the humiliations suffered by their families In an appearance with King Abdullah II of Jordan Bush said he had told the king that he was equally sorry that the people that have been seeing those pictures did not understand the true nature and the heart of America and I assured him that Americans like me didn t appreciate what we saw and it made us sick to our stomachs Describing the abuse as abhorrent and a stain on our country s honor and our country s reputation Bush added that those responsible for the maltreatment will be brought to justice and that he would prevent the occurrence of future abuses 82 On the same day United States Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said the following in a hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee These events occurred on my watch As Secretary of Defense I am accountable for them I take full responsibility It is my obligation to evaluate what happened to make sure those who have committed wrongdoing are brought to justice and to make changes as needed to see that it doesn t happen again I feel terrible about what happened to these Iraqi detainees They are human beings They were in U S custody Our country had an obligation to treat them right We didn t do that That was wrong To those Iraqis who were mistreated by members of U S armed forces I offer my deepest apology It was un American And it was inconsistent with the values of our nation 83 He also commented on the very existence of the evidence of abuse We re functioning in a with peacetime restraints 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 when they had not even arrived in the Pentagon 84 Rumsfeld was careful to draw a distinction between abuse and torture What has been charged so far is abuse which I believe technically is different from torture I m not going to address the torture word 85 Several senators commented on Rumsfeld s testimony Lindsey Graham stated that the American public needs to understand we re talking about rape and murder here 86 Norm Coleman said that It was pretty disgusting not what you d expect from Americans 87 Ben Nighthorse Campbell said I don t know how the hell these people got into our army 88 89 James Inhofe a Republican member of the U S Senate Committee on Armed Services stated that the events were being blown out of proportion I m probably not the only one up at this table that is more outraged by the outrage than we are by the treatment They are not there for traffic violations these prisoners they re murderers they re terrorists they re insurgents Many of them probably have American blood on their hands And here we re so concerned about the treatment of those individuals 90 On May 26 2004 Al Gore gave a sharply critical speech on the scandal and the Iraq War He called for the resignations of Rumsfeld National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice CIA Director George Tenet Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Douglas J Feith and Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence Stephen A Cambone for encouraging policies that led to the abuse of Iraqi prisoners and fanned hatred of Americans abroad Gore also called the Bush administration s Iraq war plan incompetent and described Bush as the most dishonest president since Richard Nixon Gore commented In Iraq what happened at that prison it is now clear is not the result of random acts of a few bad apples It was the natural consequence of the Bush Administration policy 91 better source needed The revelations were also the impetus for the creation of the Fay Report named for its lead author George Fay as well as the Taguba Report citation needed Following the outcry Major General Douglas Stone was assigned to oversee the reform of the U S detention system in Iraq Conditions for detainees were reportedly improved by the time of U S withdrawal 92 Iraqi response Edit A naked detainee who made himself hang upside down from his bed The news website AsiaNews quoted Yahia Said an Iraqi scholar at the London School of Economics as saying The reception of the news about Abu Ghraib was surprisingly low key in Iraq Part of the reason was that rumors and tall stories as well as true stories about abuse mass rape and torture in the jails and in coalition custody have been going round for a long time So compared to what people have been talking about here the pictures are quite benign There s nothing unexpected In fact what most people are asking is why did they come up now People in Iraq are always suspecting that there s some scheming going on some agenda in releasing the pictures at this particular point 93 CNN reporter Ben Wedeman reported that Iraqi reaction to George W Bush s apology for the Abu Ghraib abuses was mixed Some people react ed positively saying that he s come out he s dealing frankly and openly with the problem and that he has said that those involved in the abuse will be punished On the other hand there are many others who says it simply isn t enough that they many people noted that there was not a frank apology from the president for this incident And in fact I have a Baghdad newspaper with me right now from it s called Dar es Salaam That s from the Islam Iraqi Islamic Party It says that an apology is not enough for the torture of Iraqi prisoners 94 General Stanley McChrystal who held several command positions in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars said that In my experience we found that nearly every first