Abu Ghraib Scandal

Starting in 2004, reports of physical, psychological and sexual abuse including torture, rape, sodomy, waterboarding (“a prisoner is strapped to a board, or submerged, or held down and forced to breathe through a water-soaked cloth held over his mouth. All waterboarding produces the physical sensation of drowning and a psychological sensation of panic, fear and loss of control[1]”) and homicide of the prisoners at Abu Ghraib become known to the public eye. The acts were committed by members of the United States Army along with members of the United States governmental agencies. As shown in the Taguba Report (“report on alleged abuse of prisoners by members of the 800th Military Police Brigade at the Abu Ghraib Prison in Baghdad[2]),
Eleven soldiers were convicted in courts-martial, sentenced to military prison, and dishonourably discharged from the service between 2004 and 2006.
Interrogation and torture policies by the United States Government The Office of Legal Counsel declares organ failure, impairment of bodily function, or even death torture punishable by law[4]. President George Bush and his administrators said that the Abu Ghraib torture Scandal was an “isolated incident uncharacteristic of US actions in Iraq[5]”. That was widely controversial, especially in Arab countries, but by the International Red Cross as well, which had been reporting abuse of the prisoners for over a year[6]. An officer that had experience at Guantanamo Bay prior to Abu Ghrab said that there was a “systematic failure caused by a combination of inexperienced troops arresting innocent Iraqism who are then interrogated by inexperienced interrogators determined to break apart these hard
Pictures of female prisoners being raped and having their clothing removed by force have also been reported[11].
International Law and United Nations Involvement The United States put the United Nations Convention Against Torture into action along with the Third and the Fourth Geneva Conventions. Bush and his Administration stated that “Both the United States and Iraq are parties to the Geneva Conventions. The United States recognizes that these treaties are binding in the war for the ‘liberation of Iraq’[12]” According the Human Rights Watch: “Al-Quaeda detainees would likely not be accorded POW status, bu the Conventions still provide explicit protections to all persons held in an international armed conflict, even if they are not entitled to POW status. Such protections include the right to be free from coercive interrogation, to receive fair trial if charged with a criminal offence, and, in the case of detained civilians, to be able to appeal periodically the security rationale for continued