Inside The Cells Of Abu Ghraib

Bush “plans to ‘unleash’ the CIA to perpetrate political assassinations, torture and a string of human rights violations,” writes Raymond Ker of Middle East News , “...‘physical interrogation’ [read: torture] is recommended by the venerable Newsweek magazine; and George W. Bush orders the institution of military tribunals for suspected terrorists in camera and without a jury.” 

It appears this is what happened at Abu Ghraib—the CIA and military intelligence were “unleashed” on those in the Iraq resistance (or suspected of being associated with the Iraqi resistance). 

September 11 provided the CIA with a custom-made excuse to continue its gratuitous use of torture, either directly or through proxy. After the Senate Intelligence Committee conducted hearings on terrorism in December 2002, several CIA officers told Alasdair Palmer of the UK Telegraph , “They were in no doubt about what they would have to do: they would have to torture people.... The unanimity in American law-enforcement circles is striking. Torture is no longer simply a topic for debate. The debate has been won.” 

At the Bagram air force base in Afghanistan, this debate is ancient history—and there is absolutely no worry about human rights or the Geneva Convention as it pertains to prisoners of war. As the Washington Post reported in December 2002, the CIA routinely tortured al-Qaeda and Taliban suspects at Bagram—interrogations resulting in at least two deaths. 

Cofer Black, former director of the CIA’s counter-terrorist branch, told a congressional intelligence committee at the time: “All you need to know: there was a before 9/11 and there was an after 9/11.... After 9/11 the gloves come off.” 

According to U.S. officials responsible for capturing and detaining terrorist suspects, the only problem with torture is that the CIA was prevented from using it by fence-straddling lawmakers and a public without stomach. “If you don’t violate someone’s human rights some of the time, you probably aren’t doing your job,” an official told the Washington Post . 

Late last year the Sunday Times reported the CIA was actively recruiting former agents from Saddam Hussein’s notorious security force, Mukhabarat. Mohammed Abdullah, who had spent 10 years in the Mukhabarat and eight in Iraqi military intelligence, told the Times he was on the CIA’s payroll—hired to hunt down members of the resistance as well as Iraqis allegedly spying for Iran and Syria. “If successfully set up, the group would work in tandem with American forces but would have its own structure and relative independence,” an anonymous intelligence officer told the Times . “It could be expected to be fairly ruthless in dealing with the remnants of Saddam.” It does not seem to matter to the CIA or Bush, however, that many former members of Mukhabarat are still Saddam loyalists. 

Considering the above, a pattern begins to emerge: the CIA runs the counterinsurgency effort in Iraq, from directing Mukhabarat in the field—rounding up resistance fighters and their supporters—to overseeing the operations of mercenaries (many recruited from Chilean and South African military services) and directing “interrogations” conducted by private companies such as CACI International, the Titan Corporation, and defense contractors. 

Although individual soldiers are under investigation for abusing Iraqi detainees—and Hersh names them in his article—there is no mention of the CIA, military intelligence, or private corporations (this information was provided by Jullian Borger of the London Guardian ). As usual in such situations, lowly scapegoats will be sacrificed—careers ruined, pensions lost—and the real culprits will fade into the background, allowed to continue their repulsive work.  

On Sunday, May 2, Fox News and CNN were strangely mute about the scandal, although the European and Arab press continued to publish accounts of the torture. Of course, considering another CIA Operation (innocuously dubbed Operation Mockingbird), this should be expected. In the late 1940s, the CIA recruited U.S. news organizations and individual journalists as disseminators of CIA propaganda. All told, at least 25 news organizations and 400 journalists became helpmates for the mega-snoop organization. 

Of course, for Iraqis finding such behavior deeply offensive—especially the pornographic aspects at odds with Arab culture—the wholesale depravity of Abu Ghraib will serve as yet more inspiration to resist the occupation and eventually get rid of Bush, the CIA, and their hired sadists. Fox News and CNN may choose to allow Abu Ghraib to drop from the media radar screen and may move on to more superficial and politically disengaged news items, but in the Arab world the damage has been done and it has momentous consequences. 

On the day the U.S. leaves Iraq in disgrace, not even Fox News will be able to ignore helicopters departing from the roof of the U.S. embassy in Baghdad.