Torture, American Style

Publication #3 .0/Historians Against the War (HAW)

Contents: Introduction: Margaret Power, Editor The American Prison and the Normalization of Torture: H. Bruce Franklin Nicaragua: A Tortured Nation: Richard Grossman The Tiger Cages of Con Son: Don Luce Guantanamo Prison: Jane Franklin Torture of Prisoners in U.S. Custody: Marjorie Cohn The Abu Ghraib Scandal and the U.S. Occupation of Iraq: John Cox Introduction

By Margaret Power

When pictures of Iraqi prisoners tortured and abused by u.s. troops appeared on televi­ sion screens and in newspapers across the country, many Americans recoiled in horror, disgust, and shock. How could members of the u.s. military carry out such heinous acts against the people we had supposedly come to liberate? Compounding this tragic irony is the fact that the Bush administration had repeatedly offered. Saddam Hussein's use of tor­ ture against the Iraqi people as one of the many pretexts presented by the U.S. govern­ ment to try and justify its invasion of Iraq. Many in this country, especially officials in how Washington's forced occupation of Cuban the Bush administration, would like us to believe territory a century ago has led to its logical con­ that the horrific acts of torture conducted in Abu clusion - a prison. Used first for Haitians and Cu­ Ghraib prison in Baghdad were an aberration, the bans and then for captives of the "War on Terror," atypical behavior of a few bad apples. Unfortu­ the U.S. military base has become a crucible for nately, this is not the case. As the articles in this torture exported to Afghanistan and Iraq. pamphlet show, the use of torture by the U.S. gov­ Marjorie Cohn's article, "Bush & Co.: War ernment and citizens has a long and sordid history Crimes and Cover-Up,,,2 asks why the torture story both in the United States and abroad. This pam­ has virtually disappeared from the media and phlet is not an exhaustive study of the use of tor­ much of the public consciousness. To answer this ture; it focuses specifically on cases of torture question, she examines the inner machinations of conducted by U.S. citizens furthering policies the Bush administration and the history of its dis­ sanctioned by the U.S. state. I cussions and directives on torture. Bruce Franklin's article, "The American John Cox's article, "The Abu Ghraib Scan­ Prison and the Normalization of Torture," shows dal and the U.S. Occupation of Iraq," accom­ how the American prison system developed into a plishes several critical goals. It succinctly summa­ central institution of U.S. society, one that has rizes the history of the scandal at Abu Ghraib and made torture routine and acceptable. The physi­ the investigations into it and discusses who is re­ cal, mental, and sexual abuse glimpsed at Abu sponsible for the abuses. Cox also makes the im­ Ghraib is part of the daily experience for two mil­ portant point that much of the U.S. media cover­ lion people caged in American prisons, while most age of the abuse has ignored the torture of women of the rest of the American public acquiesces or and children that took place at Abu Ghraib, the denies the reality of this torture. details of which are particularly horrible. Don Luce's essay, "The Tiger Cages of Con Probably the one area of the world where the Son," reveals again, as did his original testimony U.S. government has most engaged in the use of in the 1970s, the depths to which the U.S. gov­ torture is Latin America. Torture was integral to ernment sank in its ultimately futile efforts to de­ U.S. foreign policy in Latin America, as Richard feat the Vietnamese people. It imprisoned those Grossman's article, "Nicaragua: A Tortured Na­ Vietnamese it considered "the enemy" in tiger tion," illustrates. The infamous School of the cages, subjected them to physical abuses, deprived Americas trained key Latin American military of­ them of food and water, and, as if all that was not ficers and troops, some of whom ushered in the bad enough, poured lye on them to bum and scar brutal military dictatorships that presided over them. their countries from the 1960s to the 1990s.3 In Jane Franklin's "Guantinamo Prison" reveals addition, as Grossman points out, members of the

1 2. U.S. marine force that occupied Nicaragua in the being abused and members of his or her commu­ spec early 20th century did not just teach the Nicara­ nity who care about and feel connected to the vic­ 3. ' guan Guardia how to torture, they also engaged in tim of torture. It is a weapon used by those in don it themselves as part of their efforts to terrorize power to maintain themselves in power. Nicaraguans and defeat Augusto Cesar Sandino The explicit use of sexual abuse in Abu 4. thee and his anti-imperialist forces. Ghraib has horrified many people, perhaps more The U.S. government's sponsorship of torture than any of the other methods of torture employed. 5. Stat was not limited to the training of ~atin American Homophobia and the revulsion with which many Pre! militaries. As A. J. Langguth details in Hidden Americans and Iraqis view same-sex relationships Terrors, the U.S. government also worked directly clearly shaped the sexual tortures the U.S. military 6. 1 with police forces throughout the continent. His officials inflicted on their prisoners. U.S. Guards book discusses the work of Dan Mitrione, a police forced male Iraqi prisoners to masturbate, wear chief from Richmond, Indiana, who instructed the female underclothes, and perform fellatio on each Uruguayan police force in methods of torture in other.6 That particular method of torture was used the late 1960s.4 State of Siege by .Costas-Gavras to damage, perhaps obliterate, the tortured indi­ dramatically brings to the screen the story of Dan vidual's sense of self, his or her very identity. Mitrione, the anti-democratic methods of coercion Such practices undermine an individual's will to and repression he taught the Uruguayan police resist and weaken a community's ability to sur­ force, and his subsequent kidnapping and execu­ vive. And th~t was exactly the point. tion by the Tupamaros, the Uruguayan guerrilla The torture of Iraqis, like the abuse of the force. Uruguay was not an isolated example, as prisoners in Guantanamo and Vietnam, or the Martha Huggins shows in her expose of the U.S. slaves in the U.S. south was a logical, if immoral, government training of police forces in Latin extension of U.S. state policy. The U.S. govern­ By America, with a particular focus on Brazil.s ment invaded Iraq, as it had invaded Vietllam and In order to inflict pain on people, the torturer Afghanistan, and as slaveholders had enslaved Africans. Those who were and are the victims of needs to transform the tortured into the Other, in Thl most cases the enemy Other. During the Cold occupation--either of their nations or their bodies-­ War, the U.S. government convinced many people resisted, just as the Iraqis continue to resist. In ec( in this country and around the world that "com­ order to crush opposition, U.S. government po Ii­ pn munists," a blanket term applied to those who es­ cymakers and citizens alike employed torture in an CUI poused socialism as well as to people who op­ effort to destroy the spirit of resistance and make tes posed U.S. imperialist control of their nations the people's defeat seem inevitable. were the enemy. Today, the enemy Other is the We know there are many people in this coun­ da: terrorist, who is frequently conflated with the try who are appalled and disgusted by the use of reI Muslim or Arab Other. To be an Other means to torture. The courageous actions of Joseph Darby ou be a fanatic, to be impervious to "our" morality helped bring to light the abuse of prisoners at Abu At and values; in shoI:t, to be not only less than hu­ Ghraib, just as three decades before the efforts of man, but far from human, a living machine who is Don Luce and Tom Harkin helped to expose the ni! definitely not one of US (the definition of who US criminal treatment of Vietnamese prisoners at Con in is, is seldom clear). Since this person is not one of Son. We hope that all of you who read this pam­ fOJ us, and is, in fact, intent on destroying US, then phlet will condemn any and all forms of torture e~ WE can use whatever means are available to and raise your voice to oppose its use, any time AI counter this evil force. It is within this context and anywhere. de that torture is not only allowed, it is approved. to) Some believe that those who torture do so 10) simply to extract information from the captured NOTES sc enemy. This is not entirely true, as the examples 1. There are many other examples of U.S. government sti of Abu Ghraib, the tiger cages in Vietnam, and the torture whose story nee4s to be told. If you know of pr treatment of slaves and prisoners in this country other examples and/or would like to write about them, he show so clearly. Torture is used to degrade, hu­ please contact me, Margaret Power, at miliate, and destroy both the individual who is [email protected].

2 2. Her article was originally printed in TruthoutiPer­ Margaret Power is an anti-war activist and Asso­ spective, September 20, 2004. ciate Professor of History at the Illinois Institute of 3. William Blum, The CIA. A Forgotten History. Lon­ Technology. She is the author of Right-Wing don: Zed Books, 1986. Women in Chile: Feminine Power and the Strug­ 4. A. J. Langguth, Hidden Terrors. New York: Pan­ gle against Allende and co-editor with Paola Bac­ theon Books, 1978. chetta of Right-Wing Women: From Conservatives 5. Martha K. Huggins, Political Policing: The United to Extremists around the World. Her current re­ States and Latin America. Durham: Duke University search projects include modernity, gender, and Press. technology in Chile, 1964 to 2000 and the Latin 6. New York Times. October 7,2004. American right after 1945. Contact her at mar­ [email protected]

The American Prison and the Normalization of Torture

By H. Bruce Franklin

The prison has become a central institution in American society, integral to our politics, economy, and culture. Between 1976 and 2000, the United States built on average a new prison each week and the number of imprisoned Americans increased tenfold. With a current prison and jail population of over two million, America has become the uncon­ tested world leader in incarceration. Prison has made the threat of torture part of every­ day life for millions of individuals in the United States, especially the 6.9 million cur­ rently incarcerated or otherwise under the control of the penal system. More insidiously, our prison system has helped make torture a normal, legitimate, even routine part of American culture. Imprisonment itself, even when relatively be­ structed by guards- all are everyday occurrences nign, is arguably a form of torture. This is implicit in the American prison system. 1 in our society using prison as the most dire legal The use of sex and sexual humiliation as tor­ form of both "punishment" and "deterrence," ture in Abu Ghraib and the other American prisons except for execution. Moreover, in the typical in Iraq is endemic to the American prison. Psy­ American prison, designed and run to maximize chological and physical sexual torture is exacer­ degradation, brutalization, and punishment, overt bated by the underlying policy of denying prison­ torture is the norm. Beatings, electric shock, pro­ ers any volitional sex, making the only two forms longed exposure to heat and even immersion in of sexual activity that are physically possible­ scalding ' water, sodomy with riot batons, night­ homosexuality and masturbation-both offenses sticks, flashlights, and broom handles, shackled subject to punishment. Strip searches, including prisoners forced to .lie in their own excrement for invasive and often intentionally painful examina­ hours or even days, months of solitary confine­ tion of the mouth, anus, testicles, and vagina, fre­ ment, rape and murder by guards or prisoners in- quently accompanied by verbal or physical sexual