time jihadist claimed Abu Ghraib had first jolted him into action 95 He also said that mistreating detainees would discredit us The pictures from Abu Ghraib represented a setback for America s efforts in Iraq Simultaneously undermining U S domestic confidence in the way in which America was operating and creating or reinforcing negative perceptions worldwide of American values it fueled violence 96 On May 7 2004 Nick Berg an American businessman who went to Iraq after the U S invasion was captured and decapitated on video by the Islamist militant organization al Ansars in response to Abu Ghraib 97 United States media Edit A headline from The Economist calling for Secretary Rumsfeld s resignation Several periodicals including The New York Times and The Boston Globe called for Rumsfeld s resignation 98 Right wing radio host Rush Limbaugh contended that the events were being blown out of proportion stating that this is no different than what happens at the Skull and Bones initiation and we re going to ruin people s lives over it and we re going to hamper our military effort and then we are going to really hammer them because they had a good time You know these people are being fired at every day I m talking about people having a good time these people you ever heard of emotional release You ever heard of need to blow some steam off 7 99 Conservative talk show host Michael Savage said Instead of putting joysticks I would have liked to have seen dynamite put in their orifices and that we need more of the humiliation tactics not less He repeatedly referred to Abu Ghraib prison as Grab an Arab prison 100 101 Global reaction Edit A picture released in 2006 shows several naked Iraqis in hoods of whom one has the words I m a rapeist sic written on his hip The torture A more serious blow to the United States than September 11 2001 attacks Except that the blow was not inflicted by terrorists but by Americans against themselves Archbishop Giovanni Lajolo foreign minister of the Holy See 102 The cover of the British periodical The Economist which had backed President Bush in the 2000 election carried a photo of the abuse with the words Resign Rumsfeld The Bahraini English language newspaper Daily Tribune wrote on May 5 2004 that The blood boiling pictures will make more people inside and outside Iraq determined to carry out attacks against the Americans and British The Qatari Arabic language Al Watan predicted on May 3 2004 that due to the abuse The Iraqis now feel very angry and that will cause revenge to restore the humiliated dignity 103 On May 10 2004 swastika covered posters of Abu Ghraib abuse photographs were attached to several graves at the Commonwealth military cemetery in Gaza City Thirty two graves of soldiers killed in World War I were desecrated or destroyed 104 In November 2008 Lord Bingham the former UK Law Lord describing the treatment of Iraqi detainees in Abu Ghraib said Particularly disturbing to proponents of the rule of law is the cynical lack of concern for international legality among some top officials in the Bush administration 105 Scholarly analysis Edit In 2008 scholars Alette Smeulers and Sander van Niekerk published an article entitled Abu Ghraib and the War on Terror a case against Donald Rumsfeld 9 According to the authors the September 11 attacks led to demands from the public that U S president George W Bush take actions that would prevent further attacks 9 This pressure led to the launch of the War on Terror 9 better source needed Smeulers and van Niekerk argued that because the perceived enemies in the War on Terror were stateless individuals and because the perceived threats included extreme strategies such as suicide bombing the Bush administration was under pressure to act decisively in the War on Terror 9 In addition these tactics created the perception that the legitimate techniques used in the Cold War would not be of much use The article noted that Vice President Dick Cheney has stated that the United States had to work sort of on the dark side and that it had to use any means at its disposal 9 Smeulers and van Niekerk opined that the abuses at Abu Ghraib constituted state sanctioned crimes 9 Scholar Michelle Brown agreed 8 A number of feminist academics have examined how ideas of masculinity and race likely influenced the violence perpetrated at Abu Ghraib 106 Laura Sjoberg for example has argued that the sexual humiliation of detainees was meant to mark the victory of hegemonic American manliness over subordinated Iraqi masculinities 107 Similarly Jasbir Puar s book Terrorist Assemblages Homonationalism in Queer Times 2007 examines the feminist queer and American government s response to the Abu Ghraib photographs Puar draws upon queer theory and biopolitics among other frameworks in her analysis and coins the term homonationalism short for homonormative nationalism 108 She discusses ideas that the soldiers beliefs of American cultural supremacy over the sexually repressed and homophobic Muslim detainees were used to dehumanize the victims 109 Repercussions EditConvictions of soldiers Edit Naval Consolidated Brig Miramar where England and Harman served their sentences Eleven soldiers were convicted of various charges relating to the incidents with all of the convictions including the charge of dereliction of duty Most soldiers only received minor sentences Three other soldiers were either cleared of charges or were not charged No one was convicted for