Abu Ghraib prison was closed in due to security concerns. But its horrendous legacy lives on. This case brings us one step closer to the possibility of closing the chapter on abuses at Abu Ghraib — but this relies on the full execution of justice that is not limited simply to prosecuting perpetrators of torture, but which extends to survivors of torture such that they are able to finally, albeit incompletely, move on with their lives.
But perhaps this is what American justice is really all about. Four Iraqis who allege they suffered torture by a US military contractor are battling for retribution in a civil court.
Maha Hilal. Published On 1 Oct The focus of her research and expertise is institutionalised Islamophobia in the war on terror and its impact on Muslims and Muslim Americans. More from Author. Most Read. Wisdom said:. SFC Snider grabbed my prisoner and threw him into a pile. I do not think it was right to put them in a pile.
I remember SSG Frederick hitting one prisoner in the side of its [sic] ribcage. The prisoner was no danger to SSG Frederick.
I left after that. I saw two naked detainees, one masturbating to another kneeling with its mouth open. I thought I should just get out of there. The abuses became public because of the outrage of Specialist Joseph M. Darby, an M. He came across pictures of naked detainees. He felt very bad about it and thought it was very wrong.
The M. In October of , the nd was ordered to prison-guard duty at Abu Ghraib. Frederick, at thirty-seven, was far older than his colleagues, and was a natural leader; he had also worked for six years as a guard for the Virginia Department of Corrections.
Bobeck explained:. Some had been excused after exercising their Fifth Amendment right; others were deemed to be too far away from the courtroom. Decided that the best way to embarrass Arabs and make them talk was to have them walk around nude? In letters and e-mails to family members, Frederick repeatedly noted that the military-intelligence teams, which included C. In a letter written in January, he said:. I questioned some of the things that I saw.
MI has also instructed us to place a prisoner in an isolation cell with little or no clothes, no toilet or running water, no ventilation or window, for as much as three days. Battalion, and asked about the mistreatment of prisoners.
They put his body in a body bag and packed him in ice for approximately twenty-four hours in the shower. The next day the medics came and put his body on a stretcher, placed a fake IV in his arm and took him away. Last fall, General Sanchez ordered Ryder to review the prison system in Iraq and recommend ways to improve it.
It also discussed serious concerns about the tension between the missions of the military police assigned to guard the prisoners and the intelligence teams who wanted to interrogate them. Army regulations limit intelligence activity by the M. But something had gone wrong at Abu Ghraib. There was evidence dating back to the Afghanistan war, the Ryder report said, that M.
Ryder undercut his warning, however, by concluding that the situation had not yet reached a crisis point. Taguba, in his report, was polite but direct in refuting his fellow-general. Taguba backed up his assertion by citing evidence from sworn statements to Army C. Specialist Sabrina Harman, one of the accused M. Another witness, Sergeant Javal Davis, who is also one of the accused, told C. We were told that they had different rules. He believes Sivits was following orders in Iraq and the punishment was unfair.
When you're in a position like he was in, you do what you have to do. Rawlings gives me a hard stare and says: "Hell, war is hell. Sivits, 38, has sideburns and short, brown hair and speaks with an accent that hints at his Appalachian roots.
He says that as a child he dreamed of being a soldier like his father. He became a member of the th military police brigade, and in he was sent to Iraq. More from Tara:. Not long after Sivits arrived in Iraq, he was assigned to work at Abu Ghraib, a prison in Baghdad where he filled in as a mechanic and a driver. At the time about 2, Iraqi men, women and children were held at the prison. Many were innocent and knew nothing about the insurgency - they'd been picked up accidentally in raids.
By this time, the US had approved the use of harsh interrogation methods at US-run detention facilities. With that goal in mind, Washington officials recast laws in order to allow for interrogation methods that had long been defined as torture, and the techniques were used on prisoners at Abu Ghraib.
Detainees were beaten - some to death. One photograph shows the corpse of a prisoner, Manadel al-Jamadi, who had been held there by the CIA. His body was wrapped in plastic. Standing in the pizzeria, Sivits describes the events that he witnessed at the prison. One evening in November , he helped a guard he says was known as "Freddie" - Ivan Frederick - to escort detainees to Tier 1A, a cellblock for dangerous prisoners.
After they got there, they saw naked prisoners lying in a hallway, jumbled together. Charles Graner, Lynndie England and other soldiers were standing around, laughing.
Frederick and Sivits placed their men onto the heap. Why didn't you do that? You lose track of time, and it's like you're in a big warp. In the midst of the cacophony, Sivits noticed that the "flex cuffs", as military handcuffs are known, were bound too tightly on one prisoner, causing his hands to swell and turn purple.
Sivits turned to Graner and said: "Dude, this guy's going to lose his hands. Afterwards, Sivits tells me, the prisoner relaxed: "His hands - you could see the blood flow started back. Graner handed Sivits a camera and crouched next to a hooded man in an orange jumpsuit who was crumpled on the floor. With one hand, Graner held the prisoner's head gently. Graner balled his other hand into a fist.
Sivits took a picture. Then Graner punched him, says Sivits. Then he sighs. He has a detached manner, as if someone else - not him - was there that night. When the Abu Ghraib photos appeared on television the following spring, President George W Bush said: "We will learn all the facts and determine the full extent of these abuses.
Those involved will be identified. They will answer for their actions. Sivits and 10 other soldiers were convicted for the abuse.
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