3 abuse, are part of the daily routine in most prisons. can thus also become a prime site for cultural fan­ A 1999 Amnesty International report documented tasy. the commonplace rape of prisoners by guards in The modern prison was devised by American 2 women's prisons. reformers who believed that people should not be ( Each year, numerous prisoners are maimed, tortured and that criminals could be "reformed" by . I crippled, and even killed by guards. Photographs incarceration, labor, and "penitence." But with the could be taken on any day in the American prison rise of industrial capitalism, unpaid prison labor system· that would match the photographs from became a source of superprofits, a trend acceler­ Abu Ghraib that shocked the public. Indeed, ac­ ated by the Civil War, and the "penitentiary" be­ I tual pictures from prisbns in America have shown came the site of industrial slavery conducted under I worse atrocities than those pictures from the the whip and other savagery. r American prisons in Iraq. For example, no photos Prior to the Civil War, the main form of im­ l of American abuse of Iraqi prisoners have yet prisonment-African-American slavery-was, equaled the pictures of dozens of prisoners sav­ like the penitentiary, not to be regarded as torture. .I agely and mercilessly tortured by guards and state Slavery, indeed; was never legitimized by any I troopers in the aftermath of the 1971 Attica rebel­ claim that the slaves were being punished for r lion. 3 Even more appalling images are available in crimes or anything else. A main cultural line of I the documentary film Maximum Security Univer­ defense of slavery even maintained that the slaves sity about California's state Corcoran Prison. For were happy. This changed in 1865 when Article r years at Corcoran, guards set up fights among 13, the Amendment that abolished the old form of c prisoners, bet on the outcome, and then often shot slavery, actually wrote slavery into the Constitu­ o the men for fighting, seriously wounding at least tion-for people legally defined as criminals: p 43 and killing eight just in the period 1989-1994. ''Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except c The film features official footage of five separate as punishment for crime whereof the party shall t. incidents in which guards, with no legal justifica­ have been duly convicted, shall exist within the , 4 tion, shoot down and kill unarmed prisoners. United States ...." ( But if the tortures practiced in American pris­ At this point, tortures routinely inflicted on l ons are so commonplace, then why, one might slaves, especially Whipping, became a standard 1 reasonably ask, did those pictures from Abu feature of the main site of penal incarceration: · the Ghraib evoke such an outcry? The answer to this prison plantation. The antebellum plantation was critical question lies in the history of the American merging with the "penitentiary" to create the mod­ prison and how the prison functions in contempo­ ern American prison system. Ironically, the sexual rary culture. deprivation of the prison was an additional torture Prior to the American Revolution, imprison­ not characteristic of the old plantation, where slave ment was seldom used as punishment for crime in breeding was a major source of profit, while the England and was rarer still in its American colo" old pathological fear of Black sexuality became a nies. The main punishments under England's no­ prime source of the sexual tortures endemic to the torious "Bloody Code" were executions and vari­ modern American prison, where people of color ous forms of physical torture--whipping, the are not a "minority" but the majority. stocks, the pillory, branding, mutilation, castration, The true nature and functions of the American etc.-all designed as spectaCles to be witnessed by prison started to become known through the tre­ the public. The prison system, in contrast, institu­ mendous surge of prison literature in the late tionalizes isolation and secrecy. The prison's 1960s and early 1970s. The river of prison litera­ walls are designed not only to keep the prisoners ture poured into public culture in books, songs, in but to keep the public out, thus preventing ob­ journals, and movies, dramatically influencing the servation or knowledge of what is going on inside. political movement of that period. In response Unknowable to all but prisoners and guards, the came a massive suppression. Most states enacted prison thus becomes a physical site where the most laws making it illegal for convict authors to re­ unspeakable torture can continue without any re­ ceive money from their writing. Creative writing straint. And as an unknowable place, the prison courses in prison were defunded. Almost every

4 abuse, are part of the daily routine in most prisons. can thus also become a prime site for cultural fan- litel

A 1999 Amnesty International report documented tasy. I stor the commonplace rape of prisoners by guards in The modern prison was devised by American latie women's prisons.2 reformers who believed that people should not be one: Each year, numerous prisoners are maimed, tortured and that criminals could be "reformed" by . hav, crippled, and even killed by guards. Photographs incarceration, labor, and "penitence." But with the isol: could be taken on any day in the American prison rise of industrial capitalism, unpaid prison labor system· that would match the photographs from became a source of superprofits, a trend acceler­ for Abu Ghraib that shocked the public. Indeed, ac­ ated by the Civil War, and the "penitentiary" be­ pris, tual pictures from prisons in America have shown came the site of industrial slavery conducted under prec worse atrocities than those pictures from the the whip and other savagery. mor American prisons in Iraq. For example, no photos Prior to the Civil War, the main form of im­ help of American abuse of Iraqi prisoners have yet prisonment-African-American slavery-was, and· equaled the pictures of dozens of prisoners sav­ like the penitentiary, not to be regarded as torture. Oru, agely and mercilessly tortured by guards and state Slavery, indeed; was never legitimized by any pOOl troopers in the aftermath of the 1971 Attica rebel­ claim that the slaves were being punished for met lion.3 Even more appalling images are available in crimes or anything else. A main cultural line of Iraq the documentary film Maximum Security Univer­ defense of slavery even maintained that the slaves sity about California's state Corcoran Prison. For were happy. This changed in 1865 when Article revo years at Corcoran, guards set up fights among 13, the Amendment that abolished the old form of cept prisoners, bet on the outcome, and then often shot slavery, actually wrote slavery into the Constitu­ of J the men for fighting, seriously wounding at least tion-for people legally defined as criminals: prise 43 and killing eight just in the period 1989-1994. "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except cate] The film features official footage of five separate as punishment for crime whereof the party shall has incidents in which guards, with no legal justifica­ have been duly convicted, shall exist within the with tion, shoot down and kill unarmed prisoners.4 United States . . .." com] But if the tortures practiced in American pris­ At this point, tortures routinely inflicted on ultin ons are so commonplace, then why, one might slaves, especially whipping, became a standard Evell reasonably ask, did those pictures from Abu feature of the main site of penal incarceration: . the theC Ghraib evoke such an outcry? The answer to this prison plantation. The antebellum plantation was Ame, critical question lies in the history of the American merging with the "penitentiary" to create the mod­ ture. prison and how the prison functions incontempo­ ern American prison system. Ironically, the sexual by th rary culture. deprivation of the prison was an additional torture build Prior to the American Revolution, imprison­ not characteristic of the old plantation, where slave sumr ment was seldom used as punishment for crime in breeding was a major source of profit, while the victs England and was rarer still in its American colo., old pathological fear of Black sexuality became a liftin nies. The main punishments under England's no­ prime source of the sexual tortures endemic to the plan1 torious "Bloody Code" were executions and vari­ modern American prison, where people of color deni: ous forms of physical tortur~whipping, the are not a "minority" but the majority. Ghn stocks, the pillory, branding, mutilation, castration, The true nature and functions of the American deni: etc.-all designed as spectaCles to be witnessed by prison started to become known through the tre­ tion the public. The prison system, in contrast, institu­ mendous surge of prison literature in the late or v tionalizes isolation and secrecy. The prison's 1960s and early 1970s. The river of prison litera­ buill walls are designed not only to keep the prisoners ture poured into public culture in books, songs, in but to keep the public out, thus preventing ob­ journals, and movies, dramatically influencing the servation or knowledge of what is going on inside. political movement of that period. In response Unknowable to all but prisoners and guards, the came a massive suppression. Most states enacted prison thus becomes a physical site where the most laws making it illegal for convict authors to re­ unspeakable torture can continue without any re­ ceive money from their writing. Creative writing straint. And as an unknowable place, the prison courses in prison were defunded. Almost every

4 literary journal devoted to publishing poetry and NOTES sto.ries by prisoners was wiped out. Federal regu­ latIOns were drafted explicitly to ensure that pris­ 1. For a detailed summary of some of the horrors of oners with "anti-establishment" views would "not American prisons, an analysis of specific connections have access to the media."s Prisoners were largely with Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo, and examples of especially vicious American correctional officials who isolated and silenced. were assigned to Iraq, see Anne-Marie Cusac, "Abu The silencing of prisoners was a precondition Ghraib, USA," Prison Legal News, Vol. 15, #7 (July for t~e astonishing next stage of the American 2004), 1-4. This monthly journal is an excellent source prison. Launched simultaneously was the un­ of information about the routine abuses of the American precedented and frenzied building of more and prison and the myriad legal cases contesting these more prisons, soon filled and overfilled with the abuses .. The national "Prison Discipline Study," in­ help of harsh mandatory sentences, "three-strikes­ cluded m Criminal Injustice, ed. Elihu Rosenblatt (Bos­ and-you're-out" laws, and the so-called "War on ton: South End Press, 1966), reported that 42.5% of Drugs" (a metaphor for an onslaught against the prisoners in maximum security facilities were beaten at least once a month. poor about as accurate as ·"War on Terror" is as a metaphor for the invasion of Afghanistan and 2. Cusac, p. 3. Iraq). 3. See, for example, the 64 pages of photographs in­ How is it possible that the American public, so cluded in Attica: The Official Report of the New York revolted by glimpses of Abu Ghraib, seems to ac­ State Commission on Attica (New York: Praeger Pub­ lishers, 1972). cept, even enthusiastically sponsor, the hundreds of Abu Ghraibs that constitute the American 4. Maximum Security University (1997) is available prison-industrial complex? Intimately and intri­ from California Prison Focus, 2940 16th Street, San Francisco, CA 94103 or e-mail [email protected]. cately related to the boom in prison construction has been a boom in imagined images of prison, 5. Dannie M. Martin and Peter Y. Sussman, Commit­ ting Journalism (New York: W.W. Norton, 1993), 127 with the prison's walls of secrecy validating a 212. ' complex set of supportive cultural fantasies that ultimately function as agents of collective denial.6 6. For a marvelous exploration of the various genres and forms of cultural images of prison, see Heather Even superficially realistic representations, such as Schuster, Framing the (W)hole: Representing the the Oz TV serial, end up masking or normalizing Prison in the Era of us. Mass Imprisonment, 1972- America's vast complex of institutionalized tor­ Present, Unpublished disser tation, New York Univer­ ture. Perhaps the dominant image, promulgated sity,2001. by the very forces that have instituted the prison­ building frenzy, envisions prison as a kind of summer camp for vicious criminals, where con­ victs comfortably loll around watching TV and H. Bruce Franklin is an activist and cultural his­ lifting weights. Just as false images of the slave torian. He is the author or editor of eighteen plantations strewn across the South encouraged books and hundreds of articles on the American denial of their reality, false images of the Abu prison, the Vietnam War, and many other SUbjects. Ghraibs strewn across America not only legitimize He is currently the John Cotton Dana Professor of denial of their reality but also allow their replica­ English and American Studies at Rutgers Univer­ tion at Guantanamo, Baghdad, Afghan desert sites, sity in Newark. His home page is or wherever our government, and culture, may http://andromeda.Rutgers.edul-hbf and his e-mail build new citadels of torture in the future. is [email protected].

