Disturbing New Photos From Abu Ghraib

[NashVegas]

Source: Wired

As an expert witness in the defense of an Abu Ghraib guard who was court-martialed, psychologist Philip Zimbardo had access to many of the images of abuse that were taken by the guards themselves. For a presentation at the TED conference in Monterey, California, Zimbardo assembled some of these pictures into a short video. Wired.com obtained the video from Zimbardo's talk, and is publishing some of the stills from that video here. Many of the images are explicit and gruesome, depicting nudity, degradation, simulated sex acts and guards posing with decaying corpses. Viewer discretion is advised.



Read more: http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/multimedia/2008/02/gallery_abu_ghraib

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The accompanying article is here:

http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2008/02/ted_zimbardo

It includes an interview with the guy who led the Stanford Prison Experiment.

[KansDem]

1. Now, what was the reason we invaded Iraq?

Oh, yeah...that's right. Saddam was killing his own people. "Wait!" screamed the Bushistas, "We can kill them too! And we'll torture them as well!"

I'm ashamed that this was done "in our name."

[LiberalArkie]

2. Bringing American values to the world..

[damntexdem]

17. Rather, bringing GOP values to the world.

And that now includes Sen. we-shouldn't-torture McCain, now that he has joined the Dark Side. This needs to be part of the presidential campaign.

[crikkett]

3. I won't look, but I will K&R to raise consciousness.

[NYC]

33. Same here.

I don't want to look.

[saigon68]

4. simulated sex acts and guards posing with decaying corpses.

Wow that sounds like fun

</sarcasm>

[yardwork]

5. Congress had access to all these photos, as well as videos of children being raped.

Why hasn't Congress acted on this?

[defendandprotect]

11. How many times has the JUDGE ordered that these materials be released . . .?????

Many in Congress saw these photos/films ---

where are their voices?

[PerpetuallyDazed]

22. Politicians are sociopaths.

You have to sacrifice something of morality to be one. I believe this is what Zimbardo discusses in "The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil." I haven't picked it up yet, but I've read a lot of interesting reviews.

[yardwork]

37. k&r because this has to stop.

[onehandle]

6. Winning the hearts and minds of the world. nt

[damntexdem]

18. The hearts separated from the bodies in some cases --

and some of the prisoners being driven out of their minds by the abuse.

[geardaddy]

7. Disgusting.

These torturers should be prosecuted to the fullest extent. No excuses.

[AndyA]

8. This has to be one of the most disgraceful acts ever performed in the name of freedom

and liberty.

THIS will be George W. Bush's LEGACY: Torture. Death. Destruction. Cronyism. Waste. Lies.

Quite the legacy. Shouldn't be hard to remain the WORST. PRESIDENT. EVER.

[calimary]

39. Dreadful! OMG... I got to the second picture out of ten, and couldn't

go any farther. Another smiling military gal there...

DREADFUL. And quite shameful, too.

[booksenkatz]

9. The Nazis would be so proud of these people

No wait, not proud. Envious.

[BadgerKid]

I'm thinking other countries will hold this over our heads. n/t

[tuckessee]

21. The Nazis never dreamed of making torture legal and open.

Unlike modern Americans they still had some shame.

[AlienGirl]

29. The Gestapo relied on the population knowing that they tortured people to keep them in line

To claim that the Nazis had "more shame" about torture than modern Americans is simply historically not true.

Tucker

[EFerrari]

34. I agree. Torture is as much about the audience as it is about the victim.

We all know they torture and that has an effect on us.

[Judi Lynn]

35. It's a sad admission, but I'm sure you're right. They weren't really as cocky. Sad times.

The world could use an awakening by now.

[alfredo]

10. It makes me sad and angry.

[Bgno64]

12. Last pic

Take off the Steeler hat, you bastard. Don't dishonor the f*cking team that way.

[damntexdem]

19. They're dishonoring all of the hats ...

including the helmets. In fact, the helmets may be the most important, in that those wearing such helmets may be captured in this and future conflicts, and their treatment may be contingent on what we have done.

[PerpetuallyDazed]

23. You need to reread the article...

"Wired: Your work suggests that we all have the capacity for evil, and that it's simply environmental influences that tip the balance from good to bad. Doesn't that absolve people from taking responsibility for their choices?

Philip Zimbardo: No. People are always personally accountable for their behavior. If they kill, they are accountable. However, what I'm saying is that if the killing can be shown to be a product of the influence of a powerful situation within a powerful system, then it's as if they are experiencing diminished capacity and have lost their free will or their full reasoning capacity."