the murders of the detainees Colonel Thomas Pappas was relieved of his command on May 13 2005 after receiving non judicial punishment for two instances of dereliction of duty including that of allowing dogs to be present during interrogations He was fined 8000 under the provisions of Article 15 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice non judicial punishment He also received a General Officer Memorandum of Reprimand which effectively ended his military career He did not face criminal prosecution 110 Lieutenant Colonel Steven L Jordan became the second highest ranking officer to have charges brought against him in connection with the Abu Ghraib abuse on April 29 2006 111 Prior to his trial eight of the twelve charges against him were dismissed including two of the most serious after Major General George Fay admitted that he did not read Jordan his rights before interviewing him On August 28 2007 Jordan was acquitted of all charges related to prisoner mistreatment and received a reprimand for disobeying an order not to discuss a 2004 investigation into the allegations 112 Specialist Charles Graner was found guilty on January 14 2005 of conspiracy to maltreat detainees failing to protect detainees from abuse cruelty and maltreatment as well as charges of assault indecency adultery and obstruction of justice On January 15 2005 he was sentenced to 10 years in prison dishonorable discharge and reduction in rank to private 10 113 Graner was paroled from the U S military s Fort Leavenworth prison on August 6 2011 after serving six and a half years 114 Staff Sergeant Ivan Frederick pleaded guilty on October 20 2004 to conspiracy dereliction of duty maltreatment of detainees assault and committing an indecent act in exchange for other charges being dropped His abuses included forcing three prisoners to masturbate He also punched one prisoner so hard in the chest that he needed resuscitation He was sentenced to eight years in prison forfeiture of pay a dishonorable discharge and a reduction in rank to private 115 116 117 118 He was released on parole in October 2007 after four years in prison 119 Sergeant Javal Davis pleaded guilty on February 4 2005 to dereliction of duty making false official statements and battery He was sentenced to six months in prison a reduction in rank to private and a bad conduct discharge Davis had admitted to stepping on the hands and feet of a group of handcuffed detainees and falling with his full weight on top of them 120 Specialist Jeremy Sivits was sentenced on May 19 2004 by a special court martial to the maximum one year sentence in addition to a bad conduct discharge and a reduction of rank to private upon his guilty plea 121 He died from COVID 19 in 2022 Specialist Armin Cruz was sentenced on September 11 2004 to eight months confinement reduction in rank to private and a bad conduct discharge in exchange for his testimony against other soldiers 122 Specialist Sabrina Harman was sentenced on May 17 2005 to six months in prison and a bad conduct discharge after being convicted on six of the seven counts Previously she had faced a maximum sentence of five years 123 Harman served her sentence at Naval Consolidated Brig Miramar 124 Specialist Megan Ambuhl was convicted on October 30 2004 of dereliction of duty She was dishonorably discharged reduced in rank to private and ordered to forfeit half a month of pay 125 Private First Class Lynndie England was convicted on September 26 2005 of one count of conspiracy four counts of maltreating detainees and one count of committing an indecent act She was acquitted on a second conspiracy count England had faced a maximum sentence of ten years She was sentenced on September 27 2005 to three years confinement forfeiture of all pay and allowances reduction to Private E 1 and received a dishonorable discharge 117 England served her sentence at Naval Consolidated Brig Miramar 126 She was paroled on March 1 2007 after having served one year and five months 126 Sergeant Santos Cardona was convicted of dereliction of duty and aggravated assault the equivalent of a felony in the U S civilian justice system Cardona was sentenced to 90 days of hard labor which he served at Fort Bragg North Carolina 127 He was also fined and demoted Cardona was unable to re enlist due to his conviction However on September 29 2007 Cardona left the Army with an honorable discharge 128 In 2009 he was killed in action while working as a government contractor in Afghanistan 128 Specialist Roman Krol pleaded guilty on February 1 2005 to conspiracy and maltreatment of detainees at Abu Ghraib He was sentenced to ten months confinement reduction in rank to Private and a bad conduct discharge 129 Specialist Israel Rivera who was present during abuse on October 25 was under investigation but was never charged and testified against other soldiers 130 122 Sergeant Michael Smith was found guilty on March 21 2006 of two counts of prisoner maltreatment one count of simple assault one count of conspiracy to maltreat one count of dereliction of duty and a final charge of an indecent act and sentenced to 179 days in prison a fine of 2 250 a demotion to private and a bad conduct discharge 131 Senior personnel Edit Brigadier General Janis Karpinski who had been commanding officer at the prison was demoted to colonel on May 5 2005 In a BBC interview Janis Karpinski said that she was being made a scapegoat and that the top U S commander for Iraq General