5 of the l Nicaragua: A Tortured Nation abuse Marin By Richard Grossman the G Using of the that v In the twentieth century, the Central American country of Nicaragua saw civil wars, years. foreign interventions, dictatorship, and revolution. Tens of thousands died violent deaths cional and many faced various forms of extrel11:e political violence, or torture. United States in­ agains pande( terventions played a crucial role in the ongoing violence and U.S. policies greatly con­ agains tributed to the use of torture. This article will briefly trace this tortured history of Nica­ killed raguan. many! By the beginning of the 20th century, the manded most of the patrols. When the war started was 0 ' United States became concerned about Nicaragua in 1927, the Marines and Guardia launched a wave Comm since it was a prime sight for an inter-oceanic ca­ of death and destruction against the Nicaraguan Rights nal and U.S. Marines intervened and occupied population. For example, one Guardia patrol re­ rights I Nicaragua in 1909, 1912, and again in 1926. In ported seeing people around a "suspicious" house. the ass; order to stabilize the country and facilitate U.S. They opened fire, with no return fire, and the re­ such tt control, the U.S. Marines created the Guardia Na-' port then noted, "a woman apparently sixty or sev­ results cional de Nicaragua. The U.S. Marines conceived, enty years of age was found dead:" The Marine tional ( created and commanded the Guardia; however the commander stated that the shooting was "quite ofgove soldiers were to be Nicaraguans. The Guardia be­ justified." In another example, an unarmed peas- The came the key instrument of U.S. influence for the , ant was questioned by another Guardia patrol. repressi next fifty years. This patrol's Marine officer reported that he "re­ fact, it In 1927 a handful of Nicaraguan patriots de­ fused to divulge name of jefe nor could we get U.S. Ar cided to resist U.S. occupation. Their' leader was more informati()n from him. He was left where he oppositi Augusto C. Sandino, who organized the Ejercito fell, seriously wounqed, jaw broken, right arm Guardia Defensor de la Soberania Nacional de Nicaragua broken also shot through back." The report does that ~tny (EDSNN-Army in Defense of the National Sover­ not say why he was shot or how his jaw and arm beaten l eignty of Nicaragua). Sandino led a guerrilla war were broken, but the implication is that ~ese ongoing against both the Marines and the Guardia that wounds were the results of torture by the Guardia. ued to SI lasted until 1933. Beatings by the Guardia and Marines were the with trai The United States Marines and the Guardia most common form of torture. These included the AstJ launched a counter insurgency war against the use of fists and feet since a number of prisoners the need forces of Sandino. While he unquestionably or­ were also kicked or stomped. A form of water ica more ganized a nationalist resistance force, U.S. policy torture, which consisted of forcing water down a opened 1 makers defined Sandino and his soldiers as ban­ prisoner's throat until the prisoner choked, also (SOA) ~ dits. This decision helped defme the military tac­ occasionally occurred. Peasant women were Americru tics that were to be used. Since the U.S. was not raped. Psychological torture was also used since 60,000L fighting a legitimate military foe, the rules of war Nicaraguans were routinely threatened with beat­ facility. (such as they were) did not apply. The Marines ings and executions, including decapitation. These and pro~ and Guardia made little distinctions between the were more than idle threats. Ironically (given the transfoffiJ Sandinistas and the civilian population: not only horrified outcries at the beheading of U.S. citizens cure alJie combatants . but civilians were targets and sub­ in Iraq today), photos of Marines and Guardia sol­ malJy clo jected to the regular use of excessive force and diers displaying the severed heads of Sandinistas "new" sci torture. they had killed were published in Nicaragua and Hemisphe Not only did the U.S. create the Guardia, Ma­ throughout Latin America. By 11 rines trained all the Guardia soldiers and com- Although the war ended in 1933 when the last students, t more thar

6 of the Marines were withdrawn, the torture and The importance of SOA training cannot be overes­ abuse of Nicaraguan human rights continued. The timated. In 1976 Father Fernando Cardenal, in Marines left Nicaragua and turned command of testimony before the U. · S. House of Representa­ the Guardia over to Anastasio Somoza Garcia. tives, accused 26 specific Guardia officers of hu­ Using the Guardia, Somoza Garcia seized control man rights violations including tortures such as of the government in 1936 and created a regime electric shocks, beatings, and rape. All of them that would dominate Nicaragua for the next 45 had received training from the U.S., 25 at the years. Throughout its existence, the Guardia Na­ School of the Americas. While the SOA was the cional remained an army of occupation, at war best-known facility, the United States had many against the Nicaraguan people. It refined and ex­ other training programs available to Nicaraguan panded the repressive tactics learned in the war soldiers. Many were trained at U.S.-based facili­ against Sandino. Over the years, the Guardia ties including the Anny Infantry and Ranger killed thousands and tortured and imprisoned School, the Command and General Staff College, many more without trial. In 1981, after the regime and the International Police Academy. Of.the 26 was overthrown, the Geneva-based International officers accused of human rights violations by Fa­ Commission of Jurists issued a report on "Human ther Cardenal, 12 had attended programs in the Rights in Nicaragua" that summarized their human United States. The United States also had military rights record. The report noted that, "The scale of advisors based in Nicaragua who trained over the assassinations and torture of opponents ... was 4000 Guardia members. such that they cannot be regarded merely as the Almost every officer and soldier of the results of overzealous or abusive acts by the Na­ Guardia received some direct training from U.s. tional Guard. Rather, they were part of a system sources. This training was not to prepare the ,,2 of governmen t .... Guardia to defend Nicaragua from foreign attacks. The' U.S. government was clearly aware of the Instead the Guardia was taught to defend Nicara­ repressive nature of the Somoza regime since, in gua from internal threats. The training also pro­ fact, it had helped to create it. For example, the vided the Guardia with a more formal ideology: U.S. Ambassador noted in 1937 that there was no anticommunism. This became the doctrine to ra­ opposition to Somoza due to "the efficacy of the tionalize any and every act since all challenges to Guardia Nacional as a threat of repression" and the Somoza regime were seen as subversive. that any opponent was likely to be "arrested and These "subversives" were to be eliminated by any beaten up." Despite the lack of democracy and means necessary, consequently encouraging the ongoing repression, the U.S. government contin­ use of torture. ued to support the Somoza regime and provided it The School of Americas offered a wide range with training, equipment, and ideology. of courses which went from radio repair and auto As the Cold War was beginning, the U.S. saw mechanics, to counter-insurgency, jungle warfare, the need to integrate the militaries of Latin Amer­ urban warfare, and military intelligence interroga­ ica more finnly under U;S. hegemony. The U.S. tion. Most of the courses, whatever their focus, opened the U.S. Anny School of the Americas had some class time devoted to discussing the (SOA) as a special training facility for Latin threat of communism. For example, according to American soldiers. From 1947 until 2000 over the 1969 catalog, the course for "basic medical 60,000 Latin American soldiers were trained at the technician" had a section on "Intelligence and Se­ facility. The SOA was just one of many facilities curity" which included ''Nature of the Communist and programs created by the United States to world threat; countering the insurgency threat." transform the Latin American militaries into se­ Three Nicaraguans attended that specific course. cure allies. The School of the Americas was for­ Thus whatever technical skills being taught, the mally closed in January 2001 and replaced with a SOA also increased the repressive capabilities and "new" school with the same purpose, the Western tendencies of all of its students. Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation. The Frente Sandinista de Liberaci6n Nacional By 1979, when Nicaragua stopped sending (FSLN) began a guerrilla war that would culmi­ 5t students, 4318 Nicaraguans had attended the SOA, nate in 1979 with a widespread urban insurrection. more than from any other country at that time. As opposition increased, so did the repression.

7 Execution, torture, and arbitrary arrests became This fifty-year history also reveals how the HumaJ commonplace, almost routine, in Nicaragua. The U.S. routinely condoned and supp~rted the use of (Gene, Inter-American Commission on Human Right of torture. The Guardia Nacional was a creation of 23 . the Organization of American States (OAS) stated the United States, and even after the U.S. Marines 3. N that the Nicaraguan Government was "responsible 'Yere withdrawn, the abuse of human rights that (NARJ for serious attempts against the right to life", that they initiated continued unabated. Constant U.S. Microf "many persons were executed in a summary and aid made it possible for the Somoza regime and 4. II collective fashion," and that "physical and psycho­ the Guardia to function. U.S. training gave the 4 . (ICHR logical torture" occurred. skills and rationales that facilitated torture. Thus the Rej Numerous human rights reports stated that the United States government approved the ongo­ Obsef1J tortures took place at this time. For example, in ing repression and torture of the Nicaraguan peo­ 12, 1J 1977 Amnesty International reported that 7 out of ple. Even when the administratiOIi of Jimmy States, 10 prisoners captured by the Somoza regime had Carter finally raised the question of human rights 5. Am been tortured. The report also disclosed that in the violations, direct aid was not ended until the very (Londo countryside many peasants had been tortured and end. By 1979, at the moment when Somoza's de­ raped by Guardia patrols. It gave detailed testi­ feat was becoming obvious, the United States still mony from individuals describing their torture tried to perpetuate the Guardia Nacional as the which included beatings, electric shocks, and mu­ best institution to preserve order. tilation.s The International Commission of Jurists' The relationships between the United States report also stated that: and the new Nicaraguan government led by the T~ Torture was regularly used in the interrogation FSLN quickly soured. An armed counterrevolu­ of political prisoners. Common practices in­ tionary movement (generally known as the con­ cluded blows, hanging from the wrists, electric tras) began to organize by 1980. Most of the ini­ ByD shocks, immersion of the head in water, hood­ tial contras leaders were former high officers of ing or blindfolding, exhausting physical exer­ the Guardia. Of the eight individuals identified by the Central Intelligence Agency as the military cises, keeping naked detainees in air­ conditioned rooms at very low temperatures, leaders of the first contra organization, the 15th of M September Legion, seven were graduates of the and food and drink deprivation. . .. The nails son. School of the Americas. These seven attended a and eyes of some victims were pulled out U.S.­ total of 34 classes and two were honor students. while others had ~heir tongues cut off. By 1981, under President Ronald Reagan, U.S. aid three Thus evidence of torture was well documented began to flow to this reconstructed Guardia and gon)] and available to anyone who looked. U.S. offi­ the war for Nicaragua was renewed. The CIA was ir cials were aware of these charges but generally turned the disbanded and ' discouraged former Pel denied that torture was rampant. In response to Guardia members into a ' new counter­ betwee Father Cardenal's 1976 testimony before the U.S. revolutionary army. As money, arms, and advi­ the U.~ Congress, which had discussed the torture and re­ sors flooded into the contras, the legacy of terror, lice all pression taking place in Nicaragua, the State De­ torture, and murder that had started in 1927 would Ghraib partment declared that, "We do not have any rea­ continue until 1990. the tOl son to believe that torture has been resorted to in many ' any widespread or concerted fashion. "S They also NOTES cans be rejected Father Cardenal's statements that U.S. aid and pu' had facilitated this repression. U.S. military aid to 1. This article is based on my chapter "The Blood of being t the Somoza regime increased in the following the People: The Guardia Nacional de Nicaragua Fifty pie tiec Year War Against the People of Nicaragua, 1927-1979" years. led oft in Cecilia Menjiar and Nestor Rodriguez, eds., When The insurrection triumphed, in July 1979, docuffil when Anastasio Somoza Debayle fled Nicaragua. States Kill: Latin America, the U.S., and Technologies of Terror, University of Texas Press, Forthcoming. All Thl The victory had been costly: at least 40,000- quotes and' statistics are from this chapter unless other­ taught 50,000 people had been killed, out of a population wise noted. over to of less than 3 million. Many were tortured and 2. Heleno Claudio Fragoso and Alejandro Artucio, aware ( mutilated before their deaths.

