(2008) Special investigator Brent Pack assembled the digital photos taken in late 2003 at Abu Ghraib prison as evidence for the trial of military personnel - including Sgt Charles Graner, Sgt Ivan "Chip" Frederick, Pfc Lynndie England, Spc Sabrina Harman, Spc Jeremy Sivits, and others accused of abusing Iraqi detainees. The three cameras used to take pictures belonged to Graner, Frederick, and Harman. Was the purpose of the photographs for documentation or for amusement?

Graner, serving a ten-year sentence, is prohibited from giving interviews. Frederick did not participate either. Sharing her letters from Iraq to her husband Kelly, Sabrina appears in the documentary, explaining that she took photos as proof of what was going on: "The US is not what they [Americans] think. What if it was me in their shoes?" She began recording in October 2003 with her camera and on paper molestation and humiliation of detainees. "You can't just walk away and say I'm not doing this," she says of the incidents for which she was charged, smiling in some of the shots with a thumbs-up pose above a corpse. (Charges were later dropped because authorities did not want having to admit to the cover-up of a murder.)

After examining the images, Pack distinguished between criminal acts - physical injury, forcing prisoners into sexual acts, dereliction of duty (e.g., allowing someone to bash his head against a wall) - and standard operating procedure - wearing women's panties, stress positions while naked, sleep deprivation, standing on a box wearing a hood with wires attached to outstretched hands.

Director/producer Errol Morris included re-enactments to accompany the interviews, still photos, and videotape with score by Danny Elfman. No one above a staff sergeant received jail time; higher-ups, from Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld down to the company level, retain plausible deniability. "How could all this go on without anybody noticing it?" asks an outsider. "Possible standard operating procedure."

Coming from Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, Gen Miller, who arrived the day after Sec Rumsfeld's brief visit to Abu Ghraib, "Gitmoized" Abu Ghraib, making it "the interrogation center of Iraq." Brig Gen Janis Karpinski, commander of the 800th MP Brigade at Abu Ghraib, who was relieved of command, complains of how the prison population suddenly increased by 1500 prisoners, rounded up in mass sweeps of males, added to an initial 200 detainees, with orders not to release anyone under any circumstances.

While the prison was being shelled from outside, Sgt Javal Davis points out, the Americans inside had to be wary of prisoners getting weapons from Iraqi guards. A prisoner who obtained a pistol and shot an American MP was blown away into a bloody mess with several blasts from a shotgun.

Finding the US soldiers showing symptoms of low morale and depression, civilian interrogator Tim Dugan was surprised to see naked prisoners (not permitted according to military regulations) being messed with as a means of getting under their skin through their Arab-culture taboos but not surprised that understaffed, inexperienced, under-trained interrogators were getting little information through such methods. Pressure was being applied from above to get information about Saddam Hussein's whereabouts.

Those involved with the internationally infamous photos of a human pyramid of naked men, a man on the end of a leash, hooded "Gilligan" standing with wires attached to his outstretched hands, a snarling dog lunging at a man cowering in a corner, a woman pointing at a man's exposed thigh with the words "I am a rapist," another directing attention to a man masturbating, among many others, describe what they remembered of the circumstances.

Sgt Graner, 32 years old, apparently was the instigator of most of the obscene images. "Blinded by being in love with the man," England (who was 20, says of the prison, "When we got there, the example was already set") became pregnant with his child; Megan Anbuhl (cropped from some of the photos) - who admits to laughing at prisoners when they were taking showers, burning them with cigarettes, pouring cold water on them to keep them awake because she believed doing so was helping to save the lives of other American soldiers - later married him.

"We were told 'no pictures of prisoners,'" admits Sivits, but the instructions obviously were ignored by nearly everyone. Col Pappas permitted one day of amnesty during which most of the Americans, military and civilians, at Abu Ghraib destroyed any evidence in their possession. Sgt Davis says his first impression upon arrival at Abu Ghraib was "Something's not right here," but the unspoken rule became "free reign, just don't kill them." He maintains that what he and the other MPs did was humiliation and softening up of detainees: torture took place during interrogations elsewhere in the prison.

The dead detainee came into the hands of MPs Sgt Anthony Diaz and Spc Jeffrey Frost wearing a hood and limp, bleeding from the nose, with deep bruises on the thighs and knees; the entire chain of command then showed up. After placing the corpse in a body bag, the MPs ice it down, left it overnight in a locked cell, and secreted it out of the prison on a gurney, wearing an orange jumpsuit with an IV attached to the arm. The official report stated that "the prisoner died in a shower of a heart attack."

When Saddam Hussein was captured in December 2003, discovery of his hideout was not gleaned from information obtained at Abu Ghraib.

Click here for links to places to buy or rent this movie in video and/or DVD format, or to buy the soundtrack, posters, books, even used videos, games, electronics and lots of other stuff. I suggest you shop at least two of these places before buying anything. Prices seem to vary continuously. For more information on this film, click on this link to The Internet Movie Database. Type in the name of the movie in the search box and press enter. You will be able to find background information on the film, the actors, and links to much more information.

Copyright © 2008 Patrick Ivers. All rights reserved.
Reproduced with the permission of the copyright holder.

Patrick Ivers can be reached via e-mail at .