Abu Ghraib torture scandal

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The picture of Ali al-Quasi (علي شلال القیسي) became a symbol of the scandal. Live wires were attached to both hands and penis. He was threatened with electric shock if he fell from the box. When the photo went public, the US authorities denied that the cables were live.

The Abu Ghraib torture scandal ( also: Abu Graib or Abu Ghraib) was a torture affair during the occupation of Iraq by the United States , which caused a worldwide sensation. In this Iraqi inmates of Abu Ghraib prison abused, raped and by guards tortured , often to death. Most of the inmates were "innocents who were in the wrong place at the wrong time," a general later said. The scandal was exposed through the publication of photos and videos of evidence by the press. Some of the images were published in May 2004, and some in February and March 2006.

prehistory

Debate about the permissibility of torture

After the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 , there was increased discussion in the USA about whether torture should be allowed under certain circumstances. The Bush administration also looked into it. In a secret memorandum , the future Justice Minister Alberto R. Gonzales stated that the laws prohibiting torture would not apply to so-called "enemy fighters". He also stated that interrogation practices such as waterboarding should not be classified as torture. Soon after the attacks, it was reported that the US was transferring prisoners to other states for torture.

In December 2002, Donald Rumsfeld issued a non-public note approving 16 special interrogation methods for Guantanamo, including using dogs to scare prisoners, strip them naked during interrogation, or keep them in uncomfortable positions for up to four hours. Rumsfeld also allowed solitary confinement , interrogations for up to 20 hours, and withdrawal of warm meals.

Since the war in Afghanistan prisoners have been held in an internment camp in Guantánamo Bay and on Diego Garcia ; they were denied both legal proceedings and the protection of the Geneva Conventions . There have also been reports of ill-treatment and torture from there.

Development after the Iraq War

After the official fighting of the Third Gulf War ended , US forces took over Abu Ghraib and used it as both a military base and a prison. The security forces of the new Iraqi government also detained prisoners under their own responsibility in a separate section.

In late August 2003, US Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld summoned General Geoffrey D. Miller , commander of the Guantanamo prison camp , to Iraq. Now it was no longer just people who were to be locked away in the prison, but information for the military intelligence service was to be obtained. By the end of October 2003, the number of prisoners in Abu Ghraib doubled to 6,000 in four weeks. "90 percent of the inmates ... were innocent ... they were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time," says the then Abu Ghraib commander Karpinski today.

Publication

In April 2004, the facility hit the headlines when the television station CBS reported in an episode of its television magazine " 60 Minutes II" about torture, abuse and humiliation of prisoners by US soldiers. The images broadcast in the process are said to have been taken in November or December 2003 and have also been the subject of investigations by the US Army .

US soldier Charles Graner poses next to the prisoner Manadel al Jamadi, who was killed in interrogation.
Lynndie England with prisoner on leash.

In May 2004, reports and photos reached the media showing that American employees of the military, secret services and private military companies had tortured prisoners in Abu Ghuraib prison near Baghdad . At the beginning of 2006, hundreds more photos with pictures and videos of previously unimagined brutality appeared. The photos show people being abused or in degrading postures.

In May 2004, statements and pictures about the rape of male and female Iraqi prisoners in Abu Ghuraib by US soldiers also reached the media (including CBS News, ZNet).

In addition, according to consistent media reports, there are around 100 deaths from the torture program in the Iraq war. These are not mere accidents, as the cases were initially presented as, but systematic torture to the point of death. The scandal is also about murder, which has not played a role in the previous legal processing.

Reactions to allegations of torture

International

The scandal aroused great outrage among governments and the media around the world against the behavior of US stakeholders and those responsible.

Swiss Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey summoned US and UK ambassadors to protest the mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners.

The German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer condemned the torture of Iraqi prisoners by US soldiers in the Abu Ghuraib prison. The United Nations also expressed the sharpest criticism of the actions.

