- The type of mistreatment Iraqi prisoners have suffered
at the hands of US soldiers is unlikely to have occurred without the knowledge
of higher authorities, say psychologists contacted New Scientist - adding
support to allegations that the abuse may have been condoned by superiors.
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- The revelation that Iraqi prisoners were being degraded
by their US captors at Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad sparked worldwide disgust
after graphic photos emerged in the media at the end of April. The images,
which show naked male prisoners being humiliated, date back to 2003.
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- "A lot of people had to be in the know for this
to happen. The very fact people felt confident enough to take pictures
suggests that this was not something which was a secret," says Ian
Robbins, a consultant clinical psychologist at the traumatic stress service
at St George's Hospital in London, UK, who has treated both victims of
torture and torturers.
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- In fact, both the International Committee of the Red
Cross (ICRC) and Amnesty International raised the alleged abuse of prisoners
with US authorities many months ago. The ICRC's findings from visits to
14 Iraqi detention centres between March and October 2003 prompted "repeated
requests to the coalition authorities that they take corrective action".
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- A leaked ICRC report reveals how an intelligence officer
in charge at Abu Ghraib had told the Red Cross when asked about captives
being imprisoned in darkness for days that it was "part of the process".
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- "The US administration has shown a consistent disregard
for the Geneva Conventions and basic principles of law, human rights and
decency," says Irene Khan, Amnesty International's secretary general.
"This has created a climate in which US soldiers feel they can dehumanise
and degrade prisoners with impunity."
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- Rules and regulations
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- "In all organisations, all teams, troops and people
will replicate in some way the personality of the number one person in
charge - whether it's the President, down to the general, down to the head
of the jail," says Simon Meyerson, director of the Institute of Psychology
in London. "If you know there's going to be trouble, you won't do
it."
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- Stansfield Turner, former head of the US Central Intelligence
Agency, says the abuse "indicates the Bush administration's indifference
to laws and rules and regulations".
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- "If it was just the actions of a few aberrant people,
they would either have to believe their superiors condoned what they did,
or that they could get away with it because of lack of adequate supervision,"
he told the BBC.
-
- He says the blame must be placed high. "In this
case I think at least a three or four star general should be fired - and
fired immediately."
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- Hooded and cuffed
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- Sabrina Harman, a reservist implicated in abusing prisoners,
has defended her actions in emails to the Washington Post saying she was
acting on orders. She was photographed grinning next to a pile of naked,
bound prisoners.
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- "They would bring in one to several prisoners at
a time already hooded and cuffed. The job of the MP [military police] was
to keep them awake, make it hell so they would talk," she wrote.
-
- Robbins told New Scientist: "It looks to me that
it was a well thought through process." He says acts of ill-treatment
by rogue operatives acting alone are more likely to be routine low-grade
violence - "the odd slapping" - and neglect, such as withholding
food or access to toilets.
-
- He also points out that the methods of humiliation depicted
in the images would be particularly offensive to Arab men. "If you
really wanted to humiliate an Arab man, you would strip him, have a woman
present, and then have a woman degrade him."
-
- One recent image shows a woman holding a dog lead attached
to the neck of a naked Iraqi man. Photographing such events is likely to
compound the shame by placing it on record.
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- Robbins believes the abuses revealed so far could have
been stopped "extremely easily" by senior officers.
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