“Taxi to the Darkside” Unethical torture

 When the war started many fresh faces were shipped over to the Middle East not really knowing what they were quite getting into.  But this does not focus on the “dead topic “ of the war in Iraq and whether it is right or wrong, I am focusing on the other side of the story. The torture and interrogation of Iraqi’s during the war.

 Torture lead to the death of a man named Dilawar, a Taxi driver in Iraq who was an innocent man. In December 2002, Dilawar gave three passengers a ride and never came home.

Bagram was an old soviet air base that was used to interrogate and hold suspected members of Al Qaeda captured from Afghanistan and Pakistan. Dilawar was brought in to Bagram because he was suspected to be the “trigger man” for a rocket attack. Five days after he arrived he was dead, two days prior another man had died. The first man had died from a blood clot that travelled to his lung, he already had a preexisting condition when he arrived, but it was the beatings he stained that caused his death.

Forced standing in a position where one’s arms are out to the side, handcuffed to a metal grate (the ceiling), legs spread apart was a stress position. All prisoners captured were placed in these positions.

The officer in charge at Bagram was Carol wood, but she and several others were soon stationed at Abu Gurayb in Afghanistan. Torture chambers where left behind from Saddum Hussein, and nail marks where seen on the walls.

The military officials were told to “rough up” prisoners who wouldn’t comply, and that they were all “dogs.”  To interrogate, Military police and MI’s were told to “weaken, humiliate, and break people.” They were not trained to interrogate, and many stated they should have never been told to do so. Carol Wood stated she was pressured to produce “intelligence” in her sworn statement. She introduced unauthorized interrogation techniques such as; sleep deprivation, dogs, stress positions, and nudity. The U.S Central Command never responded to her request of authorization.

Many often questioned if this was a case of “a few bad apples” or a new system of interrogation. Since the documentary was made there have been 105 deaths in custody. When Abu Gurayb was investigated  people in higher office realized that because the president could do anything he wanted in the name of “Security” it showed why this problem was emerging.  35 have been classified as homicide.

Carlotta Gall is a New York Journalist who was displeased with the statements she heard from the military so she set out to find the truth. She got in touch with some of the families of the deceased and looked at the death certificates which were in English. They did not understand English so she explained to them that their loved one had been killed.

Carlotta interviewed General McNeill this was the question asked:

“Did they receive any trauma…any blunt injury trauma?” Carlotta

“Presently I have no indication of that.” General McNeil

McNeil signed the death certificate and on the death certificate it bluntly states that there was blunt force trauma.

After another reporter uncovered secret documents from the military, people were being charged with mistreatment, and deaths. Soldiers on the documentary stated all they were told was to “get the information.”

Detainees were captured, read their rights, and then placed in an isolation cell where they would be sleep deprived for 24 hours. Dry erase boards were near each cell that stated they could be awake 1 hour, and sit down for 2 for example.

There were always officers, media, and higher military officials who would come tour the buildings to see how everything was. They saw the prisoners shackled with hoods over their heads and said “you are doing a good job.” When the Red Cross toured Bagram the charts where erased and the shackles were taken down.

Dilawar was examined by the army corner and she testified that his legs were “pulpified.” A video later surfaced of Colonel Hayden a military lawyer who described policy: “…That if someone was a difficult prisoner you could hit them on the legs and it was not considered a lethal blow.”

The night before Dilawar died since he wouldn’t shut up they kneed him in the back of the legs repeatedly. 4 MP’s gave him kidney shots, and kicked him. The knee strikes continued through the night and the strikes became an amusement after awhile. The corner stated that his legs looked like they had been run over by a truck. If he would have lived his legs would have to be amputated.

No one was punished for their actions at Bagram, there was one officer put on trial but he was let off because it was unclear what his duty was.

 After September 11, 2001 the soldiers waited for a written guideline for interrogation techniques.

Dick Cheney described how the interrogation techniques were going to be changed. President Bush declared a war on terror, but it raised questions whether terrorist should be protected by the laws of war the Geneva Convention. These treaties were provided to protect every human captured during time of war. For 50 years this gave legal rights so humans could not be murdered, tortured, or humiliated.

The Bush administration argued that the Geneva Convention did not apply to terrorist. They gave permission to the CIA and Special Forces to use once forbidden techniques. The problem was some of the new interrogation techniques were banned under international and United States laws. To make sure military officials would not be accused of committing war crimes Jon Yoo wrote a memo where he defined the word torture.