The Holy See also expressed great concern : The scandal is fueling the Arabs' hatred of the West and, above all, of Christianity, the Vatican's "Foreign Minister" , Archbishop Giovanni Lajolo , told the daily La Repubblica : "The abuse? They are a bigger blow to the US than 9/11 . The point is, this was not done by terrorists, but by Americans against themselves ”

Among other things, Rumsfeld had to face a public committee of the US Congress . Members of the US opposition called for his resignation.

UK and USA

  • The then US President Bush and the then Secretary of Defense and Donald Rumsfeld publicly apologized for the incidents.
  • Contradictory statements: Both the US and its closest ally, Great Britain, were considering withdrawing from Iraq for the first time. If the Iraqi interim government so wished after taking power on June 30, the US Army would withdraw, said governor Paul Bremer , US Secretary of State Colin Powell and his British counterpart Jack Straw . But then President Bush disagreed: The US armed forces would remain in Iraq even after the transfer of power to a transitional government planned for the end of June.
  • US soldiers are no longer allowed to use coercion during their interrogation in prisons in Iraq. The chief commander of the US troops in Iraq, Ricardo S. Sánchez , banned previously approved measures such as sleep deprivation or crouching for hours.
  • Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz admitted that interrogation methods used by American soldiers in Iraqi prisons violated the Geneva Convention . He contradicted his superior Donald Rumsfeld, who had previously defended these practices.
  • On May 19, 2004, Jeremy Sivits - who took some of the torture photos - became the first soldier to be sentenced to one year in prison by a military tribunal. He was also dishonorably expelled from the army and demoted.
  • President Bush told the Baghdad daily Assaman that the scandal surrounding the mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners by US soldiers would be unreservedly cleared up.
  • Speaking of the torture scandal, conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh said, "There is no difference between what has been done and the initiation rituals at the Skull and Bones fraternity and we will ruin people's lives and weaken our military efforts, and then we will." who punish just for having a good time. You know, these people are shot at every day, I'm talking about people having a good time. Have you ever heard of these people relieve emotional stress? "
  • Conservative radio host Michael Savage said on the same subject: "Instead of joysticks, I would have liked to see dynamite put in their orifices." He also said: "We don't need less humiliation tactics, we need more." He repeatedly referred to Abu -Ghuraib as "Grab-an-Arab prison" (Eng .: "Grab 'nen Arab prison").

Individual aspects

The pictures show, among other things, naked prisoners who are said to have been forced to have oral sex and a prisoner who is connected to electrical cables as if he was threatened with an execution by electricity . There is also a picture that shows a prisoner who appears to be dead. According to CBS, the US Army has many more photos of this type, including one showing a prisoner being attacked by a dog.

A prisoner alleges that he was raped under the supervision of US soldiers . It is also documented how US soldiers smear prisoners with feces, the rape of a female prisoner and the exposure of the breasts for the purpose of photography.

According to its own statements, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) urged the US authorities to take action against the mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners months ago: “Our findings were discussed on various occasions between March and November 2003, either in direct talks or in written submissions ”, announced Pierre Krähenbühl from the ICRC on May 7, 2004 in Geneva .

Manadel Al-Jamadi

Manadel Al-Jamadi, a prisoner, died on November 4, 2003 in Abu Ghraib. He had already been beaten when he was arrested and a stove fell on Al-Jamadi in a fight with a soldier. He was removed by SEALs and taken to their warehouse at Baghdad Airport. Ultimately, al-Jamadi was taken to a so-called "riot room" where, among other things, CIA officials doused him with water and stripped him naked. A CIA interrogator is said to have braced all his weight against al-Jamadi's chest. Then he was taken to Abu Ghraib. There he was taken to the shower room and his hands were hung over his head so that he could stand, but when his knees gave way, his entire body weight was hung by his wrists. Al-Jamadi wore a hood. He died 45 minutes after arriving in Abu Ghraib. He had suffocated from the combination of some broken ribs (from his treatment on the way to Abu Ghraib) and the bondage. CIA agents present are said to have destroyed al-Jamadi's bloody hood as incriminating evidence. The soldiers Charles Graner and Sabrina Harman can be seen in photos with al-Jamadi's body.

