Abu Ghraib prison

Abu Ghraib prison is a prison in Abu Ghraib, a city 32 km west of Baghdad, Iraq. It became known when Saddam Hussein tortured and executed dissidents there. After the United States had invaded Iraq, there was also a scandal where US forces tortured prisoners.

Under Saddam

Saddam Hussein's government tortured and executed thousands of political prisoners at Abu Ghraib.[1] Records suggest that in 1984 alone, up to 4,000 prisoners were executed there.[2]

During the 1990s there were mass executions at Abu Ghraib, according to Amnesty International (an international human rights organization) and the U.S. Department of State.[2] As many as several hundred prisoners were executed one after the other in these summary executions.[1]

U.S. torture & prisoner abuse

During the Iraq War, members of the United States Army and the Central Intelligence Agency tortured and abused detainees at Abu Ghraib.[3][4][5][6] These abuses included physical abuse, sexual humiliation, physical and psychological torture, and rape.[7][8][9][10]

An Iraqi man named Manadel al-Jamadi was tortured to death during a CIA interrogation at Abu Ghraib.[11] After he died, his body was desecrated.

In April 2004, CBS News published pictures of the prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib. This brought the torture scandal to public attention. There was widespread shock, outrage, and condemnation within the United States and internationally.[12]


References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Krane, Jim. "Notorious history". The Star Banner. Associated Press. Retrieved 2025-09-19.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Department Of State. The Office of Electronic Information, Bureau of Public Affairs. "Life Under Saddam Hussein: Past Repression and Atrocities by Saddam Hussein's Regime". 2001-2009.state.gov. Retrieved 2025-09-20.
  3. ↑ "Factsheet: Torture at Abu Ghraib and Al Shimari v. CACI". Center for Constitutional Rights. Retrieved 2025-09-19.
  4. ↑ Keller, Allen S. (2006). "Torture in Abu Ghraib". Perspectives in Biology and Medicine. 49 (4): 553–569. doi:10.1353/pbm.2006.0059. ISSN 0031-5982. PMID 17146140.
  5. ↑ "Reports detail Abu Ghraib prison death; was it torture?". NBC News. 2005-02-17. Retrieved 2025-09-19.
  6. ↑ Hersh, Seymour M. (2004-04-30). "Torture at Abu Ghraib". The New Yorker. ISSN 0028-792X. Retrieved 2025-09-20.
  7. ↑ Hersh, Seymour M. (May 17, 2004). "Chain of Command". The New Yorker. Archived from the original on January 1, 2012. Retrieved September 13, 2011. NBC News later quoted U.S. military officials as saying that the unreleased photographs showed American soldiers 'severely beating an Iraqi prisoner nearly to death, having sex with a female Iraqi prisoner, and "acting inappropriately with a dead body." The officials said there also was a videotape, apparently recorded by U.S. personnel, showing Iraqi guards raping young boys.'
  8. ↑ Benjamin, Mark (May 30, 2008). "Taguba denies he's seen abuse photos suppressed by Obama: The general told a U.K. paper about images he saw investigating Abu Ghraib – not photos Obama wants kept secret". Salon.com. Archived from the original on June 11, 2009. Retrieved June 6, 2009. The paper quoted Taguba as saying, 'These pictures show torture, abuse, rape and every indecency.' ... The actual quote in the Telegraph was accurate, Taguba said – but he was referring to the hundreds of images he reviewed as an investigator of the abuse at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq
  9. ↑ Hersh, Seymour Myron (June 25, 2007). "The General's Report: how Antonio Taguba, who investigated the Abu Ghraib scandal, became one of its casualties". The New Yorker. Archived from the original on September 12, 2007. Retrieved June 17, 2007. Taguba said that he saw "a video of a male American soldier in uniform sodomizing a female detainee"
  10. ↑ Walsh, Joan; Michael Scherer; Mark Benjamin; Page Rockwell; Jeanne Carstensen; Mark Follman; Page Rockwell; Tracy Clark-Flory (March 14, 2006). "Other government agencies". The Abu Ghraib files. Salon.com. Archived from the original on February 12, 2008. Retrieved February 24, 2008. The Armed Forces Institute of Pathology later ruled al-Jamadi's death a homicide, caused by 'blunt force injuries to the torso complicated by compromised respiration.'
  11. ↑ "Reports detail Abu Ghraib prison death; was it torture?". NBC News. 2005-02-17. Retrieved 2025-09-19.
  12. ↑ Sontag, Susan (May 23, 2004). "Regarding The Torture Of Others". The New York Times Magazine. Archived from the original on September 2, 2017.
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