Ricardo Sanchez should be asked what he knew about the abuse 132 Karpinski told a reporter in 2014 that military intelligence personnel had told her that 90 percent of the inmates were innocent of the crimes of which they had been accused and had been detained simply by virtue of having been in the wrong place at the wrong time 133 Donald Rumsfeld stated in February 2005 that as a result of the Abu Ghraib scandal he had twice offered to resign from his post of Secretary of Defense but U S President George W Bush declined both offers 134 Jay Bybee the author of the Justice Department memo defining torture as activity producing pain equivalent to the pain experienced during death and organ failure 135 was nominated by President Bush to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals where he began service in 2003 136 Michael Chertoff who as head of the Justice Department s criminal division advised the CIA on the outer limits of legality in coercive interrogation sessions was selected by President Bush to fill the cabinet level vacancy at Secretary of Homeland Security created by the departure of Tom Ridge 137 138 Karpinski s immediate operational supervisor and Sanchez s deputy Major General Walter Wojdakowski was cleared of all charges and was subsequently appointed Chief of the U S Army Infantry School at Fort Benning 139 Pappas s boss Barbara Fast was subsequently appointed Chief of the U S Army Intelligence Center at Fort Huachuca 140 The Final Report of the Independent Panel to Review Department of Defense detention operations specifically absolved U S military and political leadership from culpability The Panel finds no evidence that organizations above the 800th MP brigade or the 205th MI Brigade level were directly involved in the incidents at Abu Ghraib 141 Legal issues EditInternational law Edit The United States has ratified the United Nations Convention against Torture and the Third and Fourth Geneva Conventions The Bush Administration took the position that Both the United States and Iraq are parties to the Geneva Conventions The United States recognizes that these treaties are binding in the war for the liberation of Iraq 142 Detainee after dog bite The Convention Against Torture defines torture in the following terms For the purposes of this Convention the term torture means any act by which severe pain or suffering whether physical or mental is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed or intimidating or coercing him or a third person or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity It does not include pain or suffering arising only from inherent in or incidental to lawful sanctions United Nations Convention Against Torture Article 1 A prisoner with possible wounds from non lethal ammunition According to Human Rights Watch Al Qaeda detainees would likely not be accorded Prisoner of War POW status but the Conventions still provide explicit protections to all persons held in an international armed conflict even if they are not entitled to POW status Such protections include the right to be free from coercive interrogation to receive a fair trial if charged with a criminal offense and in the case of detained civilians to be able to appeal periodically the security rationale for continued detention 143 The International Committee of the Red Cross ICRC concluded in its confidential February 2004 report to the Coalition Forces CF that it had documented serious violations of international law in connection with prisoners held in Iraq The ICRD added that its report establishes that persons deprived of their liberty face the risk of being subjected to a process of physical and psychological coercion in some cases tantamount to torture in the early stages of the internment process 80 There were several major violations described in the ICRC report These included brutality against protected persons upon capture and initial custody sometimes causing death or serious injury absence of notification of arrest of persons deprived of their liberty to their families causing distress among persons deprived of their liberty and their families physical or psychological coercion during interrogation to secure information prolonged solitary confinement in cells devoid of daylight excessive and disproportionate use of force against persons deprived of their liberty resulting in death or injury during their period of internment 80 Some legal experts have said that the United States could be obligated to try some of its soldiers for war crimes citation needed Under the Third and Fourth Geneva Conventions prisoners of war and civilians detained in a war may not be treated in a degrading manner and violation of that section is a grave breach In a November 5 2003 report on prisons in Iraq the Army s provost marshal Major General Donald J Ryder stated that the conditions under which prisoners were held sometimes violated the Geneva Conventions citation needed United Nations resolution 1546 Edit In December 2005 John Pace human rights chief for the United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq UNAMI criticized the U S military s practice of holding Iraqi prisoners in Iraqi facilities such as Abu Ghraib Pace stated that this practice was not mandated by UN Resolution 1546 according to which the U S government has claimed a legal mandate permitting its ongoing occupation of Iraq Pace said All except those held by the Ministry of Justice are technically speaking