Abu Ghraib News Archives

“This pattern is one of claiming national security as pretext for withholding information to cover up embarrassing information.”

Newly released Department of Defense documents shed light into the use of psychologists in military interrogations and the failure of medical personnel to report detainee abuses, the American Civil Liberties Union said Wednesday.

'The documents reveal that psychologists and medical personnel played a key role in sustaining prisoner abuse _ a clear violation of their ethical and legal obligations,' ACLU attorney Amrit Singh said.

The ACLU obtained the newly unredacted documents in connection with a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed in 2004. The information also shows the military continued to use abusive interrogation methods after a 2003 directive meant to end such practices, Singh said. The government did not release details on the interrogation methods, she said. Read more

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Coalition forces killed three terrorists and detained 12 suspects today during operations in the northern half of Iraq. via War on Terrorism

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The Senate Intelligence Committee voted Tuesday to limit CIA interrogators to techniques approved by the military, which would effectively bar them from waterboarding prisoners, congressional officials said. via Alabama Live

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“We have to work sort of on the dark side.”

There have been two documentaries thus far that deal specifically with the actions taken by the group of military police that resulted in the infamous actions and photographs from Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. via FilmCritic

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Asian-American stoners Harold and Kumar escape from Guantanamo Bay while a new Errol Morris film, Standard Operating Procudure , documents the Abu Ghraib prisoner-abuse scandal in Iraq. via National Public Radio

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“The nightmares and psychological scars of being dragged from your home to a place in the middle of nowhere, restrained in blankets and duct tape, assaulted, verbally and physically ... those scars and that trauma will never go away”

During an emotional hearing in the House on Thursday, lawmakers and witnesses likened the treatment of teens in youth boot camps to the kind of torture faced by prisoners at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison. via SanLuisObispo.com

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“Lord of the Flies"-style scenario of savagery and one-upmanship. As Spc. Jeremy Sivitz puts it with great understatement, "When you're in war, things change.”

Errol Morris doesn't condemn the soldiers at the Abu Ghraib prison, the ones who shot and posed for those photographs that shocked the world nearly five years ago, though it would have been easy for him to do ... via CBC News

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“The path is unsafe. The place is unknown. The journey is unbelievable.”

We woke up Monday morning to a pretty big surprise: the funniest-naked-breakup-scene movie Forgetting Sarah Marshall did not take top box office honors last weekend. via Observer.com - All Articles

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“Our previous opinions make clear that customary international law is not federal law and that the president is free to override it at his discretion”

The US uses pain and force against terror prisoners, and argues it is all perfectly legal. via Guardian Unlimited

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Lee Roscoe alleges several "depredations" of human rights by the Bush administration. via Cape Cod Times

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Many horror movies are extremely laughable due to the fact that the situations presented within them are completely unbelievable, allowing audiences to suspend their disbelief for the entire course of the film. via Josh Spear

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The landscapes in Josh Azzarella's photos and short films are both familiar and strange, both banal and sinister - the definition of "uncanny." The Jersey-based artist uses digital trickery to meticulously edit ... via The Village Voice

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“The most senior Bush administration officials repeatedly discussed and approved specific details of exactly how high-value al-Qaeda suspects would be interrogated by the CIA”

When the American Civil Liberties Union released the FBI e-mail in December 2004 - after obtaining it through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit - the White House emphatically denied that any such ... via The Baltimore Chronicle

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But the final "mood" icon on his MySpace page, I discovered today, was a frown -- with the word: "Crushed." Army Spc. via Editor & Publisher

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The Green Light Read the whole article, but here's a taste: The abuse, rising to the level of torture, of those captured and detained in the war on terror is a defining feature of the presidency of George W. ... via Chris's Rants

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Coalition forces detained seven suspected terrorists during operations targeting al-Qaida in central and northern Iraq today. via War on Terrorism

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Return with me to Abu Ghraib. You remember it. You may not want to, but you do. The Iraqi prison was the epicenter of an international scandal in 2004 when it was revealed that U.S. soldiers were mistreating ... via The Honolulu Advertiser

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“There's a feeling that all these movies are saying the same things over and over again”

After two war movies, documentary filmmaker Errol Morris wants people to know that he really is "a funny guy." His next project won't be a documentary at all but a scripted feature based on a true story that ... via WNED.org

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Professional print film critics are dinosaurs , explains the New York Times . David Poland's analysis goes a little further. via Slog

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“We were narrowing it down, and it got to the point where we had the right people, the right information and the right location and we were close enough to take advantage of it”

A letter hangs from a memorial at Glen Este High School in honor of Sgt. Keith Matthew Maupin, in this June 29, 2004 file photo, near Batavia, Ohio. via The Florida Times-Union

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“The memo helped to build a culture that, in the absence of leadership from the highest ranks of the Pentagon, allowed the abuses at Abu Ghraib and elsewhere.”

A newly disclosed Justice Department legal memo, written in March 2003 and authorizing the military's use of extremely harsh interrogation techniques, offers what could be a revealing clue in an unsolved ... via HeraldTribune.com

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“It created a world in which everyone on the ground believed the laws did not apply. It was a law-free zone.”

We've long been aware of the 2003 "Yoo memo," written by John Yoo, then a top official in the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel, and the almost-laughably expansive views the memo takes on ... via The Carpetbagger Report

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This Garment Stands for Its Bearer's Maturity of Mind, His Independence of Judgment, and His Direct Responsibility to His Conscience and His God... The March 2003 Yoo Memo Emerges! : The Torture Memo to Top All ... via Brad DeLong's Semi-Daily Journal

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