An US soldier, US Staff Sergeant Ivan "Chip" Freder, kept a diary
of what he saw at Abu Ghraib prison:
Prisoners were kept in damp cool cells. When in isolation the prisoners were
kept naked or half naked in small cells (sometimes as small as 3 by 3 feet),
without toilet, no running water, no ventilation, and no window for as long
as three days.
Other prisoners were sleeping in tents that had rainwater on their floor,
without bed and with only a few blanquettes to protect them from the cold.
He asked guidance from his superior but was told to do what the contractor
agents said.
Dogs were used to frighten prisoners to release information.
Prisoners who died as a result of their treatment were quietly taken out and
buried.
There was a Mosque in the prison but the prisoners were not allowed to use
it.
On May 1, 2004, there were new evidences of the torture and sexual abuse of Iraqi prisoners by American soldiers as well as of official cover-up. At the same time six British soldiers may be arrested soon for similar offences and facing war crimes trials if the allegations are true. It is now certain that Iraqi prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison were regularly threatened with rape, beaten, threatened by dogs, and burned by acids. One prisoner is said to have been sodomised with an object. Military intelligence soldiers and civilian contractors are mainly responsible. Washington said that it was an isolated incident but they only convinced themselves as further reports asserted that such torture was the rule also in other US -controlled prisons in Iraq such as Camp Cropper at Baghdad airport. And all this in the name of liberating the country, getting rid of a brutal dictator accused of torturing his own people, and bringing American democracy to the poor Iraqis. They certainly enjoyed their taste of American way of life!
The two main members of the coalition have been badly tarnished by the torture allegations and the photographs published all over the world as in The Observer of May 2, 2004, are saying everything. The Arab world is especially shocked and the countries of the coalition will have a hard time to come clean again. Beating and abusing prisoners in their care seem to have been tolerated by junior and senior officers as well.
On May 5, 2004, President Bush tried to limit the damage created in the Arab world by the torture pictures by talking on the Arab Television "al-Hurra" (The Free). His choice was not very good as this television station is funded by the USA, it is a propaganda extension of the US government. However he said that the treatment given to some Iraqi prisoners was "abhorrent" and would be investigated, that what took place in the prisons does not represent the USA as he knows it, and that the people responsible would be brought to justice. Mr Bush did not apologise however. Bush also talked on al-Arabiya television network but refused to talk to al-Jazeera, the most popular Arab television because the Americans accused this network of being too pro-Iraqis. Abu Ghraib one of the prison where torture took place was well known as a torture centre during Saddam Hussein regime and described as such by the Americans. And now the Americans do exactly the same. Bush was so naïve as saying that the difference with the old regime was that "Saddam Hussein's torturers were never brought to court, they were never investigated while the Americans' will". He forgot to say that torture was known to happen in the Iraqi prisons for many months and nothing was done until the photographs were released. In the Middle East the degradation revealed by the pictures was seen as symbolic of the American intentions towards the region. Donald Rumsfeld could be forced to resign because of the scandal. Some of the Iraqis that appeared in the pictures have been identified. They are still ashamed of what happened to them and are afraid to go back to their usual residence. Being shown naked, piled on top of each other, to simulate oral sex is a particularly deep humiliation in the Arab world.
Usually only relatives and friends hoping to get some news of their loved ones stand in the Abu Ghraib prison car park but now, on May 5, 2004, hundred of Iraqis demonstrators are also shouting their anger at the American torturers. Among them are clerics, engineers, women and children. All of them stood there shouting "America where are human rights?", "Bush, Bush, go to hell!", "America is the enemy of Allah". Some demonstrators are carrying posters in English such as "You have given a bad impression of America and Christians", "US Army, go home" and "Down, Down, USA". They are also saying "even Saddam Hussein did not do this". It is obvious that outside their country, the Americans will now be considered for what they are: murderers and torturers.
On May 6, 2004, Bush and Blair were trying to prevent more revelations about torture of prisoners in Iraq. President Bush had to apologise publicly for the way the US soldiers treated their prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison -and in others all over Iraq- and Blair followed offering apologies too for the British side of the scandal.
On May 9, 2004, The Observer is saying that British military intelligence officers interrogated prisoners in the Abu Ghraib prison although it was known that torture was taking place in it. From there saying that they were involved is a short step. The Defence ministry had to admit that three officials were stationed there between January and April 2004. MI6 officials also visited the jail. This will drag Britain in the middle of the torture scandal abuses. It is already known that British and US soldiers were taught torture procedures before being used as "interrogators". All this will put pressure on the British defence secretary Geoff Hoon to reveal when he was told of the abuses of Iraqi prisoners. Until now he refuses to answer although the International Red Cross insists that the British government was informed in November 2003. In addition one of its directors, Jakob Kellenberger, said that he also personally informed three of Bush's closest assistants, Condoleezza Rice, Colin Powell and Paul Wolfowitz. A report by Major-General Antonio Taguba who investigated the abuses saw that some detention centres in Iraq hosted "unidentified ghost detainees" that were moved around not to be seen by the International Red Cross officials. In addition Iraq's former human right minister, Abdul Basset Turki, who resigned over the Falluja massacre, told Paul Bremer who did not react in any way. Rumours had it that the jail would be closed but the American authorities denied this. The Arab television stations are now saying that they have pictures of gang rapes of Muslin women by US soldiers in front of bound prisoners. Where will all this finish?