Entanglement of doctors

According to a US scientist, doctors are also believed to have been involved in the torture in the Iraqi prison Abu Ghuraib. The American bioethicist Steven Miles wrote in the journal The Lancet that their behavior broke ethical values ​​in medicine and violated human rights . The doctor of medicine and professor at the University of Minnesota requested an official investigation into the role of doctors in the torture scandal.

Miles evaluated minutes of the US Congress, statements from prisoners and soldiers, medical reports and press reports. A military spokesman confirmed that most of the incidents and allegations described in the article were documented by the armed forces themselves.

Miles writes that according to statements made by those in charge of the US Army, a psychiatrist and another doctor designed and approved the interrogation methods in Abu Ghraib and monitored the interrogations. He describes a case that was sworn by a prisoner: A prisoner collapsed unconscious after being beaten and was resuscitated by nurses. These then left, after which the man was mistreated again. There are also reports that doctors mistreated prisoners themselves.

Miles also quotes an officer of the military police: A doctor had put an IV into the vein of an inmate who died under torture to make it look like the man was still alive in the hospital. Death certificates of prisoners in Afghanistan and Iraq were forged. "Doctors routinely confirmed death from heart attack, heat stroke, or other natural causes of death," writes Miles. Only a few units in Iraq and Afghanistan have made it possible for the prisoners to carry out the monthly examinations required by the Geneva Conventions , and doctors have not provided regular medical care.

Mitchell and Jessen

The American civil rights organization ACLU filed a lawsuit against the two psychologists James Mitchell and John Jessen . They were with their firm Mitchell Jessen and Associates under contract with the CIA to develop torture methods, and they carried out illegal experiments on prisoners to refine the methods. Both personally participated in torture, overlooked the introduction of the program at the CIA and received several million US dollars for it .

Further work-up

On February 15, 2006, the Australian broadcaster SBS published more images that the Pentagon wanted to keep under lock and key despite a court ruling. The moderator of the program Dateline explained to the viewers that the previously unpublished image documents come from the collection that had caused outrage around the world in 2004. The broadcaster justified the broadcasting of the pictures with its information obligation and freedom of the press . They would reveal that the abuse - sexual humiliation, mutilation and torture leading to death - was "more widespread and much worse" than previously thought. The Australian newspaper "Sydney Morning Herald" posted additional photos on the Internet. There you can also see corpses and body parts with burns and other injuries.

On March 9, 2006, the US announced that it would hand over complete control of the prison to the Iraqi security authorities, who wanted to use the prison as a warehouse for the Justice Department, and that it would move the prisoners. Instead, the US government intended to finance the construction of a new high-security prison.

On March 14, 2006, the US Internet magazine Salon.com published 280 photographs and 19 videos, some of which were previously unknown. The spokeswoman for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Dorothea Krimitsas said she was “shocked” about the newly published images of torture. "We are shocked by the mistreatment," she told the Swiss news agency SDA on March 16, 2006.

Former US soldier Joshua Casteel, who served in Abu-Ghuraib, about his experiences there:

“With the deployment of the special forces, you regularly questioned the inmates. Torture was also common. For example, the prisoners were placed naked in ice cold water and then placed in a room with air conditioning that was set to extremely high temperatures. Her hands were hit with hammers. Baseball bats were also used. "

On May 27, 2009, the Daily Telegraph published an article describing the unpublished photos from Abu Ghraib and six other prisons. These show torture, sexual abuse of adolescents and adults, and rape. According to the article, President Obama decided not to publish these photos because Major General Antonio Taguba, who was responsible for investigating and classifying the evidence, stated that publication of the photos would "only" lead to civil lawsuits and identify and identify the military personnel on the documents appropriate means had been taken.

Research by the Guardian made it known in 2013 that the techniques used by the US military in Latin America to suppress opposition activists had also been used in occupied Iraq from 2003 onwards. This included "all kinds of torture techniques to obtain confessions," including electric shocks , inverted hanging, and pulling out fingernails. Veterans such as James Steele, who trained the military in El Salvador in torture methods, were also deployed and actively used or directed torture measures in Iraq . This was approved by the highest levels of the US military.

