Rumsfeld Made Me Do It: Ghosts of Abu Ghraib

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Rumsfeld Made Me Do It: Ghosts of Abu Ghraib — Jan 24th 2007

By Karina Longworth

An estimated 30,000 prisoners were executed at Abu Ghraib Prison by Saddam Hussein, their bodies buried in shallow mass graves, and in most cases, all record of their existence erased. Shortly before the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Saddam granted amnesty to all living persons incarcerated at Abu Ghraib. He then used the vacated prison cells to incinerate reams of documents recording the misdeeds that had taken place at the prison.

in Rory Kennedy's documentary Ghosts of Abu Ghraib, both baby-faced grunts and seasoned intelligence professionals describe feeling "haunted" on the grounds of the prison. There were wild dogs digging up corpses, DayGlo portraits of Saddam still adorning the walls, and the pervasive funk of sweat and human feces exacerbated by the 130-degree heat. It was, in short, a climate that sapped soldiers of the ability to exercise rational morality. It's Kennedy's thesis that this climate turned soldiers into the perfect vessels for a defense policy that was willfully defiant of the Geneva Conventions, thus making the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal possible.

Speaking at the Sundance Film Festival on the morning after Bush's State of the Union address, Kennedy (the daughter of RFK and niece of Senator Ted Kennedy) says she came to the project almost by accident. "I had originally planned to do a very different film, which was more about the nature of people who commit extraordinary acts of evil, and we were looking to genocides to exemplify that. And then I, like so many other people, was really horrified by the photographs that came out of Abu Ghraib. I saw them and found myself asking very similar questions: Who were these people, and what motivated them? Were they the kids next door or were they psychopaths?" When the director asked the soldiers themselves why they had participated in the abuse, they all gave her the same answer: "I did it because I was told to do it.'"

It's not hard to understand why these young men and women would blindly follow orders. One of the solders admits he was "in Algebra II" when he learned of the attacks on the World Trade Center. He's one of several members of the military in the film who say they were inspired to join up by 9/11. Still in their late teens, they all felt compelled to fight for their country's safety and dignity, many without any clue as to where that fight would take them, or what it would entail. One soldier explains his reaction to arriving in Baghdad: "Wow. I'm at war.... Part of you is like, this is cool."

Even after completing tours of duty (and, in many cases, months in prison), many of the former Abu Ghraib guards still look and speak like teenagers. They entered the military prepared to follow orders; they were not in any sense prepared to evaluate those orders in terms of moral or historical context. On that score, the more experienced men and women on the ground were of little help. One soldier recalls asking his commanding officers to specify the rules of engagement.He was told that anyone who "looks like the enemy" should be shot on sight. "I've never been out of the United States," the young soldier says. "Everything looks like the enemy to me."

When the U.S. took over Abu Ghraib for the purpose of detaining "enemy combatants", these inexperienced teenagers were forced into the role of prison guards. There was, as one soldier notes in the film, "no training whatsoever." And since other American units went out every night to round up military-age Iraqis, Abu Ghraib was soon full of detainees. Most of these prisoners had been hauled in almost at random: they had no useful information about Saddam, or about anything else.

Not surprisingly, this became a major source of frustration for military intelligence. In late summer of 2003, General Geoffrey Miller, who had established a system of extreme interrogation techniques at Guantanamo Bay, was sent to Iraq to assess the situation. Miller declared that prisoners were being treated "too well" at Abu Ghraib. After conferring with Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, the general advised those in charge of the prison to "Gitmoize" it.

"What [Miller] did was transform one portion of the prison, which was known as 'the hard site,' into an interrogation center," explains Kennedy. "That's where they placed the high-value detainees, the so-called terrorists. Then these MPs, who weren't even trained as prison guards in the first place, were brought into the interrogation staff, where they had absolutely no experience. They were told that this is how they were going to save America and fight the War on Terror.... If they didn't do as they were told, they would contribute to terrorism."

So does Kennedy think that the soldiers caught up in the abuse scandal went in with good intentions? "I do," she says vehemently. "I do think that. I don't know about all of them, but I would say absolutely most of them had very good intentions, and went into this war in an effort to protect America. They wanted to fight terrorism, and wanted to save this country, and were thrown into an environment in which they had absolutely no way to navigate." And what about the people who were supposed to be navigating for them? These senior officers were, in Kennedy's words, "engaging in very abusive behavior."

