Iraq prisin scandal: 3 seperate articles from U.S. News and Word Report

www.usnews.com...

Inside the Iraq Prison Scandal
Evidence suggests command foul-ups and, maybe, collusion
By Mark Mazzetti, Julian E. Barnes and Edward T. Pound

Late last August, the Pentagon dispatched Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller and a team of some two dozen staffers to Iraq on a mission of the utmost urgency. Months had passed since the United States began its uneasy occupation of Iraq, but a lethal rear-guard insurgency was still claiming the lives of American soldiers almost every day. Saddam Hussein was still on the run, and U.S. commanders had precious little intelligence about who was behind the spate of deadly attacks like the destruction of the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad. Inside the Pentagon, war planners had come to the conclusion that human intelligence was the key to ending the insurgency. And Miller got the task of helping to extract that intelligence from the thousands of prisoners detained inside U.S. military facilities across Iraq.

This thing is 4 pages long
It covers where they are shifting the blame, the contradictions on who was in charge, who may be playing the scapegoat, the possibility of more hiddin prisons, and the end paragraph mentions Nicholas Berg's murder with respect to the need for possible censorship to protect certain abusive soldier's rights...

As a part of that, in the actual magazine, there's tuuff in it that is not listed online, so I'll have to type those up myself: they're short...
one's a short hand version of the Geneva convention's rules, and a diagram of the chain of command...

Next:
www.usnews.com...

A big legal mess, too
Courts-martial have begun. But what were the rules on interrogation at Abu Ghraib?
By Angie Cannon and Chitra Ragavan

Spc. Jeremy Sivits is described as a quiet, well-mannered young man who loves baseball and worked in a window-blind factory. But this week, he's expected to plead guilty to charges of abusing Iraqi prisoners, the first U.S. soldier to face a court-martial in the case. Sivits's situation may be resolved quickly, but it's unlikely the same can be said for the many knotty legal questions swirling around the scandal.

self explanitory...

Next:
www.usnews.com...

Sources of sadism
Was it conditions at Abu Ghraib or perverse human nature that led to these atrocities?
By Marianne Szegedy-Maszak

Those hoping to see a flicker of anger or remorse or conscience on the faces of the American soldiers photographed tormenting Iraqi prisoners in Abu Ghraib are likely to be disappointed. Evidence of how these young recruits apparently became gleeful sadists can be found in neither their faces nor their biographies.

This covers the psychology of Sadism.

I'm going to have to draw from family experience, here. My brother is a good boy, but I can think of two fights he got in with boys his own age where he became sadistic--the second being worse than the first. Some guy he was in a figt wit just upset him, so he bent the boy's face to the ground, and started scraping his face on the concrete, back and forth, not really hearing the pain he was putting the boy through, but enjoying the bloodrush. He wore grooves in the boy's cheekbones. The next one, less than a few months later, he did the same thing, but did not stop there...hes started peeling the boy's face off with his fingers. He got in other fights in and around this, hanging people on fences by their chinsand whatnot, all to guys older than him, so they wouldn't tell who it was, out of shame. He met his wife during the worst of it, and she was frightenred of some of his moods. What made it worse was that some guys would gang up on him, up to 5 guys, which gave my brother the "it's me or them" complex, and he didn't really bring his parents into this. It was a bunch of boys tying to make a reputation off of one boy who wanted, honestly, to be left alone. (would have beens settled in JV courts, and can't be proven, anyway) He has a baby on the way; he certainly doesn't want to be like this, anymore. It was getting to the point where he was outright scaring himself. This is an everyday band member, football player (and other sports), national honor society, child with athsma, who often couldn't get out of bed and go to school because of health problems. People love this boy for the caring, warmhearted, loving person he is...but he had a few troubled years. Things of this nature happen every day, to average people...they set themselves on a path of destruction that they may never return from.

what do you find in prisons,besides the guards ?
prisoners !
and how do you become a prisoner ?
by doing CRIME !
so why should one feel pitty for criminals ?
feel pitty for their victims !

i think also the USA should alter the law to make it possible to get deathpenalty punishment for more crimes that are now only good for some years behind bars !
so politicians go for it to reinstate the death penalty again in all USA states !
and considering EUROPA... it should help if they follow the USA and reinstate also again capital punishment.

idem ditto for warcriminals !
don't handle them light !
create hell for them so they can feel a tiny bit how their victims did too.