Legal processing

United States

  • Charles Graner was considered the ringleader . He was sentenced to ten years in prison by a US military tribunal and released after six and a half years for good conduct.
  • Lynndie England , who poses in many pictures , was sentenced to three years in prison and was released after less than two years.
  • Brigadier General Janis Karpinski (* 1954), from June 2003 to January 2004 in command of Abu-Ghuraib (and 16 other Iraqi prisons), wasdemotedto colonel in 2005 onthe grounds that he “stole a bottle of perfume” in a supermarket. She was the highest-ranking officer to be held accountable, but she never got a trial - in her opinion, because Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld and Vice President Cheney "didn't want me to testify under oath." She described herself as a whipping boy and denied any knowledge of the torture.
  • Colonel Thomas Pappas was relieved of his command on May 13, 2005. He was fined $ 8,000 for allowing dogs to be interrogated.
  • Lieutenant Colonel Steven L. Jordan was the highest ranking US officer indicted in the scandal. In the course of the trial, all charges were dropped.
  • Staff Sergeant Ivan Frederick made an admission of guilt on October 20, 2004. He was sentenced to eight years' imprisonment, dishonorable discharge from the army, and a fine.
  • Sergeant Javal Davis made an admission of guilt on February 4, 2005. He was sentenced to six months in prison and demoted.
  • Specialist Jeremy Sivits was sentenced to at least twelve months in prison on May 19, 2004 after an admission of guilt and demoted.
  • Specialist Armin Cruz was sentenced to eight months' imprisonment and demoted after an admission of guilt and the accusation of accomplices.
  • Specialist Sabrina Harman was sentenced to six months' imprisonment on May 17, 2005 and served in the Naval Consolidated Brig , Miramar .
  • Specialist Megan Ambuhl was demoted on October 30, 2004 and was fined half a month's wage.
  • Sergeant Santos Cardona did 90 days of hard labor at Fort Bragg , North Carolina . He was then assigned to train Iraqi police officers. In 2009 he was killed in Afghanistan, where he was working as a government advisor.
  • Specialist Roman Krol was sentenced to ten months imprisonment on February 1, 2005 after an admission of guilt and demoted.
  • Specialist Israel Rivera, who was present at the October 25 abuse, did not testify so as not to incriminate himself. He wasn't convicted.
  • Sergeant Michael Smith was detained for 179 days and was fined $ 2,250. He was demoted.

Indictment in Germany

On September 13, 2005, the Stuttgart Higher Regional Court dismissed a member of the Republican Lawyers' Association on behalf of 17 victims of torture and a human rights organization. Attorney General Kay Nehm had not initiated an investigation against US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld after the 17 victims were reported.