With all available evidence painting a pretty grim picture of the Bush administration's intentions, Kennedy enlisted former Justice Department counsel John Yoo to play the role of devil's advocate. One of the architects of the Patriot Act and a staunch advocate of wartime expansion of presidential power, Yoo has been a fierce defender of the military's right to use extreme interrogation techniques on enemy combatants. In Ghosts, Yoo explains that members of Al Qaeda are not subject to Geneva Convention regulations "because they didn't sign Geneva." Even if they had, says Woo, the treaty's restrictions against torture are "vague." As he sees it, Bush and his administration believed they were following the Geneva Conventions.

"There's a real disconnect," says Kennedy animatedly. "Because the Geneva Conventions say you have to treat people humanely. You can't abuse people, right? And what [had been] authorized was sleep deprivation, stress positions, hooding, nudity. So it's hard for me to imagine anybody interpreting the Geneva Conventions in such a way that would legitimize those techniques. Ultimately, General Ricardo Sanchez did rescind those techniques. But people on the ground were confused about what was authorized and what was not.... There wasn't a clear message down the ranks that they could no longer engage in these techniques."

With The Ghosts of Abu Ghraib, Kennedy hopes to remind viewers that our recent mistakes have grand implications. Beyond Abu Ghraib, she says, the movie "is about America, and who we are, and the policies we're engaged in. It's not just looking back to the Geneva Conventions, in the late 1940s--you can go all the way back to the American Revolution. During that time, George Washington was faced with a similar issue. The British soldiers were treating Americans absolutely horrendously. Washington was asked, 'How do you want to treat the British prisoners?' His answer was, 'Treat them with respect and dignity.' Because if we lose our moral compass, this battle's not worth fighting. And that has been the mission that has dictated American foreign policy for the past 200 years--with the exception of the last six."

Ghosts of Abu Ghraib will premiere on HBO February 22. We'll run the full transcription of my interview with director Rory Kennedy closer to that date.

Tags: documentary, ghosts of abu ghraib, GhostsOfAbuGhraib, hbo, iraq, military, netscape reports, NetscapeReports, prison, rory kennedy, RoryKennedy, sundance, war

25 Comments

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

Melanie — 11:14PM on Jan 24th 2007

1. As a former Marine SSgt with over 15 years in the Corps, and trainned as an MP, a Marine fighting Machine, and experience with positions of authority, I could and would have done all possible to stop abuse, however when you face new soldiers with zero or little authority power in a position of refusing an order or directive given by high ranking individuals you get situations like Abu Ghraib. By the way just how do you think we get information anyway, by simply asking nicely and adding please?

Irv — 6:15AM on Jan 26th 2007

2. No question this should never have happened.
I wonder how we would have reacted if those troops would have put put ski masks over their faces and proceeded to film themselves cutting the throats of the people they captured.
Too bad we focus and put so much emphasis on that particular group and don't hear about the vast majority of the troops who are spending time with kids and making friends with townspeople.
I'm going to make a "terrible" statement now.
THANK GOD we live in this country, where we are free to dis our own people and leaders. In some countries they would cut our heads off and leave our bodies lying along the road.
OK people, that's all I have to say and I will not reply, so go ahead and rip me.
Irv

John — 10:02AM on Jan 25th 2007

3. In no way do I condone the inhumane treatment of any human being, but we do need to keep things in perspective. All of these people that are still crying about the "atrocities" of Abu Graib should go watch one of those disgusting videos of innocent people having their heads sawed off. Then come back and tell me that sleep deprivation is an atrocity.

Kurt McNally — 10:35AM on Jan 25th 2007

4. It's hard to imagine a civilized society not understanding that torture is an evil thing.
I thought that the Geneva Conventions were something that seperated the United States
from the "evil Doers".