[tabasco]

32. The criminals are respsonsible for their crimes.

When I was an infantry commander, I punished soldiers severely when I found out they had stolen money from civilians during a cordon and search mission. If you do not maintain discipline, a unit will disintegrate into chaos like at Abu Ghraib. There is no room for bullshit sliding scale accountability in the military.

[PerpetuallyDazed]

36. I agree.

More from the article:

"Zimbardo: Abu Ghraib was under bombardment all the time. In the prison, five soldiers and 20 Iraqi prisoners get killed. That means automatically any soldier working there is under high fear and high stress. Then the insurgency starts in 2003, and they start arresting everyone in sight. When Chip Frederick (starts working at Abu Ghraib) in September, there are 200 prisoners there. Within three months there's a thousand prisoners with a handful of guards to take care of them, so they're overwhelmed. Frederick and the others worked 12-hour shifts. How many days a week? Seven. How many days without a day off? Forty. That kind of stress reduces decision-making and critical thinking and rationality. But that's only the beginning.

He (complained) to higher-ups on the record, "We have mentally ill patients who cover themselves with (excrement). We have people with tuberculosis that shouldn't be in this population. We have kids mixed with adults."

And they tell him, "It's a war zone. Do your job. Do whatever you have to do.""

What's a soldier to do when their commanding officers aren't there or they refuse to maintain order/discipline? I really believe the Administration pushed for this treatment of prisoners, but was hoping to keep it under wraps. The reservists (the lowest on the food chain) were the intended fall guys.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

38. This is like what the Imperial Japanese Army told its soldiers in China

They told them that they would not be supplied with food from Japan and would have to "live off the land" (i.e. loot from the Chinese). Of course, the Chinese resisted, and the Japanese soldiers killed them. This hardened them to killing, and soon some soldiers were routinely raping, torturing, and killing Chinese civilians.

Furthermore, the commanders told them that "it didn't matter" what they did with prisoners.

[tabasco]

31. These pictures dishonor the USA.

You're worried about a football team when you see this shit??

:wtf:

[truthisfreedom]

13. It's amazing that this much got out. What kind of backlash from the mideast can we expect?

Does anyone care anymore?

[Judi Lynn]

16. The people who decide to do this are so insulated from any backlash to their choices

they only will have their consciences to face, apparently.

They must stay drunk almost around the clock, you'd think, to avoid consciousness. They commit mostrous evil acts through proxies.

I hope they learn their monstrous evil acts in setting this all in motion will be their undoing.

[Broadslidin]

14. Tis simply, a display of Traditional Imperial Christian Crusader 'High Moral Values'.

Obviously,
not the first bits of evidence depicting how we deal with
the lesser human heathens.

[codejack]

15. Who's gonna stop it? n/t

[Solly Mack]

20. The majority of the pictures posted are not new. It's horrifying that people forget so soon

How do people forget such horrible images so quickly?... that when they are posted again and labeled "new", people believe they are getting "more" of the truth when it isn't "more" of the truth.

I guess the government could show people the same pictures over and over again, claim all the facts/truth has come out, and people would never know the difference because people just forget.

It's just so sad (and scary) that people forget so quickly. :(

[Cheap_Trick]

24. * has a body count behind him

that would make Manson and McVeigh weep with envy. * may not be up to Hitler's numbers yet..but give him time. It's not for lack of trying.

[Tab]

25. They don't hate us for our "freedoms"

They hate us for what we did to them.

Frankly, if some supposed "beacon of light" in the world came in and did this to our country, our anger would resonate for a long, long time. I can't blame them a bit, now.

[go west young man]

26. That young lady smiling and giving a thumbs up next to a corpse

is one of those photos that becomes iconic of an event. That photo "is" America's legacy now. The world will see it and the damage has been done. If other countries ever doubted the insanity that is the Republican American psyche now they can put those doubts aside. The emperor has not a stitch of clothing left.

[mod mom]

28. To the Hague with these bastards!

[daleo]

30. Yeah, that one summed something up

A horrible picture, and somehow symbolic of the whole Iraq invasion.

[go west young man]

40. It's definenty a disturbing shot and for some reason I see that pic as

something that is wrong with America as a whole these days. A pretty lady having fun next to a dead person. Freaky.

[AlinPA]

27. They said was just a "college prank". This part of the Rove-Bush**-Cheney legacy.

No wonder that much of the world hates Bush**.