8 Human Rights in Nicaragua: Yesterday and Today 32. (Geneva: International Commission of Jurists, 1981), 6. U.S. Congress. Human Rights in Nicaragua, Gua­ 23. temala, and El Salvador: Implications for u.s. Policy. 3. National Archives and Records Administration Hearings before the Subcommittee on International (NARA). Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of State. Organizations of the Committee on International Rela­ Microfilm # 817.00/8657. ·tions, House of Representatives, Ninety-fourth Con­ 4. Inter-American Commission on Human Right gress, second session, June 8 and 9. Washington: U.S. . (ICHR). Report on the Situation of Human Rights in Government Printing Office, 1976,205 . the Republic of Nicaragua : Findings of the "On-site" Observation in the Republic of Nicaragua, October 3- 12, 1978 (Washington: Organization of American Richard Grossman is an Instructor at Northeast­ States, 1978),77,78,55. ern Illinois University. He is also a long time 5. Amnesty International,. The Republic of Nicaragua peace and justice activist. He can be contacted at (London: Amnesty International Publications, 1977), [email protected].

The Tiger Cages of Viet N.am

By Don Luce

My best friend was tortured to death in 1970. Nguyen Ngoc Phuong was a gentle per­ son. But he hated the war and the destruction of his country. He was arrested by the U.S.- sponsored Saigon police in one of his many anti-government demonstrations. After three days of continuous interrogation and torture, he died. "He was tortured by the (Sai­ gon) police but Americans stood by and offered suggestions," said one of the men who was in prison with him. Perhaps this is the biggest single difference The Tiger Cages between Viet Nam and Abu Ghraib. In Viet Nam, In 1970, President Nixon sent a delegation of the U.S. primarily taught and paid the Saigon po~ ten Congressmen to Viet Nam to investigate paci­ lice and military to do their bidding. In Abu fication. A part of their mandate included a visit Ghraib and Iraq, the U.S. military is carrying out to a prison in South Viet Nam as a way to be al­ the torture themselves. There were, however, lowed to visit a prison where U.S. POWs were many Vietnamese who were tortured by Ameri­ held in the North. cans before being turned over to their Saigon allies Tom Harkin, then an aide to the congressional and put into jail. Reports of suspected Viet Cong group, convinced two of the Congressmen to in­ being thrown out of helicopters, peasant farm peo­ .vestigate stories of torture in the Tiger Cages off ple tied to stakes in the hot sun, and young men the coast of Viet Nam (the French built them in led off to execution by U.S. soldiers are 'well­ 1939 to hold political opponents; similar ones in documented by U.S. soldiers and journalists. French Guinea became famous in the movie Papil­ The U.S. paid the salaries of the torturers, lion, starring Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoff­ taught them new methods, and turned suspects man). The congressman requisitioned a plane for over to the police. The U.S. authorities were all the 200-mile trip to Con Son Island. I was asked aware of the torture. to go as an interpreter and specialist in Vietnamese prisons. At that time I was working for the World

9 Council of Churches. couldn't talk. When the wind blew she A On the way out Frank Walton, the.U.S. prison wanted to fly. tr advisor, described Con Son as being like "a Boy D Late in 1969 Tao was transferred to the Tiger Scout Recreational Camp." It was, he said, "the Cages of Con Son. She was there for a year and largest prison in the Free World." transferred to the Bien Hoa Insane Asylum. For u We saw a very different scene when we got to several days, she was hung from an iron hook. the prison. Using maps drawn by a former Tiger Her spine was damaged by this torture and she still Cage prisoner, we diverted from the planned tour p< wears a neck brace. ' th and hurried down an alleyway between two prison "You saved our lives," Tao later wrote. "I still buildings. We found the tiny door that led to the so remember the strange foreign voices when you cages between the prison walls. A guard inside se came. In the cages, we wondered what new indig­ heard the commotion outside and opened the door. BI nities were to be visited upon us. But a foreigner We walked in. pr [myself] who spoke Vietnamese with a heavy ac­ The faces of the prisoners in the cages below Ju cent told us it was a U.S. congressional investiga­ de are still etched indelibly in my mind: the man tion. We had prayed for such an inquiry and took to( with three fingers cutoff; the man (soon to die) the chance to speak of the tortures. We begged for (tb from Quang Tri province whose skull was split water and food. We were dying you know." na open; and the Buddhist monk form Hue who spoke Tao was a l6-year high school student then. intensely about the repression of the Buddhists. I She was put in cages because she would not salute w remember clearly the terrible stench from diarrhea the flag. She was obstinate, the prison director and the open sores where shackles cut .into the said at the time. The oldest prisoner in the Cages prisoners' ankles. "Donnez-moi de I'eau" (Give was Ba Sau. She was blinded by the caustic lime TiJ me water), they begged. They sent us scurrying that was thrown onto prisoners as · a disciplinary do between cells to check on other prisoners' health measure. "I was a Communist," she says. "But Ta and continued to ask for water. the others were only student protestors, Buddhists sm The photos that Harkin, today a U.S. Senator and writers." Bu from Iowa, took were printed in Life Magazine Today, behind the five foot by nine-foot cages Th (July 17, 1970). The international protest which is a cemetery for the 20,000 people who died in resulted brought about the transfer of the 180 men Con Son prison. Most graves are unmarked. The and 300 women from the Cages. Some were sent prisoners at Con Son didn't even have numbers. to other prisons. Some were sent to mental institu­ When the survivors return, they bring flowers, tions. pray and softly sing the songs that were whispered Grace Paley described the prison life of one of in the cages some 35 years ago. ( the 300 women who were incarcerated in the Tiger Soon after the expose in Life, Congressman Cages in her 1998 book, Just As I Thought: Philip Crane (R, Illinois) visited Con Son and de­ In prison, Thieu Thi Tao was beaten on the clared "the Tiger Cages are cleaner than the aver­ head with truncheons. Her head was locked age Vietnamese home." He could not understand between two steel bars. Water was forced afterward why even the most pro-American of down her throat. She was suspended above Vietnamese newspapers condemned him strongly the ground. Then, on November 20, 1968, she and even hinted that his remarks were racist. was transferred to national police headquar­ Similar to contemporary events in Iraq and the ve~ ters. The Vietnamese Catholic priest, Father so-called .War on Terror, in 1971 the Department tioJ Chan Tin, in a plea for international concern of Navy gave a contract to the company Raymond; By about her case, wrote that she was "further Morrison, KnutsQn:.Brown Root and Jones to build COl beaten and subjected to electric shock." new cages even smaller than the original ones. ZO( "She's become insane," Father Tin wrote, The money for the new cages came from the U.S. fOt "unable to sleep for fifteen days, believing Food for Peace program. Ironically, part of the herself to be a pampered dog that could only construction consortium, Brown and Root, is today mg eat bread and milk. Not being given these, she the Halliburton subsidiary that built the "isolation refused to eat and became so weak she cells" in Guantanamo, Cuba for imprisonment of Cut prol

10 Afghan and Iraqi suspects. (For a copy of the con­ ers that the people imprisoned for political reasons tract, see Hostages of War by Holmes Brown and during a war are most often the leaders of a coun­ Don Luce.) try after the war. The people who were in the Ti­ ger Cages also have a have a special attachment to u.s. Policy in Viet Nam and Iraq the Americans who worked so hard for their free­ dom. Torture was certainly an integral part of U.S. policy in the Viet Nam war. We paid for it through our "Public Safety" program. Our advi­ Final Note sors taught "better methods" and were often pre­ "I read the books about the survivors of sent helping with "suggestions" during the torture. Auschwitz and Dachau," one of the fonner Tiger But as a general policy, our soldiers turned their Cage inmates told me. "They are like us. Each prisoners over to the Vietnamese police for torture. has a special memory of someone who was there Just as with U.S. policy-makers on Iraq, the U.S. for them at a crucial moment. Someone who gave developed rationale to claim that the prisoners we them a crust of bread or a few drops of water. took were not covered by the Geneva Convention Moments of kindness are seared in our minds. (the U.S. authorities claimed they were all "crimi­ There is no way we can forget Mr. Harkin and his nal prisoners") . . group."

Where Are They Now? Don Luce worked in Vietnam with International For 35 years I have followed the lives of the Voluntary Services and the World Council of Tiger Cage inmates who are still alive. Many are Churches from 1958 to 1971. In 1970 he dis­ doing very well. Loi runs an embroidery business. closed the Tiger Cages on Con Son Island to a Tao is an agricultural engineer and runs a large congressional group. He presently works in Niag­ shrimp farm. Lap is a high official in the Tourist ara Falls with the mentally ill, a soup kitchen, and Bureau. Tan runs an interior design business and a home for persons living with Aids. He can be Thieu is a prominent lawyer. They are all remind- contacted at 716-285-3403 x 2226.

