• One American's view of Abu Ghraib  - byJohn L. Moore
The Abu Ghraib issue clearly demonstrates the Bush administration's modus operandi.

• Israeli prisons are factories of pain  - byMahmud Sehwail
In the Israeli occupation context, torture and interrogation are synonymous.

• An almost impossible dilemma  - byOrit Adato
Democracies confront the fine line between effective interrogation and the extreme violation of human rights.

• The evolving culture of violence  - a conversation withGhassan Attiyah
Future Iraqi governments will have the tendency to justify torture in the name of eradicating terrorism.

One American's view of Abu Ghraib
by John L. Moore

In reflecting on the physical and psychological abuse at Abu Ghraib and the fallout since, I have come to the conclusion that no thoughtful observer should have been surprised by it. The only real issue was not when the public would find out, but what Americans would do in reaction. Isn’t it ironic, however, that the Bush administration which first justified the war in Iraq on the threat from weapons of mass destruction but now says that "it was right to remove the evil dictator" Saddam Hussein, could fall from power because of events at Abu Ghraib? This notorious prison was where Saddam’s henchmen tortured and murdered fellow Iraqis for decades.

One thing the Abu Ghraib issue clearly demonstrates is the Bush administration’s modus operandi. First, there is the administration’s go-it-alone approach. The emphasis on unilateral action as a key element in US national strategy was enhanced by the war on terror after 9/11. International norms for dealing with prisoners of war and enemy combatants, established in the 1949 Geneva Conventions and the subsequent UN Convention against Torture, were thrown out by Defense and Justice Department lawyers.

Second, actions taken during and after the war in Afghanistan against Al Qaeda and the Taliban became the model for Iraq. Lessons learned at the isolated detention facility at Guantanamo, Cuba on how to coerce information out of detainees were designed to obtain "actionable intelligence" in the war against terrorism. If it worked in Afghanistan and Guantanamo, why shouldn’t it be used in Iraq against the "terrorists" there? After all, in the minds of key players in the Bush administration the two "wars" (Afghanistan and Iraq) were really just separate campaigns in the overall war on terror. Yet since late April I have not seen any news reports justifying the humiliation, psychological, and physical abuse at Abu Ghraib as having resulted in "actionable intelligence" successes in the ongoing insurgency in Iraq.

Third, when confronted with bad news, the administration takes no action unless forced. It will never admit wrongdoing or that the abuses were the result of policy decisions made at the highest levels in the Defense or Justice Departments. The US military must be commended for undertaking the first investigation; General Taguba’s report of abuses certainly catalogued more than the International Committee of the Red Cross had quietly reported to US authorities.

However, it was not until the US media broadcast the awful images photographed at Abu Ghraib that a public outcry led to the administration's widening a narrow inquiry on military police abuses into a broader, though not complete, investigation into the role of military intelligence in the scandal. Its scope is now being widened further, will be headed by a full general, and will look into the orders commanders in Iraq gave on interrogation.

The only investigation not led by a military officer was ordered recently by Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld, who asked former Secretary of Defense Schlesinger to lead a panel to review and summarize all the military investigations. There could be as many as ten. One hopes that Schlesinger will conclude that a complete accounting requires an investigation into the role senior civilian Defense Department policymakers had in this scandal.

Fourth, the administration placates but, in reality, ignores Congress. The Senate Armed Services Committee, headed by Virginia Republican John Warner, was the only congressional committee to hold meaningful hearings, for two short days in late May. The House of Representatives chose not to look closely into the matter at all. Senator Warner now prefers to wait until the investigations by the Defense Department are completed. They may stretch well into the summer, and Congress traditionally shuts down for August. In September the US starts the final and crucial phase of national elections. A Republican-led Congress, many of whose members hope to ride President Bush’s coattails back into office, will be very reluctant to issue any critical report on the conduct of the war in Iraq before the November 4th vote.

Finally and fortunately, the one sector keeping the heat on the administration over Abu Ghraib is the American press. The major national newspapers (New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal) and other media outlets (print and broadcast) will follow this story’s trail until the end. All the facts will eventually come out, but it will take time.

The most important result will be what the American people decide about Abu Ghraib and its aftermath. John C. Yoo, the former Justice Department lawyer who drafted the 2002 Justice Department report that the Geneva Conventions did not apply to the war on terror, established the bottom line on this issue for Americans. In a June 11th column in the Los Angeles Times, Yoo, now a professor of law at the University of California at Berkeley, claimed, "Ultimately, the administration’s policy is consistent with the law." He further wrote, "If the American people disagree with that policy, they have options. Congress can change the law, or the electorate can change the administration." We shall see!-Published 1/7/2004©bitterlemons-international.org


John L. Moore is a retired intelligence officer who worked on Middle East issues for more than three decades at the Defense Intelligence Agency. He also served in military intelligence with US Army Special Forces in Vietnam.