[Edited on 21-5-2004 by NOGODSINTHEUNIVERSE]

Why playing it by the rules can be trouble
The worst abuse by MPs at ABU GHRAIB prison clearly violated the Geneva Conventions Safeguards for prisoners of war. Bt even some of the authorized interrogation methods may be prohibited under international rules.
The pentagons rules of engagement for Interrogation
Guidelines issued by Lt. Ricardo Sanchez, top U. S. Commander in Iraq
approved approaches
Direct / Incentive / Incentive Removal Emotional love/hate / Fear up harsh / Fear up mild / Reduced fear / Pride and ego up / futility / We know all / Establish your identity / Repetition / File and Dossier / Rapid fire / Silence
Allowed with General�s OK
Change of scenery down / Dietary manipulation / Environmental Manipulation / Sleep adjustment / Isolation for longer than 30 days / Presence of military working dog / Sleep Management / Sensory depravation / Stress position
Safeguards
Techniques must be annotated in questioning strategy
Approaches must always be humane and lawful
Detainees will never be touched in a malicious or unwanted manner
Wounded or medically burdened detainees must be medically cleared prior to interrogation
The Geneva Conventions apply within Combined Joint Task Force-7
The Requirements of the Geneva Conventions
Selected provisions of the Geneva conventions on the treatment of prisoners of war, which cover both uniformed military and resistance fighters
Prohibit physical and mental torture, coercion, and reprisals. POWs must at all times be protected, particularly against acts of violence or intimidation and against insults and public curiosity.
Require that POWs receive humane treatment, including adequate housing, food, clothing, and medical care. Provisions also cover written communications, religious practices, discipline, and other aspects of detention. Facilities are to be under authority of a commissioned officer familiar with the Geneva Conventions and responsible for ensuring that provisions are known by camp personnel.

The US Military Code of Conduct, for American Military as when they are prisoners
usmilitary.about.com...

Geneva Conventions:

PART III METHODS AND MEANS OF WARFARE, COMBATANT AND PRISONER-OF-WAR STATUS, SECTION I.-METHODS AND MEANS OF WARFARE
�Article 44.-Combatants and prisoners of war
�Article 45.-Protection of persons who have taken part in hostilities
�Article 46.-Spies
�Article 47.-Mercenaries

A fourth of the way down the page�
If Russians are involved in any of this, and if they are captured, they are mercenaries.
www.unhchr.ch...


[Edited on 21-5-2004 by jlc163]

I read somewhere that 90 percent of the prisoners in Iraq were wrongly accused, or had not committed any crime whatsoever.

I read it somewhere in an article about 2 weeks ago but to find it would be a huge mission.

Originally posted by NOGODSINTHEUNIVERSE
what do you find in prisons,besides the guards ?
prisoners !
and how do you become a prisoner ?
by doing CRIME !
so why should one feel pitty for criminals ?
feel pitty for their victims !

Hush.

How do you become a prisoner? Not all of these prisoners are criminals. Many of them are SUSPECTED of "doing CRIME". Suspicion does not denote guilt. Understand that. If you fail to grasp this, then you truly are thickheaded.

How can you, NOGODSINTHEUNIVERSE, support the systematic use of SODOMY to punish criminals, let alone innocent Iraqi civilians?

If you ask me, many of these prisoners are guilty of one thing. They are guilty of being Iraqis. Justify that, sicko. :shk:

In the Inside the Iraq scandal article...

Caption by the diagram:

Chain of Command
The Taguba report recommended that 7 officers overseeing soldiers in the Abu Gahraib prison be reprimanded and relieved of duty. But lawmakers want to identify which other military officers bear resopnsibility. It is not an easy task. Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller's visit to Iraq and his recomendation thatmilitary intelligence officers take tatical control of Abu Gahraib complicated and cofused the lines of authority.

