Steven Strasser, Edited by, The Abu Ghraib Investigations, The Official Reports of the Independent Panel and the Pentagon and the Shocking Prisoner Abuse in Iraq, Public Affairs, 2004

Strasser, Steven Edited by, The Abu Ghraib Investigations, The Official Reports of the Independent Panel and the Pentagon and the Shocking Prisoner Abuse in Iraq, Public Affairs, 2004

 

The Abu Ghraib Investigations includes two of the major government reviews of the prisoner abuse that occurred at the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad at the end of 2003. One report is by the James Schlesinger commission that tried to look at the overall causes and a review by General George Fay that went through each one of the cases reported. Both show how President Bush’s call for extreme measures during interrogation to fight the War on Terror spread confusion over what was acceptable which led to the Abu Ghraib scandal.

 

The Schlesinger commission gave a comprehensive review of the prison abuse. It’s most important finding was that there was a state of confusion about what was allowed during interrogations due to a slew of orders each with different directions coming out of the White House and military after 9/11. In February 2002 President Bush signed a memo saying the Geneva Conventions did not apply to Al Qaeda and the Taliban. In October Guantanamo Bay detention facilities asked for stronger techniques to be used on prisoners. That led Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to authorize 16 new methods in December. After the Navy General Counsel objected Rumsfeld rescinded his memo but said they could still be used with his personal approval. Then in April 2003 the Defense Secretary gave a new set of orders on questioning that was only supposed to be used at Guantanamo. In August General Geoffrey Miller went to Iraq to review protocols for prisoners and said that Rumsfeld’s April order should be applied but then said it was just for use at Guantanamo. That was followed by a memo by the U.S. commander in Iraq General Ricardo Sanchez in September that extreme techniques could be used because he thought that Bush’s February order applied to Iraq when it didn’t. In October Ricardo rescinded his order but then gave a new list of methods to be used. Schlesinger found that was open to interpretation however leading to even more confusion. It’s understandable then that the soldiers at Abu Ghraib were not sure what they could and could not do. There were so many orders in such a short amount of time many of which were reversed and then changed again in quick succession that even commanding officers like General Sanchez were mixed up. This was one of the most important factors that led to the abuse at Abu Ghraib.

 

The commission also found that Abu Ghraib was in turmoil. There was no process on how to process, interrogate or release prisoners. Many were kept way past the time they were supposed to be let go. Detainees were to be questioned immediately after they were brought in to see if they had any info about up coming events. Instead many at Abu Ghraib weren’t interrogated for weeks. There was a lack of interpreters to allow for questioning. The military police and military intelligence units were deployed in an ad hoc fashion to Iraq often arriving without their equipment and with little training. There were not enough troops either for a large and growing prison population. There were only around 90 soldiers for 7000 prisoners. At the end of 2003 many reservists had their tours end reducing even further the staff at the prison. To top it off Abu Ghraib was under constant insurgent attack adding to the stress at the facility. All together you have an undermanned prison, with untrained soldiers with no real regulations on how they were to treat people. It’s no wonder that torture and abuse happened. This was also part of the larger problem of the lack of planning and preparation for the occupation of Iraq.

 

These are the two biggest contributions of the Schlesinger commission. It detailed the underlying factors that led to the Abu Ghraib scandal. The Bush administration’s authorizing of enhanced interrogation techniques opened the door to abuses. The lack of planning for the occupation of Iraq also led to understaffed and untrained units running the prison. It shows that it was more than just a few bad apples as the government always likes to find scapegoats when larger systemic issues were at play.

 

The General Fay investigation found 44 cases of abuse at Abu Ghraib and documented each one. Everyone aware of the scandal knows about the pictures of naked and handcuffed prisoners being put into degrading situations. Some of the cases were actually worse. In September 2003 stripping prisoners of their clothes began to humiliate and break them down. A female detainee was forcibly kissed and then had her shirt taken off. When she started crying a guard cussed her out and gave it back. Another prisoner was stripped as soon as he arrived at Abu Ghraib and cuffed in his cell in a stressful position with a bag over his head. He was denied bedding and blankets, made to bark like a dog and crawl on his stomach while guards spit and urinated on him. Another time he had women’s underwear placed on his head while guards jumped on his back and legs. He was beaten and sodomized with a broom stick while photographed. It’s a shocking retinue of inhuman treatment. Some of that was due to the cruelty of the guards but often was done to help interrogations because of the confused state of orders about what was allowed.

 

It's hard reading the book and not blaming the Bush administration for opening pandora’s box by saying that some prisoners in the War on Terror did not deserve the Geneva Convention. Even worse was the administration and military’s issuing and then rescinding orders over and over again. If Iraq was the new front in the War on Terror it would follow that prisoners should be mistreated like Al Qaeda fighters. To top it off the failures of the White House to plan for postwar Iraq added to the problems by not sending enough troops and not giving them the proper training. Schlesinger and Fay did an important job in documenting what happened and letting the public know. They give real insight into the causes and the effects.

 

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