Abu Ghraib Chapter 15 Summary

In the movie, “A Few Good Men”, two types of reactions are shown in response to being part of a person’s wrongful death. Philip Zimbardo in his work, “The Stanford Prison Experiment”, provides the perspective of the guards who initiated a harsh prison environment and how they reflected upon the experience. Meanwhile a real-life scandal is analyzed by Marianne Szegedy-Maszak in “The Abu Ghraib Prison Scandal: Sources of Sadism”. This piece reviews the actions of soldiers in controversial situations shortly after the infamous 9-11 attacks. Repeating the military topic, Herbert C. Kelman and V. Lee Hamilton addressed Lt. Calley’s steadfast belief that he did no wrong in the Vietnam War scandal in “The My Lai Massacre: A Military Crime of

With Robots becoming a popular part of our everyday lives people are beginning to question if people are treating robots with the same respect that they treat people with. Researchers are also beginning to wonder if there need to be laws to protect robots from being tortured or even killed. Scientists have done research to test and see if people react the same to robots as they would to actual people or animals. In Is it Okay to Torture or Murder a Robot Richard Fisher contemplates the reason on why it is wrong to hurt or kill a robot by using a stern and unbiased tone.

In this paper I will illustrate how the lessons learned from the Stanford Experiment apply to understanding the dynamics of prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib. The Stanford Experiment demonstrates how social influence can persuade one’s behavior and shape their conformity. The experiment and the prisoner abuse in Abu Ghraib exemplify the power of authority by utilizing their positions and uniforms to control and overrule the prisoners.

The Abu Ghraib torture scandal left a large blemish on the occupation of Iraq and George Bush’s War on terror. As stories of the torture happening in the Abu Ghraib prison began circulating, American citizens had trouble comprehending the acts of evil their soldiers had committed on Iraqis. Some began to see a correlation between Abu Ghraib and the infamous Stanford Prison Experiment. Though the guards in both situations were brutal to their captives, distinct differences lay in the severity of their actions. Abu Ghraib’s guards were much more vicious to their captives, and this can be attributed to the prejudices the guards felt against their captors, the environment, and the lack of training, compounded with a lack of accountability in the leadership.

The subsequent case study, prepared by James P. Pfiffner, Torture and Public Policy, (2010) analyzes the torture and abuse of war prisoners by United States military personnel in Abu Ghraib, Iraq, and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, following photographs of the abuse spread around the world in the fall of 2003. Pfiffner points out that the United States Military, Secretary of State Donald Rumsfield, and President George W. Bush assumed a role in the events leading up to the exploitation, even though it has never been corroborated that President Bush or Secretary of State Rumsfield directly condoned the abuse.

The United States citizens have been wrestling with the question of, whether their government intelligence agencies should be prohibited from using torture to gather information. According to Michael Ignatieff, this is the hardest case of what he describes as ‘lesser evil ethics’—a political ethics predicated on the idea that in emergencies leaders must choose between different evils Before the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, torture was viewed by most American’s as only actions that brutal dictators would employ on their citizens, to keep order within their country. However, this all changed when in May 2004, The New Yorker released photographs from the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. The disturbing pictures were released on the internet showing bodies of naked Iraqis piled onto each other, others showed Iraqis being tortured and humiliated. There was a huge up roar, which caused the President at the time George W. Bush to publicly apologize, and threaten the job of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Soon after, the CIA Conformed the use of waterboarding on three Al-Qaida suspects in 2002 and 2003, which further annihilated the topic. Since these reports, torture has been in the forefront of national politics, and the public opinion has been struggling to commit on whether torture is right or wrong.

