In spite of official protestations to the contrary, it is now evident that the grotesque abuses of US troops in Iraq are not simply the criminal acts of a few sadistic thugs but merely a visible indication of a systematically implemented policy. Indeed, the evidence strongly indicates that the practices have been developed and sophisticated over decades and that they are carefully devised applications of the findings of psychological and sociological research.
Torture At Abu Ghraib
By Seymour M. Hersh,
The New Yorker, 10 May 2004The Road to Abu Ghraib
Human Rights Watch, June 2004Torture and Truth
By Mark Danner
New York Review of Books, Volume 51, Number 10, 10 June 2004The Logic of Torture
By Mark Danner
New York Review of Books, Volume 51, Number 11, 24 June 2004Afghan detainees routinely tortured and humiliated by US troops
By Duncan Campbell and Suzanne Goldenberg
The Guardian, 23 June 2004Inside America's Secret Afghan Gulag
By Duncan Campbell and Suzanne Goldenberg
The Guardian, 23 June 2004Making Torture Legal
By Anthony Lewis
New York Review of Books, Volume 51, Number 12, 15 July 2004
The psychological and sociological theory of torture (CIA manuals)
National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 122
'CIA interrogation manuals written in the 1960s and 1980s described "coercive techniques" such as those used to mistreat detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, according to the declassified documents posted today by the National Security Archive. ...'
Evidence of systematic torture
The Fay Report: Investigation of Intelligence Activities At Abu Ghraib
by General Paul J. Kern, Lieutenant General Anthony R. Jones and Major General George R. Fay
(23 August 2004)The Schlesinger Report
Final Report of the Independent Panel To Review DoD Detention Operations
by James R. Schlesinger, Tillie K. Fowler, Charles A. Horner, and Harold Brown.
(24 August 2004)
"The [Schlesinger] report talks about management failures when it should be talking about policy failures. It seems to go out of its way not to find any relationship between Secretary Rumsfeld's approval of interrogation techniques designed to inflict pain and humiliation and the widespread mistreatment and torture of detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo." (Reed Brody, Special Counsel with Human Rights Watch)The Taguba Report.
Article 15-6 Investigation of the 800th Military Police Brigade
by Major General Antonio M. Taguba
(3 May 2004)The Red Cross Report
Report of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on the Treatment by the Coalition Forces of Prisoners of War and Other Protected Persons by the Geneva Conventions in Iraq During Arrest, Internment and Interrogation, February 2004.
(Posted by Spotlight, 10 May 2004)
Sworn Statements by Abu Ghraib Detainees
'These documents, obtained by The Washington Post, are the offical English translations of previously secret sworn statements by detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. Some of the names have been withheld from these statements by washingtonpost.com because they are alleged victims of sexual assault. These files are in PDF format.'
The US case for torture
Possible Habeas Jurisdiction Over Aliens Held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, by Patrtick F. Philbin and John Y. Yoo, Office of Legal Councel, US Department of Justice, 28 December 2001. [Yoo is Professor of Law at UC Berkeley]
Application of Treaties and Laws to Al Qaeda and Taliban Detainees, by John Y. Yoo and Robert J. Delahunty, Office of Legal Councel, US Department of Justice, 9 January 2002. (Posted by Newsweek, )
Standards of Conduct for Interrogation under U.S.C. §§ 2340-2340A, Memorandum for Alberto R. Gonzales, Councel to the President, by Jay S. Bybee, Assistant Attorney General, Office of Legal Councel, US Department of Justice, 1 August 2002.
Working Group Report On Detainee Interrogations in the Global War on Terrorism; Assessment of Legal, Historical, Policy, and Operational Considerations, 6 March 2003. Classified by: Secretary Rumsfeld.
(Incomplete facsimile posted by CNN. Full html text posted by truthout.)
United Nations Convention Against Torture
Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, Adopted and opened for signature, ratification and accession by General Assembly resolution 39/46 of 10 December 1984
Compiled by Kjeld Schmidt,
Updated7/10/04 ,13:18