DavidHalko — 6:44PM on Feb 6th 2007

5. The article was good, but the title is inaccurate.
The connection to Rumsfeld is circumstantial... and detracts from the validity of the reporting done in the article.
I would expect better from an objective reporter.

ishpa — 12:57PM on Jan 25th 2007

6. Hi, people who think the US is founded on what's fair, or use Geoge Washington as a moral compass do not realize George Washington, our first president declared genocide on the Beothuk people, and succeeded. Of them there are no more...

Stevie56 — 1:41PM on Jan 26th 2007

7. "I was only following orders"

An ignominious claim destroyed by laws written by the USA, Britain and Russia in 1945.

If you do the crime, do the time.

Stevie.

susan — 5:56PM on Jan 25th 2007

8. For anyone who's seen the "prison mentality" documentary from the 70s, it's evident that the psychological aspects of being a guard or prisoner can lead to some atrocious behaviors, even under "normal" circumstance. People pretty quickly fall into their roles and live up to their expectations, whichever side they're on. You'd think we'd learn from this, eventually...

Ruth — 6:08PM on Jan 25th 2007

9. What happens when you're next, John? When you're the next person to be tortured for the sake of national security. It doesn't matter that you're innocent, right? It would be for a good cause.

John K. Bonner — 8:31PM on Jan 25th 2007

10. Re what the soldiers said when asked why they tortured prisoners, "I did it because I was told to do it", this is the exact same line of reasoning used by Germans when asked why they were able to exterminate people in the concentration camps: My superiors told me to do these deeds, so I did them; I was just following orders.

Relevant to this are the experiments performed by the psychologist, Stanley Milgram, in the 1960s where ordinary people were shown fully capable of applying appalling punishments (they were staged but the participants were unaware of this) when commanded by an authority figure to do so. A sad commentary on human nature that has occurred I am sure frequently in human history and will continue to do so I fear.

Retired Military — 7:50PM on Jan 25th 2007

11. Wrong? Absolutely. But, please keep in mind that a young man or woman entering the military service is taught from the very beginning to not question authority and to follow all (lawful) orders without question. When you are 18 or 19 years old and have just completed recruit training, you do not question the orders of your superiors. Had they refused to carry out the orders issued they would have been punished so it was a "no win" situation for them. The punishment needs to start at the top.

the colonel — 8:18PM on Jan 25th 2007

12. It's a sad day that the USA has to resort to this kind of activity. It just goes to show you the power of the KING! The orders if it were to be traced would fall squarely on the Vice President! He is a sneeky man that makes "Tricky Dick" Nixon and Bill Clinton look like a Pope. The King and his henchmen should be IMPEACHED!!! The only reason we are in that war is so The King could finish what his Daddy failed to do when he had the chance. Everything else is just a smoke screen to keep your eye off the ball. I'm glad I am an American but sorry that our country has allowed us to go back to the days of a King empire. It was the reason we became a country was to get rid of a King George. Ironic isn't it?

Gene — 1:39AM on Mar 30th 2007

13. How do we "America" go from boasting the most professionally trained military fighting force in the world, the few and the proud, best equipped,the best of the best period....!
To a somber group of inexperienced teenagers forced into the role of prison guards when it comes to the crimes at Abu Ghraib prison, "no training whatsoever"?! thats not an excuse for the best of the best! it's not even an excuse for a non- military trained civilian but simply American.
I am not buying into this story for one second as "the few and the innocent"?!
Stick together and blame the brass is more what I see here. cont..

Zeca Santana — 11:22AM on Jan 26th 2007

14. Only when you get the experience of being exposed to any kind of abuse or torture you can understand the feeling of anger and and how the lack of justice afect your sense of moral and respect.
In 1975 I served at Brazilian Air Force, and there, during a military dictature, talk about torture was a kind of honor, loyal service to your country, and a hard fight against communism, well, in 1977, I was studing at São Paulo's Catholic University's law school. In September 9th, I saw the other side of the story, as I was having my class of constitution law, PM soldiers invaded our university, I saw one of my friends being raped by two soldiers, and stay for 24 hours as "guest" of Doi-Codi police station. Two days later I was back to my classes, many of my friends didn't.
US for me was and is everything that Brazil was not, I could say, think and act with freedom and not afraid to say or think, after all theis is the "Home of the free".
Abu Ghraib is a sad scrach in US image, but do not put in the same level of Brazil in the 60's and 70's. Sure when you are in military service you know that you have to be hard, just say please to somebody that kill believing in politic or religious reasons will not help you to save other lives, I understand that you have to be though, but you have to be fair, any one that spent time in military life know what I'm talking about.
The Washington plinciple must be a golden rule, not only for Americans or Pan American soldiers, but to all of those wear an uniform to protect their countries.