The definition was “the only prohibited acts would be extreme acts which are equivalent to serious physical injury such as; organ failure, impairment of body functions, or death.” Pretty much the president can order torture if he wanted to.

In Afghanistan there was a lot of confusion on what a person was able to do to a detainee. One military official said pretty much we could do everything except beat them up. The Bush Administration decided to ship some of the higher value detainees’ over to Guantanamo bay prison in Cuba. That way the laws would not apply, but they would be close to the United States.

In 2001 a man was sent to Guantanamo, and it was discovered that he was supposed to be one of the high jackers on the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania. Because of this, Donald Rumsfield approved a new list of psychological techniques that could be used on this man to get him to talk. How the methods would be applied would be up to the interrogator. From 2002-2003 he was psychologically tortured, and lucky for us it was well documented.

Log Page 23:

Detainee was told to stand and loud music was played to keep detainee awake

He was only allowed to sleep 4 hours a day and interrogated for the other 20. This last 50 days with one exception.

He was deprived of sound and light, stress was creating by focusing on detainee’s fear.

Log Page 56:

Female interrogator used invasion of personal space and detainee cried to Allah.

Log Page 51:

He was laid out on the floor so I straddled him.

Log Page 47:

Dog tricks continued

Told Detainee that a dog is held in higher esteem than he is.

Log Page 35:

Sissy slap glove is inflated and periodically touched to detainee’s face

Log Page 19:

Control began “birthday party” and placed a party hat on detainee.

Sang “God bless America.”

 At one point during the torturing process the man was rushed to the hospital after the air conditioner was turned down so low his heart beat had dropped to 35 BPM.

General Miller who knew of these techniques was disciplined by the U.S Army. 

Since the psychological torture was used, it was hard to define and was not included in the torture definition. The famous picture of the Iraqi standing on a box, arms stretched out, hood over his head that many have seen has a story. The man was told if he stepped off the box he would be electrocuted.  

The torture techniques at Guantanamo bay had made their way to Bagram and from Bagram to Abu Grayb by the hands of General Miller. The FBI saw what was going on at Guantanamo bay and would not engage in that type of behavior.

 Alberto Mora (General Counsel to the Navy) got in touch with the General Counsel of the Army after he had heard rumors of abuse at Guantanamo bay. They said they had known about it and showed him a huge pile of documents all signed by Rumsfield allowing interrogation techniques. Alberto Mora threatened to go on record with the reports he had. He had heard no new reports for awhile, but  shackles, dogs, and stress positions were still being used.

The Afghanistan Guerilla commander (who had turned over Dilawar and his passengers) had been detained himself after Dilawar’s death. He was the one who rocketed the Army’s base and then to make himself look innocent he turned over innocent civilians. The three passengers were sent to Guantanamo and didn’t get out until 15 months after they had been captured.

Although the Bush administration stressed that the people that were picked up were “the worst of the worst” studies now show that only 5 percent of the people captured were picked up by the United States. Only 8 percent were accused of being members of Al Queda, and over 90 percent of them were picked up in exchange for money. It was concluded that only 7 percent were captured by the United States and the other 93 percent were turned over to U.S forces.

Also the people detained for the first time were not allowed a regular hearing which is required under habeas corpus. No rights to a lawyer, no right to why they are detained, no evidence showing why they are in prison.

Dilawar’s abuse echoed in the halls of congress. This was important to McCain because he had been a victim himself. October 2005 John McCain proposed the Detainee treatment Act a ban on torture.

President Bush would have to abide by the Geneva Conventions as long as he could pretty much define its meaning. A few detainees were allowed a trial but the rest no longer had access to habeas corpus.

President Bush and his administration were pardoned of any crimes or torture dated back to September 11. This pardon did not apply to soldiers during the time of mistreatment.  They were sent to jail and many recieved a bad conduct discharge. Instead of spending the money on these trials they should have spent the money to teach soldiers how to interrogate the proper way so torture doesn’t happen again. No officer was ever convicted including Carol Wood who received a staff position in Arizona.

Since September 11, 2008 100,000 people have been detained by U.S forces and only one person was given a trial.

This does not mean all of our military are corrupt and I don’t want anyone to think badly about the men and women who serve our country. People in Iraq deserve to be treated humanely just like we would want to be if we were captured by The main point is the system is broken and just like all the other systems it needs to be fixed. And we wonder if terrorism is under control? I believe this would create more terrorist if anything.

I suggest you watch the documentary Taxi to the Darkside.