On May 19, 2004, a US military intelligence sergeant, who worked at the Abu Ghraib prison, said that the US Army is trying to cover up the fact that dozens of soldiers took part in torture and abuses of Iraqi prisoners. Sergeant Samuel Provance added that military police took their orders from the interrogators. He added that he had been advised not to testify by Major General George Fay, the army's deputy chief of staff for intelligence. He spoke clearly of a cover-up organised at the highest level.
On June 9, 2004, two US defence contractors, Titan Corporation and CACI International, were accused in a lawsuit of being involved in the torture of Iraqi detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison.
On June 21, 2004, the Bush administration's attempts to contain the Abu Ghraib prison scandals were shattered. The military judge, Colonel James Pohl, authorised defence lawyers of the soldiers accused of torture and sexual humiliations to call as witnesses the American senior commanders in Iraq. The same judge also ordered the declassification of secret evidences given to the internal inquiry by General Antonio Taguba. This could describe the techniques used by the military police at the jail, the chain of command in the prison and the role of the private contractors. Until now seven soldiers have been referred to courts martial but they claim that they are only scapegoats and that many other soldiers were involved as well as many senior officers. General John Abizaid, the head of the central command, and General Ricardo Sanchez, the outgoing top US force commander in Iraq, will be called as witnesses. The defence will say that the defenders acted under orders or assumed that the techniques of interrogation used were authorised. It is true that even President Bush said "This is a war on terror. The Geneva conventions don't and will not apply". The judge did not authorise the defence to call Donald Rumsfeld as a witness at least for the moment and he blamed the army for refusing the defence lawyers to seek evidence from detainees on the base that Abu Ghraib prison is still too dangerous.
On August 18, 2004, the US soldiers shot dead two Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. There were some disturbances and, possibly, an attempt to kill an innate by his fellow prisoners. To save him the US soldiers killed two others and injured five others.
The Washington Post newspaper has reported that the still-unfinished Army report on abuse at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison will blame the misconduct on failures of leadership at the US command in Iraq. Senior Defence Department officials say the document will attribute the abuse to leadership failings, confusing policies, and a lack of discipline at the prison itself. It may implicate 20 more soldiers in addition to the seven military police already charged but no officers will face charges. The report, supervised by Major General George Fay, will ask that the actions of five civilian contractors also be reviewed for possible civil prosecution.
On August 24, 2004, a Pentagon-appointed commission to examine the abuse of Iraqi detainees by US troops stated that the worst of the prisoner abuse was the work of a small group of US military police guards inside Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison. It also rebuked senior Pentagon civilian and military leaders for neglecting the treatment of detainees. The panel chairman James Schlesinger said about the photographs taken by US guards in which hooded detainees were placed in degrading positions: ''The abuses did not come from authorized interrogation. They did not come from seeking intelligence. They were freelance activities on the part of the night shift at Abu Ghraib.'' The commission was also critical of military commanders in Iraq, from the colonel running interrogations in the prison to Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, who until June was responsible for all coalition forces in Iraq, and even to Gen. John Abizaid, the head of the US Central Command. It found that commanders in the prison failed to adequately supervise guards, that Sanchez set up a confusing command structure in an effort to glean more intelligence, and that Abizaid and his subordinate generals failed to put enough trained military guards and equipment at the prison. The panel under Schlesinger -a former secretary of defense under Republican Presidents Nixon and Ford- included Harold Brown -defense secretary under Democratic President Carter-; Tillie Fowler, a former Republican congresswoman from Florida; and retired Air Force Gen. Charles Horner.The commission did not criticize Rumsfeld or his staff directly. When asked if Rumsfeld should resign over responsibility for the mistreatment of prisoners by soldiers, all four panel members said he should not. Schlesinger said: ''Let me say that his resignation would be a boon to all of America's enemies." ''The report did note the confusion caused by Rumsfeld's approval of tough prisoner interrogation techniques for use at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in December 2002, and then his decision the next month to rescind those practices after military lawyers objected. Some of those techniques, the report found, were later used by US soldiers in Iraq where the Geneva Conventions did apply. The panel also faulted Rumsfeld and the Bush administration for failing to foresee the looting and lawlessness that would engulf Iraq following the US invasion and the fall of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, as well as the rise of an anti-American insurgency; Rumsfeld and Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, should have done more to keep order in the US-run prisons in Iraq. Schlesinger said that although there are more than 300 cases of detainee abuse in Iraq and Afghanistan and at the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the commission found no direct order or command from Washington to deliberately mistreat prisoners, ''There was no policy of abuse,'' ''Quite the contrary. Senior officials repeatedly said that in Iraq, Geneva regulations would apply. In Afghanistan and Guantanamo, it was quite different, but even there it was said, following the president's directive, that all activity should be consistent with the Geneva accord.''