Guantanamo Prison

By Jane Franklin

In August 2004, a special panel set up by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to in­ vestigate American abuse of prisoners in Afghanistan and Iraq reported that "Interroga­ tion techniques intended only for Guantanamo came to be used in Afghanistan and Iraq." 1 By this time, the revelations of torture at Abu Ghraib had helped to force the first U.S. concession of any rights at all for the hundreds of "unlawful combatants" confined in zoo-like cages at the U.S. naval base on Cuba's strategic Guantanamo Bay. The pro­ found historical connections between Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib are filled with reveal­ ing ironies. Ever since New Year's Day of 1959 when the Yet, in the one section of Cuba occupied by U.S. Cuban Revolution took power, Washington has military forces, Washington has instead created a promoted "freedom and democracy" for Cuba. prison that has become notorious around the

11 which world. constitutional rights "bind the government only "requil In 1902, when Cuba was still under military when the refugees are at or within the borders of 7 - period occupation by u.s. troops who had invaded osten­ the United States." gator I sibly to bring freedom, the nation was forced to The way was paved for creation of Camp X­ time tJ incorporate Washington's Platt Amendment into Ray, a prison for captives in President George W. motiva its constitution. The Platt Amendment gave the Bush's "War on . Terror." The first captives ar­ In United States the right to lease a 45-square-mile rived from Kandahar, 8,000 miles away, on Janu­ Miller, area at Guantimarno Bay. The lease specifies that ary 11, 2002, to be incarcerated in wire cages. questel the area is "for use as coaling or naval stations The Defense Department labeled them "unlawful approv only, and for no other purpose.,,2 combatants," not "prisoners of war," in order to tactics, Use of the base as a prison began in November disregard rights guaranteed to POWs by the Ge­ "unla", 1991. After the first overthrow of the elected gov­ neva Conventions. On January 16, UN High include ernment of President Jean Bertrand Aristide, this Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson grabbil time under the first Bush Administration, Wash­ stated that the captives are prisoners of war enti­ approv ington armounced it would build a "tent shelter" at tled to rights protected by the Geneva Conven- . 9 andap Guantanamo for thousands of Haitians fleeing the t1Ons. use on military dictatorship? The "shelter" was sur­ On January 20, 2002, British Foreign Secre­ Gen. II rounded by barbed wire and guarded by u.s. tary Jack Straw asked Washington to explain the where troops. photograph that went around the world showing torture When forced repatriation began in February captives kneeling on the ground in leg shackles Miller' 1992, the argument used by the George H. W. and handcuffs with eyes, ears, and mouths covered experit Bush administration presaged the 2004 argument and wearing mittens in the tropical heat. The Mail Gen. II before the Supreme Court by the George W. Bush captioned one photo "Tortured."IO Among more gence administration: the detainees were not entitled to than .600 prisoners from 43 countries, 27 tried to AbuG any U.S. rights because they were being held on kill themselves by June 2003. 11 The International 4 prison territory under the sovereignty ofCuba. Committee of the Red Cross and other organiza­ MI In June 1993, when only HIV refugees along tions argued for POW status. 12 lished with their relatives remained, a federal judge or­ More than two years later, when the Defense States dered the camp closed, calling it "nothing more Department delivered five British citizens from indefir than an HIV prison camp," where, "surrounded by Guantanamo to British custody, British prosecu­ public razor barbed wire" and "subjected to pre-dawn tors released all of them without charges the fol­ ity cOl military sweeps," people lived under continual lowing day.13 The men described being repeatedly sion ai threat of abuse by "400 soldiers in full riot gear."s beaten and subjected to 'Solitary confinement in the U.S. ~ However, thousands of Haitians were again de­ sensory deprivation isolation wing. Guards staged This s€ tained at Guantanamo in 1994, leading to upris­ races of detainees in short leg shackles, violently . 6 CIA Sl lOgS. punishing them if they fell. Under pressure one of known At the same time, Washington built a huge the three confessed to being the man in a video­ AUguSl tent city surrounded' by barbed wire to detain Cu­ tape with Osarna Bin Laden, but British intelli­ mittee bans who were attempting to reach the United gence later proved he was in England at the time. for Gu States. Miserable conditions led some Cuban de­ A Swede released in July 2004 said, "They put me and Ira tainees to attempt suicide. Their numerous upris­ in the interrogation room and used it as a refrigera­ WJ ings were met by U.S. troops in riot gear with tor" where he sat in chains for 12 to 14 hours, par­ cupied fixed bayonets. Some Cubans managed to escape tially losing the feeling in one foot. Deprived of that a I back to unoccupied Cuba by scaling the barbed sleep, he was· assailed with flashes of light in a hold tl 14 wire, climbing down a 40-foot cliff and swimming dark room, loud music and noise. indefir about a mile to Cuban territory. Children suffered The CIA's "Human Resource Exploitation from bronchial viruses, pneumonia, diarrhea, and Training Manual- 1983" justifies "coercive tech­ 7 fear. On January 18, 1995, the Eleventh Circuit niques" when subjects resist noncoercive tech­ NOT Court of Appeals in Atlanta ruled that detainees at niques. It points out that pain inflicted "from out­ Guantanamo could be forcibly repatriated because side himself' may be less effective than "pain 1. Car:

12 . --- which he feels he is inflicting upon himself." If tary Rwnsfeld, the panel was headed by fonner Defense "required to maintain rigid positions" for a long Secretary James R. Schlesinger. period, the source of pain becomes not the interro- . 2. "Agreement Between the United States and Cuba for gator but the prisoner himself. "After a period of the Lease of Lands for Coaling and Naval Stations; time the subject is likely to exhaust his internal February 23, 1903," Washington, U.S. Govt. Printing motivational strength.,,15 Office. The U.S. Treasury Department sends a check In December 2002 Army Maj. Gen. Geoffrey each year for $4,085 for "leasing" the land, but Cuba, which continues to demand that Washington cease its Miller, overseer of captives at Guantinamo, re­ occupation of Cuban territory, has not cashed a check quested that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld since 1958. approve a number of "nondoctrinal" interrogation 3. "Pentagon to build refugee camp at Cuba base," AP, tactics, some of which he had already used on November 25, 1991. "unlawful combatants" at Guantanamo. These 4. Barbara Crossette, "U.S. Starts Return of Haiti included hooding, physical contact like poking or Refugees After Justices Act," New York Times, Febru­ grabbing, and 20-hour interrogations. Rumsfeld ary 2, 1992; Barbara Crossette, "Lawyers Say U.S. Has approved a list of 17, withdrew the list in January Lost Haitian Refugee Files," New .York Times, April 8, and approved a revised list of 24 in April 2003 for 1992. See "In the Supreme Court of the United States," 16 use only at Guantanamo. Then, in August 2003, Shafiq Rasul, et aI., Petitioners, v. George W. Bush, Gen. Miller led. "intelligence specialists" to Iraq President of the United States, et aI., No. 03-334, April where some officers who met with him believe 20, 2004. On June 28, 2004, the Supreme Court ruled tortures at Abu Ghraib were "partly rooted" in that the captives are imprisoned in territory over which Miller's "determination to apply his Guantanamo the United States does exercise exclusive jurisdiction and control and they have the right to be heard before a experience in Iraq.,,17 In October, at the urging of judge or other neutral decision-maker. At the base, be­ Gen. Miller, the Defense Department sent intelli­ ginning on August 24, 2004, the Defense Department gence teams from Guantinamo to train teams at held its first military tribunal hearing since the end of Abu Ghraib for 90 days, the period when the worst World War II; the procedure ended with four hwnan­ pnson. a b uses occurre d. 18 rights monitors asking that the Bush administration More than two years after Washington estab­ "scrap the whole experiment" (Wall Street Journal, lished Guantanamo as a site where the United August) 0, 2004). States could hold prisoners of the "War on Terror" . 5. "HIV-infected Haitians Gain Release as Judge indefinitely without allowing them any rights, the Lashes at Administrations," [Newark NJ] Star-Ledger, public was shocked to discover what such captiv­ June 9, 1993. ity could mean. On April 28, 2004, CBS televi­ 6. Eric Schmitt, "Haiti Refugees and U.S. Force Clash sion aired the first of those graphic photographs of in Cuba," New York Times, August 15, 1994. U.S. guards torturing prisoners at Abu Ghraib. 7. J. Scott Orr, "Boiling Point: Guantfmamo Seethes This set off a string of further exposures, including with Tension," Star-Ledger, September 3, 1994; "Cu­ CIA secret detentions at prisons known and un- ' bans Protest at Guantanamo," AP, September 10, 1994; "Cuban Killed in Accident During Protest," New York known around the globe. Which in turn led to that Times, September 13, 1994; Jim Loney, "'Let the Chil­ August 2004 report to Rumsfeld by his own com­ dren Go,' Cuban Refugees Say," Reuters, November 7, mittee that "Interrogation techniques intended only 1994; "Cubans Attempt Escape from Refugee Camp," for Guantanamo came to be used in Afghanistan Reuters, November 8, 1994; "39 Cuban Refugees Flee and Iraq." Guantanamo," AP, November 8, 1994. What does the future hold for Cuban land oc­ 8. "Court Backs Refugees' Return," AP, January 18, cupied by Washington? One official speculated '1995. Haitians were forcibly repatriated. The detention that a new prison being built at Guantinamo could ' of Cubans was resolved through negotiations between hold the CIA's secret detainees, the disappeared, Washington and Havana in May 1995. For more on 10. d e fimite . Iy. 19 these negotiations, see Franklin, Cuba and the United States: A Chronological History (New York and Mel­ bourne: Ocean Press, 1997). Some Cubans continue to be sent to Guantanamo and detained until their requests NOTES for asylwn are decided. 1. Carlotta Gall and David Rohde, "Afghan Abuse re- 9. United Nations High Commissioner for Hwnan

13 Rights, "Statement of High Commissioner for Human 16. John Hendren, "Rumsfeld Okayed Harsher Meth­ fi

Rights on Detention of Taliban and Al Qaida Prisoners ods of Interrogation," Los Angeles Times, reprinted in ~ at US Base in Guantanamo ·Bay, Cuba," January 16, Star-Ledger, May 21,2004; Amanda Ripley, "Redefin­ P 2002. ing Torture," Time, June 21, 2004; Carlotta Gall and 10. CNN.com report, January 21,2002, posted 5:18 am David Rohde, "Afghan Abuse Charges Raise New d Questions on Authority," New York Times,September EST. tl 17,2004. 11. Carol 'Rosenberg, "Guantanamo Prisoner's Attempt tJ to Kill Himself Most Serious Yet," Miami Herald, Feb­ 17. "General Took Guantanamo Rules to Iraq for Han­ ruary 2, 2003; Manuel Roig-Franzia, "Guantanamo dling of Prisoners," New York Times, May 13,2004. Was Prepared for Suicide Attempts," Washington Post, 18. Douglas Jehl and Andrea Elliott, "Cuba Base Sent March 2, 2003; "United States: Suicide Attempts," Its Interr.ogators to Iraqi Prison: Teams Went to Instruct Reuters report in New York Times, May 29,2003. G.I.'s at Abu Ghraib," New York Times, May 29, 2004. o 19. James Risen, David Johnston, and Neil A. Lewis, 12. John Hassell, "U.S. Takes Heat on Guantanamo," ( Star-Ledger, October 20, 2002. . "Harsh c.1.A. Methods Cited in Top Qaeda Interroga­ tions: Secret Rules Allow Coercion, but Concerns Are n 13. "Britain Frees 5 Citizens Sent Home from U.S. Seen in Agency Over Abuses," New York Times, May b Jail," Reuters report in New York Times, March 11, 13,2004. 2004. b 14. See "How We Survived Jail Hell," Interview by A David Rose, The Observer, March 14, . 2004; Jan Jane Franklin is a historian and the author Of t/ Strupczewski, "Freed Swede Says He was Tortured in Guantanamo," Reuters, July 14,2004; Desmond Butler, "Cuba and the United States: A Chronological History" and a co-author of "Vietnam and Amer­ S "Three Britons Allege Abuses at Guantanamo," AP, ica." She is a frequent commentator about Cuba on a August 4, 2004. radio and television. Her email address IS J 15. "Torture Was Taught by CIA," Baltimore Sun, [email protected] and her homepage IS a January 27, 1997. This report was released January 24, e 1997, in response to a Freedom of Information Act http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/ (FOIA) request filed by the Baltimore Sun on May 26, jbfranklins. a 1994. " e I. a Torture of Prisoners in U.S. Custody c d a By Marjorie Cohn ti

