The United States Army and Central Intelligence Agency personnel committed a series of human rights violations against detainees in the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, including physical and sexual abuse, torture, rape, sodomy, and murder. The abuses came to public attention with the publication of photographs of the abuse by CBS News in April 2004. The incidents received widespread condemnation both within the United States and abroad, although the torturers received support from conservative media in the United States.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
The Taguba Report (the result of an investigation by a US Army Major General, Antonio Taguba) was revealed to the public in April 2004.
Seymour Hersh had obtained a copy of the Taguba Report, as well as photos taken by a young female GI assigned to a military police unit at Abu Ghraib. When Hersh learned that the CBS 60 Minutes also had photos from Abu Ghraib but was afraid to reveal them, Hersh called the 60 Minutes producer and told her he had, not only photos, but the story behind them. If CBS refused to release the photos in their possession, Hersh said, he would report on the network’s cowardly self-censorship. CBS revealed the photos in the next broadcast of 60 Minutes.
The Taguba Report concluded that 60% of the detainees at Abu Ghraib “were no longer deemed a threat and clearly met the requirements for release“ (Ref. Page 25). In other words, the treatment of those detainees, by US Army soldiers and by CIA personnel, was committed against people who were guilty of nothing. In other words, the acts described were committed against innocent civilians.
On Page 16 of the Taguba Report, Major General Taguba stateds, “I find that the intentional abuse of detainees by military police personnel included the following acts:Punching, slapping, and kicking detainees; jumping on their naked feet; Videotaping and photographing naked male and female detainees; Forcibly arranging detainees in various sexually explicit positions for photographing; forcing detainees to remove their clothing and keeping them naked for several days at a time; forcing naked male detainees to wear women’s underwear; forcing groups of male detainees to masturbate themselves while being photographed and videotaped.“
Friend, in the event you don’t already realize it: that is some sick shit.
The intentional abuse of “detainees“ by military police personnel included the following acts:
- Punching, slapping, and kicking detainees; jumping on their naked feet;
- Videotaping and photographing naked male and female detainees;
- Forcibly arranging detainees in various sexually explicit positions for photographing;
- Forcing detainees to remove their clothing and keeping them naked for several days at a time;
- Forcing naked male detainees to wear women’s underwear;
- Forcing groups of male detainees to masturbate themselves while being photographed and videotaped;
- Arranging naked male detainees in a pile and then jumping on them;
- Positioning a naked detainee on a MRE Box, with a sandbag on his head, and attaching wires to his fingers, toes, and penis to simulate electric torture;
- Writing “I am a Rapeist” (sic) on the leg of a detainee alleged to have forcibly raped a 15-year old fellow detainee, and then photographing him naked;
- Placing a dog chain or strap around a naked detainee’s neck and having a female soldier pose for a picture;
- A male MP guard having sex with a female detainee;
- Using military working dogs (without muzzles) to intimidate and frighten detainees, and in at least one case biting and severely injuring a detainee;
- Taking photographs of dead Iraqi detainees.
Abu Ghraib (and Guantanamo) were never about the treatment of terrorists by Americans … they were both examples of how Americans were treating people against whom no evidence of terrorist activities could be demonstrated.
It makes all the difference.
The logic that was used was: since we can’t prove them not guilty of any crime, they must be, therefore, simply “assumed“ guilty.
That’s obviously contrary to long-standing American values; codified as the supreme law of our land, but espoused in our Declaration of Independence as the God-given rights of all men.
To accept the claim that only terrorists were treated inhumanely by Americans is tantamount to a submissive acceptance of a fascist state (one in which power overrules justice, law, and common decency). I reject that claim. I rejected it 16 years ago, and I reject it now.
How about you?
Isn’t that what this is all about? How we choose to act as individuals, regardless of what others choose to do? Sure it is.
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Charles