CORRECTION: The NY Times has since reported that Qaissi was not the
man being tortured in this picture. Nonetheless, the continued use of
systematic torture at Abu Ghraib and elsewhere is very real and needs
to be stopped. (See “Cited as Symbol of Abu Ghraib, Man Admits He Is
Not in Photo”, NY Times, 3/18/06, for more on the correction.)
Your government is openly torturing people, and justifying it.
Today’s NY Times told the chilling story of Ali Shalal Qaissi, the
man forced to wear a black sheet and hood and stand on a box while
being electrocuted at Abu Ghraib prison. Qaissi spent six months at Abu
Ghraib after he complained about the US military dumping garbage on a
soccer field. Interrogators attempted to link Qaissi to terrorism, and
continually threatened to inflict pain on his already injured left
hand. Eventually, Qaissi was taken to a special section of the prison
where the infamous pictures were taken of him being tortured. Qaissi
also describes seeing other people, including neighbors and friends,
being subjugated to all manner of humiliation and torture.
Prison records and the research of human rights organizations prove
that Qaissi was held prisoner at Abu Ghraib. But in a gross double
standard, the US military refused to confirm Qaissi’s identity in the
torture pictures, with the excuse that it would violate the Geneva
Conventions (in other words, use the Geneva Conventions to cover up
their gross violations of the Geneva Conventions).
Click here to read the NY Times article, “Symbol of Abu Ghraib Seeks to Spare Others His Nightmare”, published 3/11/06.