Tag Archives: Torture

Abu Ghraib’s Fog Machine

Philip Gourevitch and Errol Morris have an in-depth article in the March 24, 2008 issue of the New Yorker, “Exposure,” exploring the circumstances behind the Abu Ghraib photos. It features extensive interviews with Sabrina Harman and Javal Davis, two of the soldiers who took the fall for following the protocol handed down to them. Among the revelations: the man in the infamous hooded photo was later found to be innocent, and the corpse photographed with the shocking”thumbs-up” poses didn’t die of a heart attack, as alleged. Instead, he was beaten to death by a CIA interrogator.

As Harman says of the latter:

“I just started taking photos of everything I saw that was wrong, every little bruise and cut,” Harman said. “His knees were bruised, his thighs were bruised by his genitals. He had restraint marks on his wrists. You had to look close. I mean, they did a really good job cleaning him up.” She said, “The gauze on his eye was put there after he died to make it look like he had medical treatment, because he didn’t when he came into the prison.” She said, “There were so many things around the bandage, like the blood coming out of his nose and his ears. And his tooth was chipped—I didn’t know if that happened there or before—his lip was split open, and it looked like somebody had either butt-stocked him or really got him good or hit him against the wall. It was a pretty good-sized gash. I took a photo of that as well.” She said, “I just wanted to document everything I saw. That was the reason I took photos.” She said, “It was to prove to pretty much anybody who looked at this guy, Hey, I was just lied to. This guy did not die of a heart attack. Look at all these other existing injuries that they tried to cover up.”

A “Cure” Worse Than the Disease

In a story relevant to the present day, the February 25 issue of the New Yorker has an article, “The Water Cure,” exploring waterboarding and other acts of torture committed by U.S. forces in the Philippines during the “anti-insurgency” there in 1902.

The parallels are striking: U.S. forces turn to illegal practices in a guerilla struggle against a little-understood enemy far from home. Opponents of torture are derided as traitors and apologists for the enemy. The acts of others—past mistreatment of Filipinos by the Spanish, the supposed savagery of the “uncivilized” insurgents—are used to rationalize torture. And the public, initially outraged, quickly loses interest.

So what inspired that initial outrage? The article recounts:

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