"I asked several people, several times, where I could find a copy of the standard operating procedures, or even rules and regulations,’ says Frederick. ‘And nobody would ever provide me with any or let me know where they were. The only thing they would do is just give me a pat on the back and say everything will be all right" (60 Minutes, Abuse at Abu Ghraib) This is Sergeant Chip Frederick, one of the soldiers that has been convicted of conspiracy, dereliction of duty, maltreatment of detainees, assault, and indecent acts. He served 8 years in military prison, in Washington D.C. Even though Sgt. Frederick plead guilty, he claimed that no one involved in the scandal was properly trained, and did not know the standard Geneva Conventions. “We had no support, no training whatsoever. And I kept asking my

We are living in a current world where every individual has a civil right and every single person is protected by the Bills of Rights. No one, not even the government has the right to torture an individual in order to get the information needed. Having digitalized equipment in the Department of Predictive Policing to detect and predict where the crime is going to happen, and prevent it from happening, is not only going to save many lives but it is also going to bring both positive and negative effects to the world. This still does not give the government the authority to make definite decisions because you cannot completely trust technology. There is also a hesitancy among many people to charge or condemn an individual in order to save many lives. Making these judgments was used in 1984 as a way of protection, protecting the “people who are incapable of understanding it” (Orwell 156).

Have you heard of Bowe Bergdahl. A U.S. soldier named Bowe Bergdahl was a prisoner. Bow was held five years as a prisoner. The U.S. army exchanged five Afghan prisoners for Bowe Bergdahl. Bow did not support the Americans. He wanted to start a new life. He slipped off the remote military outpost in Pakistan province on the border. Soldiers went looking for him and they were sadly killed looking around the Afghans land.

There has been terrorist attacks in the United States since President Abraham Lincoln was shot back in April 14, 1865 by John Wilkes Booth in Washington DC. This was considered a Terrorist attack by the right-wing group. (www.johnstonsarchive.net/terrorism/wrjp255a.html). Then on July 2, 1881 President James Garfield shot by Charles J.Guiteau in Washington, DC. This act was considered a terrorist attack. On September 6, 1901 President William Mckinley shot by Leon Czolgosz in Buffalo, NY. This was considered a terrorist attack by the left-wing group. The list goes on up until the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States land marks that killed over 3,000 people and injured almost 10,000 people. Although the people responsible for these attacks

When the news of torture at Abu Ghraib prison broke in early 2004 during the “global war on terror,” much of the public was outraged and did not know how to react. Heavy debate began over the issue and media reporters on the issues took sides. Many books were written about the subject. The conservatives attempted to downsize the issues and take the side that it was simply ‘bored’ and ‘tense’ soldiers trying to blow off a little steam with horseplay. However, the photographs that surface said quite differently. Naked photographs of prisoners engaged in simulated sexual acts, deceased prisoners in sexual poses and prisoners tied up and left for dead tell the chilling story of the terror and torture behind the prison walls. Did the US do

If the sources were revealed like several people tried to have them do, their safety and cooperation would cease to be as the all the people involved would no longer feel safe supplying information to the Washington Post. This book also mentions how the White House would use non-denials as a way to deny the accusations. Therefore, the book is more beneficial for people interested in

In 2014, the release of U.S. Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl from Taliban forces in Afghanistan made headline news across the world. Initial reports were celebratory but were short lived in the United States, as controversy exploded with Republican officials vocally challenging the narrative and worthiness of President Obama’s executive order in facilitating Bergdahl’s release in exchange for five senior Taliban officials being held at Guantanamo. Bergdahl’s character was called into question as both he and President Obama were vilified in the shifting chorus of media coverage, with many news outlets playing up the “controversy” of the President’s action and Bergdahl’s supposed ignoble character.

In this article, written by Andrew Fiala, the topic of discussion is torture, terrorism, and the lesser evil of arguments. Fiala has many strong statements about torture, and how there are different types used in different situations and it being to excessive. He touches on terrorism of how it is wrong, but he states that the terrorist is closely related to torture. Then he touches on the double-standards that moral standards of people sacrificing themselves to save others. Fiala argues that torture needs to be diminished, then argues that terrorism and torture are closely linked, but they have many differences, and then how the “fat man” analogy is what terrorism can be compared to.

Some of these victims are completely healthy and alive before they perform the surgery. After these surgeries they are killed in order to hide the evidence. However, this isn’t the only kind of torture implemented in these camps. Physical and mental torture is implemented and is almost impossible to bear. In an interview with Washington Post, James Ouyang describes his ordeal in these