| Prisoner Abuse and Deaths Jim Lehrer News Hour May 21, 2004 1:04:25 - 1:12:45 |
The Washington Post reported in its paper and on its web site more images and descriptions of physical abuse and sexual humiliation at Abu Ghraib Prison. An unmuzzled guard dog menaces a terrified kneeling detainee with his hands tied behind his back. A shackled and hooded detainee bent at the waist atop a pair of boxes one ankle appears cupped to a door handle behind him. A naked prisoner smeared with a brown substance made to parade in front of a guard wielding a baton. A prisoner again hooded, collapsed and shacked to a railing. A soldier kneeling on a naked detainee as four of his comrades watch. A soldier prepares to strike a hooded prisoner held in a headlock on the floor. Sworn statements have been taken from Iraqi prisoners by military investigators. "They handcuffed me and hung me to the bed. They ordered me to curse Islam and because they started hitting my broken leg I cursed my religion. They ordered me to thank Jesus that I am alive." Another prisoner said."When they took me out of the car an American soldier hit me with his hand on my face and they stripped me naked and they took me under the water and then he made me crawl the hallways until I was bleeding from my chest to my knees and my head. . . . The Executive Editor of the Washington Post was interviewed. The prisoner's statements are the first time we have the words of the detainees saying for themselves what had happened to them. The photographs add to our visual knowledge of the kinds of abuse that went on there . . The Washington Post has 65 pages of statements. The pattern that emerges is one of humiliation. The details are much more voluminous than he realized. There is a whole variety of ways in which these prisoners were humiliated. It makes very difficult reading . . .There are very many, many photographs of very explicit nakedness of a sexual nature and of the sexual taunting of prisoners. The Post has hundreds and hundreds of photos. . . |
| This video is intended to supplement and confirm (external validity) what we have learned from the Stanford Prison study. (The Power of the Situation video, the May 3, 2004 email from Professor Zimbardo, and pages 272-273 in Wade and Tavris (2003). |