Abu Ghraib

In January, 2004, the United States Army started a criminal investigation into the reports of prisoner abuse and torture at the Abu Gharib prison in Iraq. The report turned up a history of excessive use of force against the human beings incarcerated at the prison; this includes actions such as:

• Punching, slapping, and kicking detainees; jumping on their naked feet.
• Forcibly arranging detainees in various sexually explicit positions for photographing.
• 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.
• A male MP guard raping a female detainee.
• Threatening detainees with a loaded 9mm pistol.
• Beating detainees with a broom handle and a chair.
• Allowing a military police guard to stitch the wound of a detainee who was injured after being slammed against the wall in his cell.
• Sodomizing a detainee with a chemical light and perhaps a broom stick.
• Using military dogs, without muzzles, to frighten and intimidate detainees with threats of attack, and in one instance actually biting and severely injuring a detainee.

The least frightening way to look at this is that this was simply the actions of a group of individuals who, after being put in the right place at the right time, lost touch with what was right and wrong and acted in a manor that is deplorable. The most frightening way to look at it is that these were orders that came down all the way from the top levels of United States Government. Regardless of why it happened the solution is the same: reduce the size of the Federal Government.

With a smaller Federal Government, including getting our military out of the middle east, our troops would never be in the position to hurt someone else. Any time people are in conflict there are going to be casualties but we are in conflicts that are not necessary for us to go about our daily lives.

More information

See how we are going to raise awareness with street theatre at the Portland, Oregon protest.

More info

• Abu Ghraib from the JURIST legal news archive
• All pictures and videos from Abu Ghraib from Salon.com
• The Road to Abu Ghraib from Human Rights Watch
• The White House really wants you to know from Rotten.com
• YOU CAN'T BE A SWEET CUCUMBER IN A VINEGAR BARREL an interview with Philip Zimbardo.