Abu Ghraib

by Munira Syeda

Naji Hamdan is a U.S. citizen who, since August 2008, has been in detention in the United Arab Emirates. He is a father of three children, the youngest of whom is 1 and the oldest 16. He lived in Southern California for more than 20 years, and was a respected community leader and activist in the Muslim community.

Hamdan’s detention has been marked by allegations of torture, lack of access to an attorney and family members, a four-month detention without formal charges being filed, and, according to a suit filed by the ACLU late last year, FBI’s surveillance and interrogation of Hamdan.

In a signed statement given to U.S. consular officer Sean Cooper in U.A.E., Hamdan said he was kicked, made to sit in an electric chair with threats that he might be electrocuted, punched and slapped, blindfolded, and beat with a large stick. (Abu Ghraib detainees were regularly tortured by the U.S. military in a similar manner. See Participant Media’s “Standard Operating Procedure.” Another Participant Media film, “The Visitor,” deals with a character who is detained in the U.S.).

After the ACLU filed suit against the U.S. government on FBI’s involvement, Hamdan was moved to criminal custody in U.A.E. and now faces terrorism-related charges, based on a coerced confession. Amnesty International started an online petition for people to plead Hamdan’s case. More

photo: KClvey, Flickr Creative Commons

Yes, the past eight years were torturous. I  can breathe more freely and deeply now.   One area that caused me to hold my breath and frown intensely was my sense of horror and shame at our government's torture policies.  Not the torture we felt from living under Bush & Co., but the actual torture that our government sanctioned policies literally inflicted on both US and non-citizens. After essentially putting our nation's legal foundations  through a paper shredder, the Bush Administration moved us into a dark era with policies that created such national shames as Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo. However, those days are finally over and President Obama already acted on some of his campaign promises on his first day in office to reverse many Bush policies. While others were stumbling over each other to analyze Obama's inauguration speech and waltz at inaugural balls last night, Obama swiftly moved to address one of the most eggregious policies--Guantanamo--before the evening had finished.  According to the New York Times, he issued "an immediate halt to all pending military war crimes trials for 120 days as he reviews the handling of terror suspects." Bush's Guantanamo policies are like Cinderella's carriage and before the clock struck midnight on Tuesday, it had gone poof! and reversed into a pumpkin. The Obama Administration is already acting a bit like a fairy-tale already where the ruler who, in one swoop with his pen,  can swiftly change evil forces in the world into good. His first steps to close Guantanamo are fantastic, but it will take more than the magic of a fairy tale. It will take the ongoing work and commitment of human rights organizations, many of whom we've worked with on Standard Operating Procedure. These organizations have been stalwarts throughout the past eight years to close down Guantanamo. takepart with them today to get involved to ensure that the doors of Guantanamo are finally closed.

Even though we've been reporting about Obama's shutting down of Guantanamo here on TakePart and I originally reported back in November about Obama's plans to shut the prison down, it is worth noting that is going to take longer than originally thought.  Back in November it seemed as though things were going to start much sooner and that getting rid of Guantanamo was a priority - but now some folks are worried that it might not be so, as Obama made remarks on Monday about the difficulty of such a task.

The president-elect drew criticism from some human rights groups Monday who said his remarks suggested that closing Guantánamo was not among the new administration’s highest priorities. But even if the detention camp remains open for months, the decision to address Guantánamo on the day after his inauguration seemed intended to make a symbolic break with some of the most controversial policies of the Bush administration.

And while the symbolic gesture is an important one, my fear with the new administration is that all we are going to get from them are symbolic gestures.   The transition of course won't be easy and 8 years of bad policy can't be undone quickly but it's important that we don't spend the next four years simply talking about how they could change and actually doing something. More

photo: Paul Keller, Creative Commons

I just saw on the TV in my boss' office that one of the first orders Obama will issue after he is elected will the closure of our prison at Guantanamo Bay. This is a gift to the detainees who've been held there for years without any due process or access to US courts, to our legal system which has been in shambles over the past 8 years because of Bush Administration policies  and to US citizens who were outraged at the human rights and civil rights violations that occured at Guantanamo (and elsewhere, such as Abu Ghraib).

