The "Hard Site" and the Failure of "Intelligence" at Abu Ghraib

   The "Hard Sites" were the parts of Abu Ghraib that housed the population that had intelligence of terrorism, criminal background, or insanity issues. There were six or seven guards gurding a population of 1,000 at a time. There were women and children in the population of the highest security area of the prison. The women and children were used to threaten the other prisoners and coerse them into talking.
   There was a huge amount of frustration from the intelligence officers concerning the lack of intelligence coming in from the prisoners. The answer was simple: 70-80% of the prisoners had no intelligence to give. They should not have been detained in the first place. Rumsfeld was openly frustrated with not getting intelligence as well, and seemed to blame the intelligence officers for the lack of incoming information.

5) Abu Ghraib - The Location, Atmosphere, and Situation at Abu Ghraib by September 2003

    The 372nd Military Police Company encountered a dark prison that was previously run by Saddam Hussein. There were huge shortages of provisions at the prison. The prison in July and August of 2003 housed less than 1,000 prisoners. In September, there were roughly 6,000 inmates. The 6,000 inmate population was controlled by 300 American guards. The prisoners were separated by general population, the intelligence and insane population, and the women and children population.
   The guards had absolutely no training. They were simply told that they were taking over for the last group of guards.
   The prison is described as an eerie, perhaps haunted prison that smelled of human urine, feces, and sweat. The heat could reach 130 degrees.  Wild dogs roamed the prison and would dig up remains of the dead. The feeling of death from the era of Hussein was felt in the prison, with hooks and ovens as evidence of the horror. The street leading to the prison was utterly terrifying due to the violence that was a regular occurance on it. I envisioned the prison as a place worse than a scare any nightmare could give.

American Techniques of War and Iraqi Civilians

    From what I have learned so far about the American techniques during the war in Iraq, I believe that there was chaos, many failed situations, and several levels of miguided leaders. These problems were stemming from a war cabinet leading from overseas, an unstable basis of understading concerning who exactly the enemy was, the strategies that should be used to fight the enemy, who should be detained in order to extract intelligence, and what tactics were acceptable to be used to extract the intelligence. The war had begun based on miscommunications, lies, and personal agendas in 2001, and in 2003 those issues had continued to spiral the intentions and goals of the war out of control in several detrimental ways.
   Iraqis were treated inhumanely to say the least, and the tactics that were used by American soldiers in raiding and detaining appear to be similar at first glance to those used by the German Nazis during World War II. The techniques used by American soldiers were brutal, inhumane, and misguided.

The Justice Department and the UN Convention Against Torture

The issue is that the Convention against Torture is very vague. It limits actions considered torturous to obstructing necessary bodily functions, causing organs to fail, or causing death. There is no specification of what the definition of "severe" is. This leaves a huge gray area that gives the opportunity for officials to misconstrue or abuse the standards. The view of John Yoo and the Justice Department is that torture is not by any means allowed, yet the criteria for what torture is is so vaguely defined that it is near impossible to limit torturous acts.

The Geneva Conventions and the War on Terror

   The Geneva Conventions are a set of rules, or standards, that were established in 1949. The standards in the Conventions ensure the humane treatment of people captured and detained during times of war.    The Geneva Conventions are essential to the safety of Americans because they protect those in foreign countries that may be captured and detained. The Coventions are meant to ensure safety in circumstances that could be otherwise dangerous and/or deadly in times of war.
   John Yoo and the Justice Department felt that the rules of the Geneva Convention should not apply to al Qaeda because the members were not POWs, they didn't sign the Convention, nor did they follow any of the rules themselves. In fact, they publicly and brutally broad casted executions of captured victims, directly breaking the rules of the agreement.
  In 2002, for the first time in history, President Bush decided not to apply the Geneva Convention standards to al Qaeda due to the nature of the group. This was a huge mistake because when you take away the standards and limitations of what can be done during times of war, the issues become very subjective.

The Context of the Abu Ghraib Prison Abuse Scandal

     In the summer and fall of 2003, American soldiers were in Iraq with little to no supportive intelligence identifying information about the enemy. As the White House was attempting to maintain that Iraq was becoming a safer place for purposes of gaining alliance support, Iraq had become quite the opposite. Iraq was home of frequent terrorist attacks, and with an unstructured government, progress was little to none. Many were skeptical of the positive reports of Iraq's progress, and those concerns were validated in August of 2003.  After the Jordanian Embassy and United Nations were attacked, there was an urgent calling for intelligence from Washington D.C.
General Ricardo Sanchez confirmed having very little direction or information. He shortly thereafter, by the order of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, ordered troops to begin raiding and arresting Iraqis for interrogation purposes. Most were detained because of minimal, unrelated offenses. Soon, there were thousands of Iraqis being detained and controlled by about 300 guards. Abu Ghraib Prison began being used as a holding area for detained Iraqis. Due to the high number of Iraqis who were illegitimately being held, intelligence was not coming in as Rumsfeld had hoped. Rumsfeld approved extremely harsh interrogation tactics to force Iraqis to talk. The tactics were meant to mimic those used in Guantanamo Bay by American soldiers after 9/11.
The calling for intelligence also came as an effect of four American contractors being killed in Spring of 2004. The president immediately called for retaliation. The U.S. Marines attacked, although soon, it was apparent that civilians were being killed as well as insurgents. The Marines were instructed to pull back, and surround and guard the area of Fallujah instead. This became the cause of resistance groups actually becoming closer and stronger inside the city. This entire sequence caused the United States to appear inferior, and was just another cause of lengthening our time in Iraq.