held against the law because the Ministry of Justice is the only authority that is empowered by law to detain to hold anybody in prison Essentially none of these people have any real recourse to protection and therefore we speak of a total breakdown in the protection of the individual in this country 144 Torture Memos Edit Alberto Gonzales and other senior administration lawyers argued that detainees at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp and other similar prisons should be considered unlawful combatants and were not protected by the Geneva Conventions These opinions were issued in multiple memoranda known today as the Torture Memos in August 2002 by the Office of Legal Counsel OLC in the U S Justice Department 145 They were written by John Yoo deputy assistant attorney general in the OLC and two of three were signed by his boss Jay S Bybee The latter was appointed as a federal judge in 2003 starting March 21 2003 An additional memo was issued on March 14 2003 after the resignation of Bybee and just prior to the American invasion of Iraq In it Yoo concluded that federal laws prohibiting the use of torture did not apply to U S practices overseas 146 Gonzales observed that denying coverage under the Geneva Conventions substantially reduces the threat of domestic criminal prosecution under the War Crimes Act 147 Congresswoman Elizabeth Holtzman wrote that Gonzales s statement suggested that policy was crafted to ensure that the actions of U S officials could not be considered war crimes 147 148 149 150 Other legal proceedings Edit In Hamdan v Rumsfeld 2006 the U S Supreme Court ruled that Common Article Three of the Geneva Conventions applied to all detainees in the War on Terror It said that the military tribunals used to try these suspects were in violation of U S and international law It said that the president could not unilaterally establish such tribunals and that Congress needed to authorize a means by which detainees could confront their accusers and challenge their detention 151 On June 27 2011 the U S Supreme Court declined to hear the appeals of lawsuits from a group of 250 Iraqis who wanted to sue CACI International Inc and Titan Corp now a subsidiary of L 3 Communications the two private contractors at Abu Ghraib over claims of abuse by interrogators and translators at the prison The suits had been dismissed by the lower courts on the grounds that the companies held a derivative sovereign immunity from suits based on their status as government contractors pursuant to a battle field preemption doctrine 152 153 Charles Graner poses over Manadel al Jamadi s corpse after he was tortured to death by CIA personnel 46 79 Sabrina Harman poses over the corpse of Manadel al Jamadi after he was tortured to death by CIA personnel 46 79 On November 14 2006 legal proceedings invoking universal jurisdiction were begun in Germany against Donald Rumsfeld Alberto Gonzales John Yoo George Tenet and others for their alleged involvement in prisoner abuse under the command responsibility 154 155 On April 27 2007 the German Public Prosecutor General Monika Harms announced that the government would not pursue charges against Rumsfeld and the 11 other U S officials stating the accusations did not apply in part because there was insufficient evidence that the acts occurred on German soil and because the accused did not live in Germany 156 In June 2011 the Justice Department announced it was opening a grand jury investigation into CIA torture which killed a prisoner 157 158 In June 2014 the U S court of appeals in Richmond Virginia found that an 18th century law known as the Alien Tort Statute allowed non US citizens access to U S courts for violations of the law of nations or a treaty of the United States This would enable abused Iraqis to file suit against contractor CACI International Employees of CACI International are being accused of encouraging torture and abuse as well as taking part in it as the four Iraqis contend that they were repeatedly shot in the head with a taser gun beaten on the genitals with a stick and forced to watch the rape of a female detainee during their time at the prison 159 Military Commissions Act of 2006 Edit Critics consider the Military Commissions Act of 2006 an amnesty law for crimes committed in the War on Terror by retroactively rewriting the War Crimes Act 160 It abolished habeas corpus for foreign detainees effectively making it impossible for detainees to challenge crimes committed against them 161 162 163 164 Later developments EditOn October 29 2007 the memoir of a soldier stationed in Abu Ghraib Iraq from 2005 to 2006 was published It was called Torture Central and chronicled many events previously unreported in the news media including torture that continued at Abu Ghraib over a year after the abuse photos were published 165 In 2010 the last of the prisons were turned over to the Iraqi government to run An Associated Press article saidDespite Abu Ghraib or perhaps because of reforms in its wake prisoners have more recently said they receive far better treatment in American custody than in Iraqi jails 166 In September 2010 Amnesty International warned in a report titled New Order Same Abuses Unlawful Detentions and Torture in Iraq that up to 30 000 prisoners including many veterans of the U S detention system remain detained without rights in Iraq and are frequently tortured or abused Furthermore it describes a detention system that has not