Sorry for the size, was having a hard time gietting it smaller on this damn computer without fuzzing to blur/blah......

Stanford prison experiment:A Simulation Study of the Psychology of Imprisonment Conducted at Stanford University
Welcome to the Stanford Prison Experiment web site, which features an extensive slide show and information about this classic psychology experiment, including parallels with the recent abuse of Iraqi prisoners. What happens when you put good people in an evil place? Does humanity win over evil, or does evil triumph? These are some of the questions we posed in this dramatic simulation of prison life conducted in the summer of 1971 at Stanford University.

www.prisonexp.org...
It has a slideshow for their experiment. What they did in the experiment was start to simulate what had happened in other Jails. Has clips of what they did, and pictures of what went on in the simulation and in REAL jails. I'm currently reading through this, and it's upsetting me...

continues on to this:

Parallels with Prisoner Abuse in Iraq:
NPR Interview with Dr. Zimbardo on Iraqi Prisoner Abuse (May 4, 2004)
Stanford Experiment Foretold Iraq Scandal (San Francisco Chronicle, May 8, 2004)
Power Turns Good Soldiers into "Bad Apples" (Zimbardo editorial, May 9, 2004)
Psychology Offers Clues in Prison Abuse (Boston Globe, May 7, 2004)
The Fine Line Between "Normal" and "Monster" (New York Times, May 6, 2004)
Why Did They Do It? (Time magazine, May 9, 2004)
The Face of War (ABC News, May 7, 2004)
A Human Kind of Horror (Newsday, May 7, 2004)

[Edited on 21-5-2004 by jlc163]

[Edited on 21-5-2004 by jlc163]

Their �prison consultant� was an ex. Convict, who spent many years in jail. This experiment was supposed to take 2 weeks, and the subjects were regular young men.
I have a few quotes from some of the slides, and a few of the slides are a must read.

During the parole hearings we also witnessed an unexpected metamorphosis of our prison consultant as he adopted the role of head of the Parole Board. He literally became the most hated authoritarian official imaginable, so much so that when it was over he felt sick at who he had become -- his own tormentor who had previously rejected his annual parole requests for 16 years when he was a prisoner.

By the end of the study, the prisoners were disintegrated, both as a group and as individuals. There was no longer any group unity; just a bunch of isolated individuals hanging on, much like prisoners of war or hospitalized mental patients. The guards had won total control of the prison, and they commanded the blind obedience of each prisoner.

We did see one final act of rebellion. Prisoner #416 was newly admitted as one of our stand-by prisoners. Unlike the other prisoners, who had experienced a gradual escalation of harassment, this prisoner's horror was full-blown when he arrived. The "old timer" prisoners told him that quitting was impossible, that it was a real prison.

The study was ended by the 6th night, because of how severe things were getting with the reaction of the boys in the experiment. The ones chosen to be guards, the ones that were sadistic, began going into the cells at times of the night when they believed that the cameras weren�t on. By the end of two weeks, I believe that someone would have been severely hurt, I mean MAJOR LAWSUIT HURT.

At this point it became clear that we had to end the study. We had created an overwhelmingly powerful situation -- a situation in which prisoners were withdrawing and behaving in pathological ways, and in which some of the guards were behaving sadistically. Even the "good" guards felt helpless to intervene, and none of the guards quit while the study was in progress. Indeed, it should be noted that no guard ever came late for his shift, called in sick, left early, or demanded extra pay for overtime work.

These slides are particularly important:
www.prisonexp.org...
www.prisonexp.org...
www.prisonexp.org...

I didn't even look at the videos or discussion questions. Real abuses tend to make me twitchy, anxious, depressed, etc. I can't sit through torturing people, unless I'm the one who's doing it--not nearly as bad as this, no, just psychologically tearing people apart when they cross me...I don't even feel like me, when I'm doing this...I already know that I'd beome a bipolar mess as a prison enforcer. For me, the abuse is easier to handle, but that's just me.