2 Major General Geoffrey Miller, the American commander in charge of detentions and P if interrogations at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, recently conducted an overnight tour of the Sl facility for journalists. 2 He proudly displayed "Camp Liberty" and the reviews have lead to releases. ( "Camp Redemption," newly renovated in response Three hundred Iraqi prisoners were released to the torture scandal unleashed by the release of on one day in September. Each walked away with t1 the disgusting photographs last spring. $25 and a 12-page glossy pamphlet on Iraq's in­ s· Under the new system in place at Abu Ghraib, terim government. if an interrogation plan is submitted to a lawyer for General Miller, the tour guide, oversaw inter­ 3 approval before any interrogation begins. The rogations at the United States prison at time required to process prisoners has been re­ Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He had been sent to Abu duced from 120 to 50 days. Since July, 60% of Ghraib last fall to transfer his interrogation system rl

14 from Cuba to Iraq. It was on his watch that the tional security adviser for combating terrorism, worst mistreatment, depicted in the publicized who reported directly to national security adviser photos, occurred. Condoleezza Rice. Gordon was deeply distressed Several official reports were written with more by the report and its implications for the treatment disturbing revelations. The International Commit­ of captured American soldiers. He also thought tee of the Red Cross documented 70 - 90 % of ''that if the actions at Guantimamo ever became those held at Abu Ghraib were there by mistake. public, it'd be damaging to the president." The reaction of the Bush administration to the Gordon passed the report to Rice, who called a revelations of torture was to prosecute seven low hiih-Ievel meeting in the White House situation ranking soldiers. room. Rumsfeld, who had been encouraging his In spite of calls for investigation of Secretary soldiers to get tough with prisoners, was present at of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and President the meeting. Yet Rice asked Rumsfeld "what the George W. Bush for complicity in the mistreat­ issues were, and he said he hadn't looked into it." ment, the prison torture scandal has been on the Rice urged him to look into it: "Let's get the story back burner in the national discourse. right," she declared. The September release of Seymour Hersh's A military consultant with close ties to Special book Chain of Command: The Road from 9/11 to Operations told Hersh that war crimes were com­ Abu Ghraib, however, has put the issue back on mitted in Iraq and no action was taken. "People the radar screen. were beaten to death," he said. "What do you call Rumsfeld testified before the Senate Armed it when people are tortured and going to die and Services Committee that his department was the soldiers know it, but do not treat their inju­ alerted to the abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib in ries?" the consultant asked rhetorically. "Execu­ January 2004. Rumsfeld told Bush in February tion," he replied to his own question. about an "issue" involving mistreatment of prison­ We shoqld have seen it coming. In Bush's ers in Iraq, according to a Senior White House January 2003 State of the Union Address, he said: aide. "All told, more than 3,000 suspected terrorists These claims are disingenuous. The roots of have been arrested in many countries, and many Abu Ghraib, writes Hersh, lie in the creation of the others have met a ,different fate." He added, "unacknowledged" special-access program (SAP) "Let's put it this way. They are no longer a prob­ established by a top-secret order signed by Bush in lem for the United States and our friends and al­ late 2001 or early 2002. The presidential order lies. " authorized the Defense Department to set up a Bush was admitting he had sanctioned sum­ clandestine team of Special Forces operatives to mary execution, in direct violation of international, defy international law and snatch, or assassinate, and United States, law. anyone considered a "high-value" AI Qaeda opera­ The Bush administration has also admittedly tive, anywhere in the world. engaged in the illegal practice of rendition, where Rumsfeld expanded SAP into Iraq in August people are sent to other countries to be tortured. 2003. It was Rumsfeld who approved the use of The C.I.A. acknowledged in testimony before physical coercion and sexual humiliation to extract Congress that prior to 2001, it had engaged in information from prisoners. Rumsfeld and Bush about seventy "extraordinary renditions." set this system in motion long before January In December 2001, for example, American 2004. The mistreatment of prisoners at Abu operatives kidnapped two Egyptians and flew Ghraib was part of the ongoing operation. them to Cairo, where they were subjected to re­ Hersh quotes a CIA analyst who was sent to peated torture by electrical shocks from electrodes the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo in late attached to their private parts. summer of 2002, to find out why so little useful Rape, sodomy with foreign objects, the use of intelligence had been gathered. After interviewing unmuzzled dogs to bite and severely injure prison­ 30 prisoners, "he came back convinced that we ers, and beating prisoners to death have been were committing war crim~s in Guantanamo." documented at Abu Ghraib. Women beg their By fall 2002, the analyst's report finally families to smuggle poison into the prisons so they reached General John A. Gordon, the deputy na- could kill themselves because of the humiliation

15 they suffered. rorism carrying life in prisDn, AttDrney General pI AllegatiDns Df routine tDrture have emerged JDhn Ashcroft permitted Lindh to' plead gUilty to' Q from MDsul and Basra as well. "SDme were burnt lesser crimes that garnered him 20 years. The f( with fire, Dthers [had] bandaged brDken arms," cDnditiQn: Lindh make a statement that he suf­ nl claimed Yasir Rubaii Saeed al-Qutaji. Haitham fered "no. deliberate mistreatment" while in cus­ G Saeed al-Mallah repDrted seeing "a yDung man Df tDdy. The cQver-up was underway. 14 years Df age bleeding frDm his anus and lying Lawyers frQm the Defense Department and pI on the flDDr." AI-Mallah heard the sDldiers say Justice Department penned lengthy memDS and tr that "the reaSDn fDr this bleeding was inserting a created a definitiDn Qf tDrture much narrDwer than tt. metal Dbject in his anus." the Dne in the TDrture CQnVentiDn. They advised The army has charged Dne Sergeant with as­ Bush hQW his peQple CQuid engage in tDrture and d: sault and Dther crimes, and is recDmmending that aVDid prDsecutiDn under the U.S. TQrture Statute. Cl two. dDzen Dther American sDldiers face criminal MDre than 300 lawyers, i"etired judges, and Cl charges, including negligent hQmicide fQr mis­ law prDfessDrs (including this writer), a fDrmer tt treatment Qf prisDners in Afghanistan. FBI directQr, an ex-AttDrney General, and seven u In September, three Americans running a pri­ past presidents Df the American Bar AssDciatiDn, a1 vate prisDn, but repDrtedly wQrking with the CIA, signed a statement denDuncing the memDS, which, u. were cDnvicted Df kidnapping and tDrture and sen­ we wrDte, "ignDre and misinterpret the U.S. CDn­ tenced to. 8-10 years in prisDn by an Afghan CDUrt. stitutiDn and laws, internatiDnal treaties and rules 0. Afghan pDlice had repDrtedly fDund three men Qf internatiQnallaw." The statement cDndemns the 0. hanging frDm the ceiling, and five Dthers were mDst seniDr lawyers in the Department Df Justice, tl fQund beaten and tied in a dark small rDDm. Department Df Defense, White HDuse, and Vice II The CDnventiDn Against TDrture and Other President Dick Cheney'S Qffice, who. "have sDught I~ Cruel, Inhuman Dr Degrading Treatment Dr Pun­ to' justify actiDns that viQlate the mDst basic rights ishment, a treaty ratified by the U.S. and thus part Df all human beings." d Qf its binding dDmestic law, defines tDrture as fDl­ Even the cDnservative American Bar AssDcia­ d IDWS: the inflictiDn Df severe pain Dr suffering fDr tiDn (ABA) criticized what it called "a widespread the purpDse Df Dbtaining a cDnfessiQn, discrimina­ . pattern Df abusive detentiDn methDds." ThDse n tiDn, cDerciDn Dr intimidatiDn. abuses, accQrding to' the ABA, "feed terrDrism by " TDrture, inhuman treatment, and willful killing painting the United States as an arrDgant natiDn n are grave breaches Df the Geneva CDnventiDns, abDve the law." a treaties ratified by the United States. Grave Relying Dn advice in these memDS, Bush is­ c breaches Df Geneva are cQnsidered war crimes sued an unprecedented Drder that, as cDmmander-: iI under the U.S. War Crimes Act Qf 1996. Ameri­ in-chief, he has the authDrity to' suspend the Ge­ {j can natiDnals who. cDmmit war crimes abrDad can neva CDnventiDns. In spite Df Geneva's require­ v­ receive life in prisDn, Dr even the death penalty if ment that a cDmpetent tribunal decide whether rr the victim dies. SDmeDne qualifies fDr prisDner Df war (POW) il Under the dDctrine Df command responsibility, status, Bush tDDk it upDn himself to' decide that Al p a cDmmander can be held liable if he knew Dr Qaeda and Taliban prisDners in Afghanistan were n shDuld have knDwn his inferiQrs were cDmmitting nQt protected by the Geneva CDnventiDn Dn the r· war crimes and he failed to' prevent Dr StDP them. POWs. When JQhn Walker Lindh was captured in Af­ This decisiDn was premised .Dn the reasDning ghanistan in December 2001, his American inter­ Df White HDuse CDunsel Alberto. GDnzalez a rogatDrs stripped and gagged him, strapped him to' [Bush's current nDminee fDr AttDrney General, t a bDard, and displayed him to' the press. He was ed.], that ''the war against terrDrism is a new kind writhing in pain frQm a bullet left in his bDdy. A Df war, a new paradigm [that] renders DbsDlete t Navy admiral tDld the intelligence Dfficer interrD­ Geneva's strict limitatiDns Dn questiDning Df en­ gating Lindh that "the secretary Df defense's CDun­ emy prisDners and renders quaint SDme Qf its prD­ sel has authDrized him to' 'take the glQves Dff and visiDns." ask whatever he wanted." , A still-secret sectiQn Qf the recently-released .AlthDugh initially charged with crimes Qf ter- U.S. Army's Fay RepQrt says that "pDlicies and

