Abu Ghraib Prison Scandal Essay

Abu Ghraib Prison Scandal

Abu Ghraib was originally an Iraqi prison, one of the worst where torture, murder and inhumane living conditions was part of the everyday life. After riots happened and the inmates escaped from this prison, the United States took this prison over and used it to house suspects involved in acts against the coalition as well as suspects who were high value leaders of the insurgency. Army Reserve Brigadier General Janis Karpinski was put in charge of this prison and was eventually suspended after an investigation was done into this prison system. SSG Frederick was assigned to the 372nd MP’s doing police duties and routine traffic work, but in October of 2003 his unit was placed to prison guard duty at Abu Ghraib. Major

General Taguba found after investigation that between the months of October and December of 2003, there were a number of incidents that had occurred that were considered criminal abuse of the prisoners. Taguba put together detailed witness statements and received graphic photographic evidence taken by the soldiers as the abuse was happening. SSG Frederick was using the story that he was following orders from his superiors, in particular Military Intelligence. He stated that the dominant force within the prison was comprised of MI teams, CIA, linguists and private contractors. This prison was violating human rights, they lacked the training needed to run this prison, they did not have enough guards to control the inmates, and they needed to fix this problem immediately is what was put in a report by Provost Marshal Ryder.

Ryder made an assessment that reported the guards were treating the inmates so poorly because they were working with intelligence operatives that needed information from these prisoners. The guards felt they were following orders by abusing, and making these inmates walk around with no clothes because it’s what needed to be done to obtain the information. There were multiple reports made to Karpinski of escape attempts because of the poor conditions, but she put in an approval and states day to day changes needed to be made, even though some of these prisoners were being killed and in some instances there was no record of inmates that were in, if they even posed a significant threat to society. There were many ethical violations happening within this prison system, poor leadership was among the highest. The general in charge was said to have never been seen and the guards did not show that they knew how to run this prison system. Human rights should be granted to everyone regardless if the guards felt they were doing a good thing by getting some intel out of them. This situation questions every single soldier involved integrity, duty and moral obligation to their country. When these soldiers took an oath to defend this country, this abuse and

torture was not in that oath. Murder is on the hands of each inmate that was killed during this abuse and they should be charged as such. The abuse that these prisoners received could have and should have been prevented.
References
Torture at Abu Ghraib. (n.d.). (Seymour M. Hersh). (May 10, 2004). Received February 28, 2017 from http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2004/05/10/torture-at-abu-ghraib