Abu Gharib
We have plenty of scapegoats for the inhumanity at Abu Gharib, but as usual, the whole thing is being subjected to a very distasteful whitewash. It is misleading to label the treatment of the prisoners at Abu Gharib as the work of a few bad apples, sullying the good name of America... in fact, this kind of thing is so entrenched that it is accepted practice.
That's not to say that Abu Gharib isn't an interesting (and shocking) case... but it is far from a unique example of man's inhumanity to man. Institutionalised torture is one of the mainstays of American foreign policy, and has been for decades. Abu Gharib is remarkable in the way that it exploded into the public consciousness, which was a consequence of the unprecedented availability of communications technology in our modern age. In previous years, it was difficult to get footage out of a country under military occupation... nowadays, anyone with a digital camera and a modem can send their footage half way across the world without the interference of military censors.
We also can't discount gross stupidity as a factor either - at least in the past, those involved in such techniques had the good sense not to pose with their humiliated victims. In an area such as Iraq, which is under unprecedented international scrutiny, it's pretty difficult to fathom what could have motivated such candid and incriminating photography.
Abu Gharib was also remarkable in that the United States military was directly involved in the torture... in previous situations, it has been customary for the United States to take a 'hands off' role - clearly supporting the torture and benefiting from the information extracted under duress, but not actually being the ones to apply the electrodes, as it were.
In 1984, a torture manual written by the CIA was declassified and made available under the Freedom of Information Act. This manual dates from the Vietnam war, and details a number of interrogation techniques, many of which are familiar from the reports emanating from Abu Gharib. This manual served as the basis for training many torture squads around the world... the School of the Americas at Fort Benning even gave classes in torture techniques to Latin American military officers during the 80s and early 90s.
Let's take a quick tour through some of the areas in which the American intelligence community have participated, directly or indirectly, in torture or in the training of torture 'subcontractors' :
The CIA were instrumental in setting up the Iranian SAVAK intelligence service, which had a pretty shocking history of torturing political opponents of the Shah
In Guatemala, the CIA overthrew the democratically elected Arbenz government, and then helped train the Guatemalan army which operated a range of torture centres around the country.
In Vietnam, the notorious Operation Phoenix ran a bloody rampage through the war-torn country. One of the lesser known aspects of the Phoenix Project included the systematic torture of suspected Vietcong insurgents. Then there's Indonesia, where the CIA supplied Suharto with a list of thousands of suspected communists for torture and execution, and helped train the Indonesian troops in the art of 'interrogation'.
Then there's Chile, then there's El Salvadore, then there's Haiti, and then, and then, and then.
In fact, the United States' record of human rights is so appalling that it prompted Amnesty International to remark: Throughout the world, on any given day, a man, woman or child is likely to be displaced, tortured, killed or "disappeared", at the hands of governments or armed political groups. More often than not, the United States shares the blame.
There are many books on this subject - William Blum's Rogue State is an especially interesting introduction. Only a single chapter is devoted to the subject of torture in particular, but it clearly maps out the secret history of the world's only remaining superpower.
Abu Gharib is a disgusting blight on the record of the Coalition - but let's not kid ourselves into thinking it's the only stain that the West has on its soul.
That's not to say that Abu Gharib isn't an interesting (and shocking) case... but it is far from a unique example of man's inhumanity to man. Institutionalised torture is one of the mainstays of American foreign policy, and has been for decades. Abu Gharib is remarkable in the way that it exploded into the public consciousness, which was a consequence of the unprecedented availability of communications technology in our modern age. In previous years, it was difficult to get footage out of a country under military occupation... nowadays, anyone with a digital camera and a modem can send their footage half way across the world without the interference of military censors.
We also can't discount gross stupidity as a factor either - at least in the past, those involved in such techniques had the good sense not to pose with their humiliated victims. In an area such as Iraq, which is under unprecedented international scrutiny, it's pretty difficult to fathom what could have motivated such candid and incriminating photography.
Abu Gharib was also remarkable in that the United States military was directly involved in the torture... in previous situations, it has been customary for the United States to take a 'hands off' role - clearly supporting the torture and benefiting from the information extracted under duress, but not actually being the ones to apply the electrodes, as it were.
In 1984, a torture manual written by the CIA was declassified and made available under the Freedom of Information Act. This manual dates from the Vietnam war, and details a number of interrogation techniques, many of which are familiar from the reports emanating from Abu Gharib. This manual served as the basis for training many torture squads around the world... the School of the Americas at Fort Benning even gave classes in torture techniques to Latin American military officers during the 80s and early 90s.
Let's take a quick tour through some of the areas in which the American intelligence community have participated, directly or indirectly, in torture or in the training of torture 'subcontractors' :
The CIA were instrumental in setting up the Iranian SAVAK intelligence service, which had a pretty shocking history of torturing political opponents of the Shah
In Guatemala, the CIA overthrew the democratically elected Arbenz government, and then helped train the Guatemalan army which operated a range of torture centres around the country.
In Vietnam, the notorious Operation Phoenix ran a bloody rampage through the war-torn country. One of the lesser known aspects of the Phoenix Project included the systematic torture of suspected Vietcong insurgents. Then there's Indonesia, where the CIA supplied Suharto with a list of thousands of suspected communists for torture and execution, and helped train the Indonesian troops in the art of 'interrogation'.
Then there's Chile, then there's El Salvadore, then there's Haiti, and then, and then, and then.
In fact, the United States' record of human rights is so appalling that it prompted Amnesty International to remark: Throughout the world, on any given day, a man, woman or child is likely to be displaced, tortured, killed or "disappeared", at the hands of governments or armed political groups. More often than not, the United States shares the blame.
There are many books on this subject - William Blum's Rogue State is an especially interesting introduction. Only a single chapter is devoted to the subject of torture in particular, but it clearly maps out the secret history of the world's only remaining superpower.
Abu Gharib is a disgusting blight on the record of the Coalition - but let's not kid ourselves into thinking it's the only stain that the West has on its soul.
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