16 practices developed and approved for use on Al oners here and abroad is even more direct than Qaeda and Taliban detainees who were not af­ that For example, John Armstrong ran Connecti­ forded the protection of the Geneva Conventions, cut's Dept. of Corrections from 1995-2003, before now applied to detainees who did fall under the being sent to Iraq as a prison adviser in September Geneva Conventions' protections." 2003. On his Connecticut watch, two mentally ill And Bush didn't take into account that even prisoners died while being restrained by guards. prisoners who don't are not POWs must still be Two more inmates, died in custody after guards treated humanely under the Geneva Convention on mistreated them. And Armstrong made a remark the Treatment of Civilians In Time of War. once that equated the death penalty with euthana­ The Schlesinger Report that came out within a Sla. day of the Fay Report accused the Pentagon's top Speaking of the death penalty, the use of the civilian and military leadership of failing to exer­ gas chamber was challenged in California as cruel cise sufficient oversight and permitting conditions and unusual punishment, before the execution of that led to the abuses. Rumsfeld's reversals of Robert Alton Harris about 10 years ago. As a re­ interrogation policy, according to the report, cre­ sult California adopted the use of the lethal injec­ ated confusion about which techniques could be tion because it was more "humane" method of kill­ used on prisoners in Iraq. ing a person. Lawyers in Kentucky are now chal­ Rumsfeld has admitted ordering an Iraqi pris­ lenging the three-chemical cocktail used for lethal oner be hidden from the International Committee injections in many states as cruel and unusual. It of the Red Cross. Pentagon investigators believe took one man in Kentucky 12 minutes to die from the CIA has held as many as 100 "ghost" detainees the humane lethal injection. in Iraq. Hiding prisoners from the Red Cross vio­ In May 2000, the U.N. Committee Against lates Geneva. Torture considered the United States' initial report The Schlesinger Report confirmed 5 detainee on implementation of the Convention Against Tor­ deaths as a result of interrogation, and 23 more ture. It expressed concern at torture and ill­ deaths are currently under investigation. treatment by prison guards - much of it racially The torture of prisoners in U.S. custody did motivated-and the sexual abuse of female pris­ not begin in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo. oners by male guards. Human Rights Watch re­ "I do not view the sexual abuse, torture and hu­ ports that sexual misconduct is rarely investigated, miliation of Iraqi prisoners by American soldiers much less punished, and that punishments tend to as an isolated event," says Terry Kupers, a psy­ be light. chiatrist who testifies about human rights abuses Eight prison guards were acquitted of charges in U.S. prisons. "The plight of prisoners in the they subjected prisoners to cruel and unusual pun­ USA is strikingly similar to the plight of the Iraqis ishment by arranging gladiator-style fights among who were abused by American GIs. Prisoners are iQIllates, and setting up the rape of an inmate by a maced, raped, beaten, starved, left naked in freez­ notoriously violent inmate known as the "Booty ing cold cells and otherwise abused in too many Bandit" at Corcoran State Prison in California. American prisons, as substantiated by findings in Although Bush signed the Prison Rape Elimi­ many courts that prisoners' constitutional rights to nation Act of 2003, the law provides for no en­ remain free of cruel and unusual punishment are forcement mechanism or cause of action for rape being violated." victims. Torture techniques used in Iraq, Afghanistan, But prison guards have been convicted of or­ and Guantanamo are all too familiar in prisons in ganizing assaults on inmates in a federal prison in the U.S. as well. Hooded, robed figures with elec­ Florence, Colorado, and at Pelican Bay State trical wiring attached to them have been seen at Prison in California. The Department of Justice the city jail in Sacramento, California. Prisoners concluded that conditions at prisons in Newport, in Maricopa County jails in Phoenix, Arizona have Arkansas are unconstitutional. And New Jersey been forced to wear women's underwear. And prison guards reportedly brutalized over 600 pris­ guards in the Utah prison system have piled naked oners. bodies in grotesque and uncomfortable positions. A U.S. District Court Judge in California The connection between mistreatment of pris- threatened to place the prisons into receivership if

17 the Department of Corrections (DOC) didn't over­ punishment by placing in a dark cell, and all cruel, haul its internal disciplinary system. In response, inhuman, or degrading punishments shall be com­ r the DOC has undertaken an independent Bureau of pletely prohibited as punishments for disciplinary Review to ensure violations do not occur in the actions. future. Fyodor Dostoevsky once said, "The degree of In the wake of the September 11 attacks, more civilization in a society can be judged by entering than 1200 Arab, Muslim, and South Asian men its prisons." were rounded up in one of the most extensive in­ In May, when the Abu Ghraib scandal was on 1 cidents of racial profiling in the U.S. since the the front pages, there were demands for Rumsfeld Japanese were interned during World War n. A to resign. But Cheney told Rumsfeld there would December 2003 report by the Department of Jus­ be no resignations. . It was blatantly political. tice's Office of the Inspector General investigated We're going to hunker down and tough it out, allegations of physical and verbal abuse of non­ Cheney said, so as not to hurt Bu.sh' s chances for h citizen prisoners by the Federal Bureau of Prisons' election in November. ( (BOP) Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in In spite of George W. Bush's renunciation of b Brooklyn, NY. the International Criminal Court, many people 3 BOP policy prohibits staff members from us­ around the world are clamoring for Bush and his ing brutality, physical violence, intimidation to­ deputies to be held accountable for the widespread n ward inmates, or any force beyond that which is torture of prisoners in Iraq, Afghanistan, h reasonably necessary to subdue an inmate. Guantanamo, and the CIA's secret prisons else­ tJ The report concluded that several MDC staff where. In the words of Yale law professor Bruce members slammed and bounced detainees into the Ackerman: "It is one thing to protect the armed 11 walls, twisted or bent their arms, hands, wrists, or forces from politicized justice; quite another, to II fingers, pulled their thumbs back, tripped them, make it a haven for suspected war criminals." ir and dragged them on the floor. It also found U violations of BOP policy by verbal abuse as well. h In Estelle v. Gamble, the U.S. Supreme Court l( applied the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel ~d Marjorie Cohn is a Professor at Thomas Jeffer­ unusual punishment.to conditions of confinement son School of Law. She co-authored Cameras in • that are incompatible with the evolving standards the Courtroom: Television and the Pursuit of Jus­ of decency that mark the progress of a maturing tice, and publishes frequent articles and does me­ society. dia commentary about U.S. foreign policy and The United Nations' Economic and Social human rights. Professor Cohn is a criminal de­ Council promulgated the Standard Minimum fense attorney, executive vice president of the Na­ • Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners. The Su­ tional Lawyers Guild, the U.S. representative to preme Court in Estelle specified that these rules the executive committee of the American Associa­ should be included in the measurement of "evolv­ tion of Jurists, and contributing editor to ing standards of decency." truthout.org. She can be reached at liber­ The rules provide that corporal punishment, [email protected].

18 The Abu Ghraib Scandal and the U.S. Occupation of Iraq

By John Cox

The u.s. public was shocked to learn at the end of April 2004 that American troops had abused and tortured helpless Iraqi prisoners. An April 28 broadcast of the popular CBS news show "60 Minutes," followed within a few days by the first of several articles by Seymour Hersh in the New Yorker, exposed the criminal conduct of members of the 372nd Military Police Company at Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad. The story might never have received much attention-many other credible accounts of U.S. abuses in Iraq had gone unnoticed-were it not for the video evidence of the crimes, taken by the perpe­ trators themselves. 1 Following the initial revelations, two impor­ • "In almost all instances documented by the tant reports came to light: a report prepared by the ICRC, arresting authorities provided no in­ International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) formation about who they were [when making in February 2004 and another compiled for the arrests], where their base was located, nor did U.S. military by General Antonio Taguba at the they explain the cause of arrest. Similarly, beginning of the year. Following are some of the they rarely informed the arrestee or his family ICRC's findings: where he was being taken and for how long, • The crimes were not confined to Abu Ghraib, resulting in the de facto 'disappearance' of the but occurred in more than a dozen "internment arrestee for weeks or even months." (page 6) facilities" in central and southern Iraq, "indi­ And who was being detained and subjected to cating a consistent pattern ... of brutal behav­ this treatment-terrorists, armed insurgents, com­ ior during arrest." mon criminals? On the contrary, the ICRC report concludes that "between 70% and 90% of the per­ • In making arrests, U.S. troops routinely en­ sons deprived of their liberty in Iraq had been ar­ tered homes "after dark, preaking down doors, rested by mistake," according to Coalition intelli­ waking up residents roughly, yelling orders" gence officers themselves. 2 and destroying property. The soldiers would tie the hands of the "suspects" behind their For its part, the Taguba report documented backs; "sometimes they arrested all adult these fmdings: males present in a house, including elderly, • During the time of the · investigation (October handicapped or sick people." This section of to December 2003), there were "numerous in­ the report describes additional forms of physi­ stances of sadistic, blatant, and wanton crimi­ cal abuse that routinely accompanied arrests: nal abuses." Following are some examples "pushing people around, insulting, taking aim taken directly from Taguba's report: with rifles, punching and kicking and striking with rifles." The troops allowed little if any • Punching, slapping; and kicking detainees; opportunity for "suspects" to retrieve personal videotaping and photographing naked male items before being bundled away, and "in and female detainees; forcibly arranging de­ many cases personal belongings were seized tainees in various sexually explicit positions . during the arrest, with no receipt being is­ for photographing; arranging naked male de­ sued." tainees in a pile and then jumping on them;