There's a lot of work ahead to repair our legal system after Bush, Cheney and friends tried to destroy it over the past eight years.  Takepart today with groups such as Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and Human Rights First who've been leaders on these issues since Day 1 and will continue to be a voice of hope and justice.

As part of the celebration for the 60th Anniversary of International Human Rights Day on Wednesday, I'm making this a week long holiday! And, today I am excited to tell you about another one of my favorite organizations, Human Rights First (we worked closely with the group for our film, Standard Operating Procedure, about Abu Ghraib.) Yes, the name is a bit ironic because shouldn't human rights always be first? I know this is obvious, but unfortunately, it's not always true.  Whether its sanctioned abuses by our government or others, Human Rights First (HRF) is leading efforts to stop these human rights abuses and hold perpetrators accountable.

I wrote yesterday about the work of Physicians for Human Rights to end US torture practices. HRF is also intimately involved in this work, though from a different perspective (and this issue needs to be addressed from as many angles as possible).  And, as always, they require your involvement to make these changes happen!

takepart to sign their petition, "I Do Not Support Torture."  Join with thousands of others to ensure that the Obama Administration follows up on its campaign promise to close Guantanamo and end the use of torture.

Their "Prime Time Torture" campaign seeks to change how torture is portrayed in movies and television. Their documentation shows that torture is used much more widely now and that "good" American characters often engage in torture practices.  Instead, torture should be shown in a more nuanced light for what it really is and should not be shown as a patriotic tool.  takepart with HRF's Prime Time Torture to find out how you can help to change the portrayal of torture in Hollywood.

The work of HRF is critical to renewing the founding values of our nation that ensure human rights protections. While these have been eroded over the past eight years by Bush Administration policies, I'm confident that the ongoing work of groups like HRF, in combination with the efforts by the American public, will help to fully restore our commitment to being a leader in protecting human rights at home and around the world.

(Photo: Steve Rhodes, Creative Commons)

December 10th is International Human Rights Day and December 9th recognizes the Convention on the Prevention of Genocide. Although we're celebrating the 60th birthday of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights this week, human rights weren't born 60 years ago; they were just formalized as international law.  Human rights include "non-discrimination, equality, fairness and universality, apply to everyone, everywhere and always."

I'm taking this entire week to highlight the work of some of our amazing NGO associates who are leading efforts around the globe to prevent human rights abuses and genocides. Many of those not covered have been included in previous blogs and I invite you to takepart with them.

I'd like to kick off this week by talking about Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib, two notorious institutions of human rights abuses while under the helm of the US government.  Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) has been leading national efforts to have the US government reverse its authorized policies that allowed for the torture of prisoners at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo, a violation of the Geneva Conventions.  Their most recent report, Broken Laws, Broken Lives, tells the stories of 11 former prisoners who were tortured by US forces. PHR is asking for these individuals to be compensated with reparations and for people to be held accountable.  We had the fortune of working with this organization for our film, Standard Operating Procedure. We held a national screening of the film and a discussion with the director, Errol Morris and the author of Broken Laws, Broken Lives, Farnoosh Hashemian.

This engaging discussion is available for you to view. Celebrate International Human Rights Day http://physiciansforhumanrights.org/torture/ " target="_blank">takepart today to join PHR's campaign against torture.

Unless you've been hiding under a rock for the past eight years, it's hard to ignore the dismal human rights record of George W. Bush. Where can one begin when you reflect on the human rights abuses, violations of international agreements and government-sanctified torture policies of the Bush Administration? By intimately exploring the stories attached to the infamous photos from Abu Ghraib, our film, Standard Operating Procedure, helped to give us a clearer understanding of the prison which cemented our country's anti-human rights record and image to the world. Human rights were systematically violated and our global leadership marginalized because of our policies during the past eight years.