Ed Book — 10:23PM on Jan 27th 2007

15. Abu prison was baby play. Can anyone out there name one country in the world, oh so civilized, that at its peak did not use torture. When you get down to it, give them all a flu shot mixed with truth serum & let them talk on & on... Would that be torture? And if it saved 3,000 lives in America, including your mommy, etc.? Get real Americans, use modern Tekno torture -- sodium pentathol, & then play Rap music loud all day & night long while a continuous streaming video on the walls shows Jane Fonda slipping American POW notes to the "authorities" she was so Fond of in Hanoi.
Vindicta Sine Conscientsia
Ed Book

Gene — 10:35PM on Jan 28th 2007

16. Oh this story I didn't view as about torture, I personally think if some torture is applied to extract information from a prisoner caught attempting or in the act of murder for hire of innocent civilians or religious extreme right wing Muslim nuts who think if your not Sunni on the one side or Shiite on the other there is no room for you on planet earth and it is God.."Allah" who smiles and pleased for acts of murder,violence,bloodshed.
You insane crackpot idiots need to be stopped!! The majority of Muslims in America and the Middle East view them as an embarrasement.
So torture of some caught to find there friends to save thousands of innocents from being blown up in terror with no regard for human life, and given the reverse they would not only torture you but slice your throat and scream Allah Acbar "Praise God"
Im personally glad we are at war on terror as they are and trying desperately to invade and recruit suicide killers and murder on American soil.
9-11 was just the wake up call and they chose Americas emergency call response 911 to make fun of America before murdering more than 3,000 innocents.
A pregnant female cheating on her husband and taking pictures of domination of Iraqi males with leashes on there necks and naked was never the answer! She stained American pride and I dearly hope she gets at least 20 years in prison for the lives lost by her actions.
American image was tarnished by her and dont say you were told to do so!You had too much fun taking those pictures.
As spoken by John Bonner every German Nazi when questioned about war crimes claimed the same "I was told to do it"
Put all guilty of crimes at Abu Ghraib in prison!
Lock them up as criminals for defacing the American Flag.
You found fun in Americas flag?
With the same flag you are condemmed!

Ny Nj — 3:36AM on Jan 28th 2007

17. The question is WHO Told Them or If There was an ASSUMPTION?

The My Lai Massacre illustrates how 'ORDERS' can be assumed or inferred incorrectly. And how Orders can be modified as they are reiterated down the chain of commands.

Jesse Anderson — 4:34AM on Jan 28th 2007

18. You know every time i see a comment about something that are said i'm begining think someboby is lieingb because as a vetran i can see all this happen in one place becacuse MJS do work, when you see someone doing wrong you supose to report then!

Joe — 11:33AM on Jan 28th 2007

19. I cannot believe the absolutely ridiculous liberal tripe being spewed here. You people are trying to equate the most benign forms of interrogation to "torture". This has nothing to do with the truth of the matter, it simply serves as another lame excuse to bash the U.S. Wake up people. The stupiditybehavior of a group of inexperienced Kentucky guardsmen is just that. A singular act of outlaw mischief. How many more major attacks on U.S. soil will it take til you start looking at this threat seriously ?

Gene — 11:36PM on Jan 28th 2007

20. It is so very nice to be able to share thoughts and opinions with everyone thank you Netscape.
The pictures taken and posted on the internet about Abu Ghraib prison were taken by a small group of American military personal that were given the role of prison guards.
No one told them to put Iraqi males on leashes and strip them naked for pictures! This will all come in court.
You few who did this did out of personal criminal domination of other human culture for laughs!
How many American lives were lost by your little laugh?
You embarrassed American pride and tarnished American pride.
Put all guillty in prison for a very long time!
Put them all in jail!

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