Movies

See also

literature

Web links

Commons : The images that sparked the Abu Ghuraib scandal  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Duncan Gardham, Paul Cruickshank: Abu Ghraib abuse photos 'show rape'. In: The Telegraph. May 27, 2009. Retrieved August 26, 2014 .
  2. ↑ a b Chris Shumway / Translated by: Andrea Noll: Patterns of systematic rape by US troops. ZNet, June 6, 2004, archived from the original on September 27, 2007 ; Retrieved March 19, 2016 . , with the original text: Chris Shumway: Systematic Pattern of Rape by US Forces. ZNet, June 6, 2004, archived from the original on June 2, 2009 ; accessed on March 19, 2016 (English).
  3. ↑ a b c d Christoph Cadenbach: Traces of violence. Süddeutsche Zeitung, April 4, 2014, accessed on August 26, 2014 .
  4. ↑ CIA flights: USA kidnap and torture . ( Memento of September 2, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Amnesty International
  5. ↑ Chronology of the torture scandal: Rumsfeld, Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib. Süddeutsche Zeitung , May 17, 2010, accessed April 6, 2014 .
  6. ↑ a b Mark Benjamin: Salon exclusive: The Abu Ghraib files. In: Salon.com . February 16, 2006, archived from the original on September 6, 2011 ; Retrieved March 19, 2016 . Witness reports from Abu Ghraib. In: Telepolis . February 17, 2006, accessed March 19, 2016 .
  7. ↑ John Sifton: The Bush Administration Homicides. May 5, 2009, accessed March 30, 2016 .
  8. ↑ a b CIA Torture Program: Water, Light, and Country Music . Süddeutsche Zeitung from December 12, 2014
  9. ↑ Abuses in Iraq: Vatican considers torture affair to be worse than September 11th . Spiegel Online , May 12, 2004; Retrieved July 5, 2010
  10. ↑ Rush: MPs Just 'Blowing Off Steam' . In: CBS News , May 6, 2004. 
  11. ^ Savage Nation: It's not just Rush; Talk radio host Michael Savage: "I commend" prisoner abuse; "We need more" ( Memento from May 9, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
  12. ↑ Stephen Gray: The Shadow Realm of the CIA: America's Dirty War on Terror. Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Munich 2006, pp. 217-219.
  13. ↑ Josh Bell: ACLU Sues Psychologists Who Designed and Ran CIA Torture Program. ACLU, October 13, 2015, accessed March 19, 2016 .
  14. ↑ VICE News Exclusive: The Architect of the CIA's Enhanced Interrogation Program, James Mitchell. Vice (magazine) , December 10, 2014, accessed March 30, 2016 .
  15. ↑ Iraq: I was in Abu-Ghraib . Vatican Radio , January 31, 2007
  16. ↑ a b Murtaza Hussain: How the US exported its 'dirty war' policy to Iraq - with fatal consequences. The Guardian, March 8, 2013.
  17. ↑ US military funded, oversaw detention and torture sites during Iraq invasion. PressTV, March 7, 2013.
  18. ↑ US military: Abu Ghreib commander is demoted. In: stern.de. May 6, 2005, accessed February 26, 2019 .
  19. ↑ Iraq abuse 'or-dered from the top'. BBC News , June 15, 2004, accessed June 12, 2013 .
  20. ↑ Army officer charged in Abu Ghraib prison abuse ( Memento of May 7, 2006 in the Internet Archive )
  21. ^ Josh White: Officer acquitted of mistreatment in Abu Ghraib case , Washington Post. August 29, 2007. Retrieved August 31, 2007. 
  22. ↑ Torture scandal: US Army overturns verdict against Abu Ghraib officer. In: Spiegel Online . January 11, 2008, accessed July 5, 2010 .
  23. ^ Court sentences England to 3 years . ( Memento of February 2, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  24. ↑ Kelli R. Peter Meyer: Soldier sentenced in Abu Ghraib abuse . army.mil. October 25, 2004. Archived from the original on October 12, 2005. Retrieved on August 10, 2012.
  25. ^ Military Specialist Pleads Guilty to Abuse and Is Jailed
  26. ↑ Spc. Matthew Chlosta: Soldier gets 10 years for Abu Graib Prison abuse . army.mil. January 19, 2005. Archived from the original on October 12, 2005. Retrieved on August 10, 2012.
  27. ^ Andrea F. Siegel: Convicted reservist testifies. The Baltimore Sun , July 17, 2005, accessed July 18, 2010 .
  28. ↑ The United States Army Home Page ( Memento of November 23, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  29. ↑ Adam Zagorin: At Abu Ghraib Offender's Return to Iraq Is Stopped . In: Time , November 2, 2006. 
  30. ↑ Two more Soldiers sentenced for Abu Ghraib abuse . ( Memento from February 10, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
  31. ^ Higher Regional Court of Stuttgart stands behind Federal Prosecutor: No criminal proceedings against Rumsfeld & Co. AG Peace Research at the University of Kassel, accessed on February 4, 2010 .
  32. ^ Decision of September 13, 2005 (PDF) Higher Regional Court of Stuttgart, September 14, 2005, accessed on February 4, 2010 .