On September 10 2004, it was confirmed that the CIA had dozens of Iraqi "ghost detainees" secretly held at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq so they could be hidden from Red Cross monitoring. General Paul Kern and Maj. Gen. George Fay said they asked repeatedly for information on the detainees during investigations into the abuse of inmates at the Army-run facility outside Baghdad, but the CIA refused to answer. Previously, the CIA was known to have had eight unregistered detainees at Abu Ghraib. What roles CIA officers might have played in abuses of inmates at Abu Ghraib remains a major question following eight high-level investigations into the treatment of detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan and at the US military base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. An Army investigation in April by Major General Antonio Taguba criticized the practice of intentionally hiding prisoners from the Red Cross because it contradicts US military policy and international obligations under the Geneva Conventions. The probes found that responsibility for the problems extended beyond individuals at Abu Ghraib to the military chain of command and the office of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.
Militants attacked the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad with mortars and machinegun fire on Monday night September20, 2004, killing an Iraqi prisoner. It was the latest in a series of attacks on the jail, which became notorious for torture and executions under Saddam Hussein and for abuse of prisoners by US personnel after his overthrow.
Pictures of detainee abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison must be released despite government claims that they could damage America's image, a US District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein, has ruled on September 29, 2005. The American Civil Liberties Union sought the release of 87 photographs and four videotapes as part of an October 2003 lawsuit demanding information on the treatment of detainees in US custody and the transfer of prisoners to countries known to use torture. The ACLU contends that prisoner abuse is systemic. General Richard B. Myers, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, had maintained in court papers that releasing the photographs would aid al-Qaida recruitment, weaken the Afghan and Iraqi governments and incite riots against US troops.
On January 4, 2006, we were told that the military career of Lieutenant General Ricardo S. Sanchez, the US commander during the Abu Ghraib scandal, is coming to an end. He plans to retire this coming summer rather that having to go through a Senate hearing for another job.
New photographs of abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib jail published on February 14, 2006, by the Australian television network SBS have been condemned as "absolutely disgraceful". They showed US troops ill-treating prisoners in 2003 and will spark further fury in Iraq and beyond. A spokesman for the Stop the War Coalition said the images showed "a systematic policy of torturing inmates". The graphic images appeared to show dead bodies, wounded prisoners and inmates performing sex acts.
The US military said Thursday March 9, 2006 it would begin moving thousands of prisoners out of Abu Ghraib prison to Camp Cropper, a new lockup near Baghdad's airport, and other US military prisons in the country within three months and hand the notorious facility over to Iraqi authorities as soon as possible. Abu Ghraib has become perhaps the most infamous prison in the world, known as the site where US soldiers abused some Iraqi detainees and, earlier, for its torture chambers during Saddam Hussein's rule. The Abu Ghraib prison west of Baghdad currently houses 4,537 out of the 14,589 detainees held by the US military in Iraq. But Abu Ghraib was kept in service after the Iraqi government objected. Planning for the new facility at Camp Cropper began in 2004, Johnson said.
Abu Ghraib prison, a symbol of terror for Iraqis under Saddam Hussein, which later became notorious for the abuse of prisoners by US guards, is to be turned into a warehouse, Iraq's Justice Minister said on Friday March 10, 2006.
On April 28, 2006, the US military has charged the former head of the interrogation
centre at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison, Lt-Col Steven Jordan over the abuse
of Iraqi detainees. He is the highest-ranking officer to face criminal charges
over events at the prison. Ten lower-ranking soldiers have already been convicted
for abusing prisoners at Abu Ghraib from 2003 to 2004. Two officers more senior
than Lt-Col Jordan have been disciplined by the army over the scandal, but
neither faced criminal charges.
A US Army dog handler has been demoted and sentenced to 90 days of hard labour
on June 2, 2006, for using his dog to assault a prisoner at the Abu Ghraib
prison in Iraq. Sergeant Santos Cardona, the 11th US soldier convicted for
abusing Abu Ghraib detainees, also will have to forfeit $7,200 in pay. He
will not be confined during the term of hard labour but will be demoted to
specialist. Cardona was convicted of two counts that could have led to three
and a half years in prison - failing to handle his dog properly and using
the unmuzzled Belgian shepherd to threaten a detainee with a force "likely
to produce death or grievous bodily harm". He was cleared on seven other
counts, including accusations of letting his dog bite a prisoner and of conspiring
with another dog handler to frighten inmates into defecating and urinating
on themselves. Cardona's defence attorneys had sought to portray him as a
victim of unclear orders and an ambiguous chain of command that silently condoned
using dogs to terrorise Iraqi prisoners in hopes of getting more intelligence
out of them.