The "hard site" and the failure of "intelligence" at Abu Ghraib

High value detainees and high security prisoners were held in areas known as "hard sites". These were the worst terrorists in the country inluding but not limited to Iraqi insurgents, Taliban and al Qaeda operatives.


Women and children were also detained in the most secure areas of the prison.


As insurgency increased, military officials increased their patrols. They were informed to capture and turn over any and all Iraqi's in an effort to collect information. Out of all of the prisoners held at Abu Ghraib, between 70 and 80 percent of them had no knowledge of terrorists or the countries who harbored them. Intelligence officers were doing their job, but because of the high volume of innocent detainees, they simply were not collecting the type of information they were hoping to regarding weapons of mass destruction. This added to the massive amount of pressure officials in Washington were receiving regarding the war, and they were forced to make a bold move.

 In the summer of 2003, Donald Rumsfeld would go to any lenghts necessary to obtain the same type of information from Abu Ghraib in Iraq as he received from the detainees at Guantanmo Bay, Cuba.

Location, Atmosphere & Situation at Abu Ghraib by September 2003

Abu Ghraib was once the location of Saddam Hussein's largest torture chamber. During his time in power Saddam tortured and executed nearly 30 thousand people. Abu Ghraib was a dark and creepy place full of hate, sadness and death. Upon their arrival the 372nd Military Police Company were forced to deal with extremely hot temperatures exceeding 120 degrees combined with odors of death, feces and urine. This was the environment in which they would spend their time in Iraq.


Not only were the conditions inside the prisons difficult to tolerate, but the constant warfare and explosions outside of Abu Ghraib kept the guards on high alert.


The MP's of the 372nd company were in no position to guard prisoners at Abu Ghraib. They had no prior training to guard the detainees. By the end of September there were over 6,000 detainees with only 300 MP's to watch over them. At any given moment the detainees could have easily taken over the guards and the prison.

American Techniques of War & Iraqi Civilians

American troops in Iraq in 2003 were fighting a "different" kind of war. In previous altercations troops were trained to know their enemy. During WW2 nazi Germany and the Japanese responsible for the bombing on Pearl Harbor were definite enemies of the United States.

 In the summer of 2003, this was no longer the case. Insurgents often looked like regular civilians. Women and children were often used as decoys or suicide bombers to detonate around troops. Cars driving in front of or too close to military areas left military personnel on edge because too often they would be shot at by passers by. Their training was that there was no training. Troops were told if it looks like the enemy...shoot it. More times than not their hunches on who exactly the enemy is, was incorrect.



Hundreds, even thousands of Iraqi men, women and children were taken out of their homes and placed into prisons much like Abu Ghraib and interrogated for information regarding the insurgents, al Qaeda and the Taliban. Many times their interrogations only led military personnel back to square one.

The Justice Department and the UN Conventions against Torture

The definition of torture according to www.dictionary.com is as follows:

tor·ture

   /ˈtɔrtʃər/ Show Spelled [tawr-cher] Show IPA noun, verb, tor·tured, tor·tur·ing.

noun

1.

the act of inflicting excruciating pain, as punishment or revenge, as a means of getting a confession or information, or for sheer cruelty.

2.

a method of inflicting such pain.

3.

Often, tortures. the pain or suffering caused or undergone.

4.

extreme anguish of body or mind; agony.

5.

a cause of severe pain or anguish.

 

This would be the definition in question with regards to the Justice Department and how the U.S. military would interpret the ability interrogate detainees held at Abu Ghraib in an effort to obtain intelligence.

 

 

 

John Yoo and the Justice Department claim that the terms severe and pain are too loosely defined under the statutes in the UN Conventions. This was their argument in advocating the methods used at Abu Ghraib on detainees. In a memo to the White House, the pain inflicted on the detainees should be equivalent to that associated with organ failure or even death.

Critics were blown away at this information. Advocating this type of behavior was no different than the torture used on prisoners by Saddam Hussein under his evil regime.

 

The Geneva Conventions and the War on Terror

The United States has always tried to lead by example. It has been a representation of fairness, equality, and democracy around the world. This changed with the attack on September 11, 2001 and the war against terrorism fought in Afghanistan and Iraq.

When President George W. Bush made the decision in 2002 that the United States would not longer abide by the Geneva Conventions, the rules went by the wayside and anything was fair game in the art of war.

The Geneva Conventions was a binding international law that simply prohibits various forms of torture, humiliation, treatment that could be degrading to one's personal dignity and so forth. These standards were signed by the United States in 1949 as a protectorate for U.S. military men and women in the event of capture.

 Should they become prisoners of war, the U.S. troops would be treated fairly according to the document. The war in Afghanistan was very different than the previous wars fought by Americans. The enemy was a terrorist group who hadn't signed the Geneva Conventions and therefor according to the Justice Department, should not receive the special treatments under the law, and they didn't...

Context of the Abu Ghraib Prison Abuse Scandal

During the fall and summer of 2003, coalition forces in Iraq came under insurgency attack on a daily basis. Beginning with the Jordanian embassy bombing it became apparent the enemy would not stop until the job was complete. Roadside bombs and suicide bombers became the new weapon of choice for the insurgents. Oftentimes women and children were used as decoys to distract the troops long enough to wound and kill. The war in Iraq became an extremely bloody and costly one. In an effort to crack down on the cells that were creating the IED's and bombing tactics, military officials made it imperative that the troops capture and detain as many suspects as they could for investigational purposes. They were to be detained at various prisons around Iraq, the most controversial being Abu Ghraib prison which was previously used as one of Saddam Hussein's torture chambers. Massive amounts of detainees were being brought in daily. The final number at Abu Ghraib was near ten thousand people. Unhappy with the lack of information that was coming out of Abu Ghraib, officials in the Pentagon, primarily Donald Rumsfeld signed off on an order condoning harsher interrogation techniques like those that had been used at GITMO in the early stages of the war. These treatments were not to be in an excessive manner which could cause death to the inmates. This left a large gap in the way that the MP's, who were not technically trained in investigation, could interpret the document. This would be the groundwork for the scandal that surrounds the Bush administration and the war in Iraq.