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April 28, 2005
A year goes by
One year has passed since we first saw the pictures from Abu Ghraib. Since then we have learned that at least hundreds have died in custody, and that thousands were maimed, raped, injured, tortured and otherwise abused.
But I have just learned that I was wrong about the name I chose for this picture, which I had saved as "ghraib-mock-electrocution.jpg"
It was not a mock electrocution; this man was actually shocked with electricity. [Corrected sentence, thanks to reader Dick Fitzgerald]
Here is just a bit from his harrowing story [From February 2005 Vanity Fair via Empire Notes]:
Haj Ali claims he was given electrical shocks near the end of his stay on Cellblock 1A at Abu Ghraib. By this time, his old, customized blanket had been returned to him by Joyner; he wore it like a hospital gown for modesty, tying it in the back with its fringed edges. One night as he was praying, Haj Ali was taken hooded by Graner and led to another room. "I felt there were 8 or 10 people standing around," he says. He was then made to stand on a food box and lift his hands, as electrical wires were clipped between his fingers. "They would give me electric shocks. I could feel the pulses going even into my eyeballs. I would collapse and faint." Upon each collapse, the guards would kick and hit Haj Ali with boots and sticks, saying, "Get up! Get up!" He believes he was shocked five times.As he tells me this, Haj Ali begins crying. Army investigators have not spoken to Haj Ali, but a report on alleged prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib released last spring noted one instance of a detainee's being hooked up to wires to "simulate" electric torture.
Following his release, after more than two months, Haj Ali quickly co-founded an Iraq-based non-governmental organization, Victims of American Occupation Prison Association, which currently has thousands of members and is growing daily.
And yet, Army investigators have not even bothered to speak with this man. The whole story is worth reading.
And yet, the same government remains in power. Neither the direct perpetrators, many of whom were cruel so much above and beyond duty that it is not possible to chalk it all off to stress and following orders, nor the higher-ups who initiated, ordered, oversaw and encouraed these practices have been held accountable. (Only one or two of the smallest, most visible torturers like Graner got anything resembling a punishment. Most of the rest got docked pay, a few months in jail, meaningless reprimands, promotions and applause).
(I have categorized my blog entries about the torture scandal here) It makes for very sad reading.)
Are we really expecting all this to go away if we just ignore it, as we have been doing?
Posted by zeynep at April 28, 2005 08:17 PM
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