page_title: Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse
section_title: Other abuses
hierarchical_section_title: Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse / Prisoner abuse / Other abuses
caption_attribution_description: English: 11:50 p.m., Nov. 7, 2003. CPL GRANER and SPC HARMAN pose for picture behind the nude detainees. SOLDIER(S): CPL GRANER and SPC HARMAN. All caption information is taken directly from CID materials. U.S. Army / Criminal Investigation Command (CID). Seized by the U.S. Government. Note: Spc. Charles Graner and Spc. Sabrina Harman with naked and hooded prisoners who were forced to form a human pyramid – a photo from Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq which was a part of the evidence used against US soldiers accused of abusing and humiliating inmates.
context_page_description: During the early stages of the Iraq War, United States Army and Central Intelligence Agency personnel committed a series of human rights violations against detainees in the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, including physical and sexual abuse, torture, rape, sodomy, and murder. The abuses came to public attention with the publication of photographs of the abuse by CBS News in April 2004. The incidents received widespread condemnation both within the United States and abroad, although the torturers received support from some conservative media in the United States.
  The administration of George W. Bush asserted that the abuses at Abu Ghraib were isolated incidents and were not indicative of U.S. policy. This assertion was disputed by humanitarian organizations such as the Red Cross, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch; these organizations stated that the abuses at Abu Ghraib were part of a wider pattern of torture and brutal treatment at American overseas detention centers, including those in Iraq, in Afghanistan, and at Guantanamo Bay.
  Documents popularly known as the Torture Memos came to light a few years later.
context_section_description: In May 2004, The Washington Post reported evidence given by Ameen Saeed Al-Sheik, detainee No. 151362. It quoted him as saying; "They said we will make you wish to die and it will not happen [...] They stripped me naked. One of them told me he would rape me. He drew a picture of a woman to my back and made me stand in shameful position holding my buttocks." "'Do you pray to Allah?' one asked. I said yes. They said, '[Expletive] you. And [expletive] him.' One of them said, 'You are not getting out of here health[y], you are getting out of here handicapped. And he said to me, 'Are you married?' I said, 'Yes.' They said, 'If your wife saw you like this, she will be disappointed.' One of them said, 'But if I saw her now she would not be disappointed now because I would rape her.' " [...] "They ordered me to thank Jesus that I'm alive." [...] "I said to him, 'I believe in Allah.' So he said, 'But I believe in torture and I will torture you.'"
  On January 12, 2005, The New York Times reported on further testimony from Abu Ghraib detainees. The abuses reported included urinating on detainees, pounding wounded limbs with metal batons, pouring phosphoric acid on detainees, and tying ropes to the detainees' legs or penises and dragging them across the floor.
  In her video diary, a prison guard said that prisoners were shot for minor misbehavior, and claimed to have had venomous snakes used to bite prisoners, sometimes resulting in their deaths. The guard said that she was "in trouble" for having thrown rocks at the detainees. Hashem Muhsen, one of the naked prisoners in the human pyramid photo, later said the men were also forced to crawl around the floor naked while soldiers rode them like donkeys.
caption: Sabrina Harman poses for a photo behind naked Iraqi detainees forced to form a human pyramid, while Charles Graner watches.
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