evolved since Saddam Hussein s regime in which human rights abuses were endemic with arbitrary arrests and secret detention common and a lack of accountability throughout the military forces Amnesty s Middle East and North Africa director Malcolm Smart went on to say Iraq s security forces have been responsible for systematically violating detainees rights and they have been permitted U S authorities whose own record on detainees rights has been so poor have now handed over thousands of people detained by U S forces to face this catalogue of illegality violence and abuse abdicating any responsibility for their human rights 167 On October 22 2010 nearly 400 000 secret United States Army field reports and war logs detailing torture summary executions and war crimes were passed on to the British paper The Guardian and several other international media organisations through the whistleblowing website WikiLeaks Among other things the logs detail how U S authorities failed to investigate hundreds of reports of abuse torture rape and even murder by Iraqi police and soldiers whose conduct appeared to be systematic and normally unpunished and that U S troops abused prisoners for years even after the Abu Ghraib scandal 168 169 In 2013 Associated Press stated that Engility Holdings of Chantilly Virginia paid 5 28 million in a settlement to 71 former inmates held at Abu Ghraib and other U S run detention sites between 2003 and 2007 The settlement was the first successful attempt by the detainees to obtain reparations for the abuses they had experienced 170 In 2014 Abu Ghraib prison was closed indefinitely by the Iraqi government over concerns that ISIL would take over the facility 171 See also EditPortals Iraq United States Law Incidents and coverage Edit Bagram torture and prisoner abuse Camp Nama Copper Green May 2004 Seymour Hersh article connecting abuse to alleged Black Ops program Emad al Janabi Human rights in post invasion Iraq Iraq prison abuse scandals Maywand District murders Stanford prison experiment The Dark Side book Taxi to the Dark Side The Lucifer Effect Other Edit Criticism of the war on terror Disarmed Enemy Forces redesignation of POWs after WWII to avoid having to obey international treaties on POW treatment Erotic humiliation Human Rights Record of the United States International Criminal Court and the 2003 invasion of Iraq Kampala Review Conference Legal issues related to the 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Iraq war logs secret files show how U S ignored torture The Guardian London Archived from the original on July 30 2013 Retrieved April 3 2012 Baram Marcus October 22 2010 WikiLeaks Iraq War Logs US Troops Abused Prisoners For Years After Abu Ghraib Huffington Post Archived from the original on September 10 2012 Retrieved April 3 2012 5M paid to Iraqis over Abu Ghraib Associated Press Archived from the original on January 11 2013 Retrieved January 8 2013 Iraq Abu Ghraib prison closure not permanent AP NEWS Retrieved December 5 2022 Sources Edit Hersh Seymour M 2004 Chain of Command The Road from 9 11 to Abu Ghraib New York Harper Collins ISBN 0 06 019591 6 Master Sargeant Michael Clemens Special Investigator 2010 The Secrets of Abu Ghraib Revealed American Soldiers on Trial Dulles Virginia Potomac Books ISBN 978 1 59797 441 7 McChrystal Stanley A 2013 My share of the task A memoir Penguin ISBN 978 1 59184 475 4 Greenberg Karen J Dretel Joshua L 2005 The Torture Papers The Road to Abu Ghraib Cambridge University Press ISBN 9780521853248 Further reading EditTucker Bruce and Sia Triantafyllos 2008 Lynndie England Abu Ghraib and the New Imperialism Canadian Review of American Studies 38 1 83 100 doi 10 3138 cras 38 1 83 Clemens Michael 2010 The Secrets of Abu Ghraib Revealed American Soldiers on Trial Potomac Books ISBN 978 1 59797 441 7 Archived from the original on October 1 2011 Retrieved May 31 2010 Zimbardo Philip 2007 The Lucifer effect How good people turn evil Rider ISBN 978 1 84604 103 7 Archived from the original on December 19 2008 Retrieved January 11 2009 Mestrovic Stjepan January 8 2016 The Trials of Abu Ghraib An Expert Witness Account of Shame and Honor ISBN 9781317250111 Markovitz Jonathan June 2011 New Media and Abu Ghraib Racial Spectacles Explorations in Media Race and Justice ISBN 9781136911262 U S government documents related to Abu Ghraib Zimbardo Philip January 19 2005 You can t be a sweet cucumber in a vinegar barrel Interview When you put that set of horrendous work conditions and external factors together it creates an evil barrel writes the eminent situationist psychologist Philip Zimbardo known for his famous Stanford Prison Experiment in the early 70s Moise Edwin Bibliography Iraq Wars Prisons and Prisoner Abuse via clemson edu Gourevitch Philip Errol Morris 2008 The Ballad of Abu Ghraib Penguin Books ISBN 978 0 14 311539 7 External links Edit Media related to Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse at Wikimedia Commons Introduction The Abu Ghraib files Salon com March 14 2006 Dateline Abu Ghraib The Sequel Transcript Dateline Archived from the original on March 31 2006 via sbs com au The Torture Archive at The National Security Archive Abu Ghraib JURIST The Road to Abu Ghraib Human Rights Watch June 9 2004 Retrieved April 14 2021 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse amp oldid 1150713919, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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