However, since the election, the tide has turned and things are finally looking brighter. President-elect Obama has already indicated a desire to reshape our human rights policies, including closing Guantanamo.

However, for many of the policies changes to occur, the new president and Congress needs to hear from citizens like you and me.  Human Rights First is has made the following a priority for the Obama Administration : the closure of Guantanamo, protection for Iraqi refugees, stop the flow of arms to Darfur and end torture of prisoners in US custody.  Help to make these important goals a reality by signing their letter which will be published in newspapers worldwide.  We voted against torture on November 4th. Let's help to show the world that we can help to change our policies and have our country return to being the visionary beacon for human rights that we once were. takepart today to sign Human Rights First's letter.

(photo by habacuc_1988)

What I loved most about Errol Morris' Standard Operating Procedure was that it was in many ways a "woman's picture." That is, the women, and their experience in the military, albeit in some very specific circumstances, was at the heart of the film. Their villianization, from Janis Karpinski to Lynndie England, from high rank to low, was one of the major crimes of Abu Ghraib and of course almost no one reported on it.It was with little surprise then that I sat down to read Paul Rieckhoff's piece in the Huffington Post entitled Sexual Assault and the Military: When Will the Pentagon Take Action?.Rieckhoff, founder of IAVA (Iraq & Afghanistan Veterans of America), writes:

Almost one-third of women veterans say they were sexually assaulted while in the military. (In the general population, one out of every six American women has been a victim of a sexual assault.) Already, 15 percent of female Iraq and Afghanistan veterans who have gone to the VA for care have screened positive for Military Sexual Trauma. But even these troubling figures may not be telling the whole story; experts estimate that half of all sexual assaults go unreported. [HuffingtonPost]

The TakePart Top 10 Weekly Roundup is a compilation of the week's most notable stories from our entertainment-meets-social-action blogging network. Check out some of our most popular stories of the week, as well as a few TakePart blogger favorites!

TakePart Gang:

Everything I Know About Climate Change, I Learned in the Fifth Grade by Martin Musatov

When Torture Is Condoned, Is FISA That Shocking? by Wendy Cohen

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Nicole Hughes:

Baltimore Woman Turns Tragedy Into Art

Why Don't We Do More to Stop Global Warming?

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Andy Kondrat:

Foods You Should and Shouldn't Buy Organic

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Jon Popham:

The Energy Independence Bill: A Filibuster Odyssey

"Bruno" Fools Mossad Agent

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Gina Telaroli:

While Iran Tests Missiles, Test These 5 Iranian Films

Mao's Out, Time to Capitalize On the Olympics

The Senate passed the FISA bill today giving telecoms immunity and allowing the government to spy on all Americans. Yes, this violates the privacy the constitution is meant to protect us from.   Spying...hmm... that doesn't sound very American. But it also doesn't surprise me.

This past week, I came across an article and radio segment about torture.   The former is a frightening piece in Vanity Fair where author Christopher Hitchens undergoes the controversial drowning technique and concludes, "believe me, it's torture."

And on This American Life, Ira Glass interviews Basim, an Iraqi national who worked as an interpreter for the U.S. Army. He talks about the time he had to purposely mistranslates in order to keep a situation from turning violent. And then Basim mentions the Abu Ghraib photos and how they changed the Iraqi's perception of Americans. Before the photos were published, even if Iraqis mistrusted Americans, they viewed Americans as generally fair and ethical. But after the photos of Abu Ghraib were public, it was as if everything they perceived about Americans was a lie and it was even more difficult to believe we could do anything good.   Almost instantly, Americans were seen as less fair, ethical and evolved. (You can listen to the entire show here. Basim's segment is about 20 minutes in.)

Does passing the FISA bill reinforce the perception of unfair and unjust America? More