19 positioning a naked detainee on a box, with a existed of "a male MP guard having sex with a sandbag on his head, and attaching wires to his female detainee," yet very few journalists pursued fingers, toes, and penis to simulate electric tor­ this obvious reference to rape. ture; placing a dog chain or strap around a na­ Amnesty International has expressed its con­ ked detainee's neck and having a female sol­ cern over "numerous human rights violations dier pose for a picture; a male MP guard hav­ against I~aqi juveniles, including detentions, tor­ ing sex with a female detainee. ture and Ill-treatment, and killings," and an article in the Scottish Sunday Herald determined that at Breaking chemical lights and pouring the • least 107 children were still being held several phosphoric liquid on detainees; threatening de­ weeks after the onset of the prisoner-abuse scan­ tainees with a charged 9mm pistol; pouring dal.? An Iraqi television reporter saw the chil­ cold water on naked detainees; beating detain­ dren's wing of the prison when he was arrested ees with a broom handle and a chair; threaten­ and held for 74 days while making a documentary. ing male detainees with rape; allowing a mili­ The reporter, Suhaib Badr-Addin al-Baz, said that tary police guard to stitch the wound of a de­ he saw "boys, under the age of puberty" being tainee who was injured aft~r being slammed held. "There were certainly hundreds of children against the wall in his cell; sodomizing a de­ in this camp." He recalled the beating by Ameri­ tainee with a chemical light and perhaps a cans of a 12-year-old girl, and added that he broom stick; using military working dogs to "heard her cries and whimpering daily." This frighten and intimidate detainees with threats "caused other prisoners to cry as they listened to qf attack, and in one instance actually biting a her." AI-Baz also mentioned the case of an "ill 15- detainee.3 year-old boy who was soaked repeatedly with What We Have Not Yet Heard: Abuses of hoses until he collapsed. Guards then brought in Women, Children the child's father with a hood over his head. The boy collapsed again."s One former prisoner told The brutal treatment of female detainees was investigators that he witnessed the rape of a boy largely overlooked in the u.s. press coverage of aged about 15 in Abu Ghraib.9 In a speech given the prisoner-abuse scandal. In December 2003 a in San Francisco in July, Seymour Hersh also as­ woman prisoner at Abu Ghraib smuggled a note serted that young males were raped by u.S. sol­ out of the prison alleging that "u.s. guards had diers: "The boys were sodomized with the cameras been raping women detainees," and several were rolling, and the worst part is the soundtrack, of the now pregnant. Further, "women had been forced boys shrieking.,,10 to strip naked in front of men," reported Iraqi law­ An internal Army investigation released its yer Amal Kadham Swadi.4 Swadi had earlier vis­ findings on August 25, 2004, listing several addi­ ited another U.S. detention center-at al-Kharkh a tional examples of the·torture and .sexual abuse of former police compound in Baghdad-where she women and children. The Army report, called the spoke with another woman who said she had been Fay Report after one of the officers responsible for raped. "Several American soldiers had raped her. the investigation, disclosed "an alleged rape com­ She had tried to fight them off and they had hurt mitted by a U.S. translator and observed by a fe­ her arm. She showed me the stitches." In a Los male soldier, and the alleged sexual assault of a Angeles Times article, Tracy Wilkinson reported: female detainee.,,11 The Fay Report also described "One woman told her attorney she was forced to the use of "unmuzzled dogs in a sadistic game to disrobe in front of male prison guards. After much frighten detained Iraqi teenagers to force the coaxing, another woman described how she was youths to urinate or defecate on themselves.,,12 raped by U.S. soldiers. Then she fainted" from the duress of recounting her experience.5 The British ·

20 group of six or seven poorly educated enlisted per­ and an occupation that has been distinguished sonnel, who were not representative of the military from its first day by brutal methods and indiffer­ or its mission in Iraq. President Bush spoke of "a ence to loss of life. In addition to the one thou­ few bad American troops who dishonored our sand U.S. service members whose deaths have country," while New York Times columnist Wil­ been reported, at least twelve thousand Iraqi civil­ liam Safire ascribed the acts to a "handful" of bad ians have been killed by the U.S. war to date, ac­ soldiers. 13 cording to the most conservative estimates; per­ But who was responsible for the abuse of the haps tens of thousands of Iraqi combatants have Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib? Seymour Hersh died, including Hussein's unfortunate conscripts in interviewed several current and retired intelligence the early weeks of the war. I7 A war that began in officials while exploring this question for an arti­ hubris .and defiance of international law and opin­ cle in the May 24 New Yorker. Hersh reported ion-and that has featured, among many other that Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller, who had been the atrocities, the widespread shootings of civilians at commander of the military prison at Guantanamo, checkpoints and a furious assault on the popula­ was sent to Iraq in August 2003 to make recom­ tion of Fallujah in April 2004 that killed hundreds mendations on interrogation procedures there. "In of non-combatants--could not fail to produce such a report marked secret, Miller recommended that a monstrosity as Abu Gh~aib. military police at the prison [Abu Ghraib] be 'ac­ tively engaged in setting the conditions for suc­ cessful exploitation of the internees. ",)4 Miller NOTES briefed U.S. commanders in Iraq on the methods used at Guantanamo, such as sleep deprivation, 1. New York Times Executive Editor Bill Keller admit­ ted that his newspaper only picked up the story because stress positions for agonizing lengths of time, and of the sensational photographic evidence. "Any honest exposure to extremes of hot and cold. A fonner editor. will give you the same answer. It's the pictures; intelligence official said that the aim of Miller's that's what did it," he was quoted in an article in the recommendations was abundantly clear: "It means American Journalism Review, adding, "But it shouldn't treat the detainees like shit until they will sell their require visual drama to make us pay attention to some­ mother for a blanket, some food without bugs in it thing like this." Sherry Ricchiardi, "Missed Signals," and some sleep.,,)5 Hersh reported that Donald AJR August/September 2004. Rumsfeld and Stephen Cambone, the Under­ 2. The ICRC report is available at: http://www. Secretary for Intelligence, went even further than globalsecurity.org/military/library/reportl2004/icrc Miller's proposals, importing into Iraq a "special­ _report_ iraqjeb2004.htm access program" employed in Afghanistan that 3. The Taguba report is available at: http://news. expanded the range of techniques to include findlaw .comlcnnl docs/iraq/tagubarpt.html physical abuse and sexual humiliation. "The roots 4. Luke Harding, "The other prisoners," The Guardian, of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal lie not in the 20 May 2004. Swadi's efforts to investigate the plight criminal inclinations of a few Anny reservists," of women in Abu Ghraib were fiustrated. When she last Hersh concluded, "but in a decision approved by tried to visit women at Abu Ghraib, "The U.S. guards Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld" to expand refused to let us in. When we complained, they threat­ ened to arrest us." an operation into Iraq that "encouraged physical coercion and sexual humiliation" in order to "gen­ 5. "A Double Ordeal for Female Prisoners" Tracy Wil­ erate more intelligence about the growing insur­ kinson 11 May 2004, Los Ange/es Times. gency in Iraq.,,)6 6. Luke Harding, "The other prisoners," The Guardian But the responsibility rests not only with 20 May 2004. This incident was investigated by a Brit­ ish Labour Party MP, who found it to be true; the eld­ Rumsfeld, Cam bone, and the small number of erly Iraqi had been held for six weeks without charge. other soldiers and officials directly or indirectly tied to the Abu Ghraib debacle; it rests on all the 7. Neil Mackay, "Iraq's Child Prisoners," Sunday Her­ aId, 1 August 2004 architects of this war and occupation. The ram­ pant abuse of Abu Ghraib prisoners was not an 8. Ibid. aberration, as we have been told repeatedly. To 9. Osha Gray Davidson, "The Secret File of Abu the contrary, it was simply a microcosm of a war Ghraib," Rolling Stone, 31 July 2004. The witness said

21 that the rape was videotaped by a female soldier. This thorough account of his findings in his book Chain of witness, Kasim Mehaddi Hilas, also reported that he Command: The Road from 9/11 to Abu Ghraib (New saw another boy sodomized with a phosphoric light, York: HarperCollins), released in September 2004. also videotaped by the same soldier. Hilas's sworn tes­ 17. A group called Iraq Body CoUnt maintains a tally timony is contained in the nearly 6,000 pages of classi­ of Iraqi civilian deaths: http://www.iraqbodycount.net fied annexes to the Taguba report. 10. Charles Arthur, "Secret film shows Iraq prisoners An Iraqi political group called the People's Kifah sodomised," The Independent, 16 July 2004. (Struggle for Hegemony) released what it called a "de­ 11. "Latest Report on Abu Ghraib: Abuses of Iraqi tailed study" of civilian deaths at the end of July 2004, Prisoners 'Are, Without Question, Criminal'," no au­ which estimated that 37,000 civilians have been killed. thor, New York Times, 26 August 2004. In October 2004 The Lancet, the esteemed · medical journal, published a study conducted by researcners 12. Eric Schmitt, "Abuses at Prison Tied to Officers in from Johns Hopkins University that concludes that as Intelligence," New York Times, 26 August 2004. An many as 100,000 Iraqi civilians may have died due to unclassified, 177-page version of the Fay Report (also the U.S. invasion and war. The report is available on­ known as the Fay-Jones Report) is available on-line at: line at: http://www.thelancet.com/journal/vo1364/ http://www .humanrightsfrrst.orglus_lawlPD F/abuse/04 iss9445 /early_online -publication. 0825fay.pdf. 13. William Satire, "The Cruelest Month," New York John Cox is completing his Ph.D. in European Times, 3 May 2004. History at the University of North Carolina-Chapel 14. Hersh, "The Gray Zone," The New Yorker, 24 May Hill and is an adjunct History professor at George 2004. Mason University. 'Cox earned his M.A. at 15. Davidson, "The Secret File of Abu Ghraib." Brandeis and has been active for many years in the 16. Seymour M. Hersh, "The Gray Zone," The New antiwar and other progressive movements. Please Yorker, 24 May 2004. Hersh has published a more contact him at [email protected].

Historians Against the War

Who We Are: Historians Against the War (HAW) is a national network, founded at the 2003 annual meeting of the American Historical Association to express opposition to the impending war on Iraq and the Bush Administration's assault on civil liberties. Since the United States in­ vasion ofIraq, our concerns about U.S. foreign and domestic policy have increased.

In September 2003, we issued a follow-up statement expressing our opposition to the occupation of Iraq, the expansion of United States empire, the doctrine of preemptive war, and the continued encroachment on civil liberties. More than 1500 historians have signed this statement: As historians, teachers, and scholars, we oppose the expansion of United States empire and the doctrine of pre-emptive war that have led to the occupation of Iraq. We deplore the secrecy, de­ ception, and distortion of history involved in the administration's conduct of a war that violates in­ ternationallaw, intensifies attacks on civil liberties, and reaches toward domination of the Middle East and its resources. Believing that both the Iraqi people and the American people have the right to determine their own political and economic futures (with appropriate outside assistance), , we call for the restoration of cherished freedoms in the United States and for an end to the U.s. occupation of Iraq. We welcome your ideas and energy. Help us to plan future activities. To join HAW, go to www.historiansagainstwar.org, and ~ign our Statement. You will immediately be added to our information-only listserv, and will receive regular updates and a periodic electronic newsletter. You can download and print copies of this and other publications, or bulk or­ der "Torture, American Style" at cost ($15 for 25 copies, $25 for 50).