‘This has disgraced America . . . ' :Globe and Mail

http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20040507.wphoto0507/BNStory/Front/

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Shame and humiliation, indignity and loss of face — these emotions have a power in the Middle East that is often compared to that of nuclear weapons. Lengthy wars are fought for personal dignity. The worst forms of torture involve sexual shame. The mere mention of public indignity can provoke lifelong conflicts.
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The effect on Arabs of such humiliations seems to have been well known to the military-intelligence interrogation teams that allegedly ordered the sexual and physical abuse at Abu Ghraib. Some of them were reportedly trained at the U.S. Army interrogation school in Fort Huachuca, Ariz., where interrogation instructor John Giersdorf boasted in 2002 that his job “is just a hair's breadth away from being an illegal specialty under the Geneva Convention.”

A Wall Street Journal reporter who was granted a rare visit to the facility noted that recruits are taught 30 interrogation techniques, many of them based on shame and humiliation.

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Is Rummy out of the loop or what?!

If our soldiers had simply sat the Iraqis down on kilims, surrounded by pillows, and offered tea, the result would have been much more productive and civilized.

that place is known as Langley West.

They called it "bitch in a box". On a baking hot day last August, a black Mercedes sedan pulled up at the United States army base in Ramadi and two US interrogators dragged an Iraqi man out of the boot. He was gasping for air.

"They kind of had to prop him up to carry him in. He looked like he had been there for a while," said a US soldier who witnessed the Iraqi's arrival in the custody of American interrogators wearing desert camouflage but no identifying insignia.

Such coercive interrogation techniques are widespread in Iraq. The Guardian has learned of ordinary soldiers who were instructed to use sleep deprivation on prisoners, and taught to perform mock executions.

The Guardian also spoke to soldiers who served at Abu Ghraib, in units not linked to the photographs of abuse which surfaced two weeks ago, who said prisoners were routinely humiliated by US troops venting their frustration.


http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=66283