Talk:Abu Ghraib prison

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Wikiproject Prisons

If anyone is interested, I have proposed a new Wikiproject concerning prisons here.--Cdogsimmons (talk) 22:45, 13 June 2008 (UTC)

Deleted info.

The following material was removed by someone. I'm not putting it back because it's unsourced, but if someone can find some and put it back - that would be appreciated.

"It became internationally known as a place where Saddam Hussein's government tortured and executed dissidents, and later as the site of Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse scandal where the United States military's torture of Iraqi detainees was revealed in a series of photographs published in worldwide news media.

Under Saddam's Ba'ath government, it was known as Abu Ghraib Prison and had a reputation as a place of torture and some of the worst cases of torture in the modern world. It was sometimes referred to in the Western media as "Saddam's Torture Central". The prison was renamed after United States forces expelled the former Iraqi government, which had called it the Baghdad Central Confinement Facility (BCCF) or Baghdad Central Correctional Facility. In May of 2004, Camp Avalanche, a tent camp on the grounds of Abu Ghraib for security detainees, changed its name to Camp Redemption at the request of a governing council member.

The prison complex was built by American contractors in the 1960s, and covered 280 acres (1.15 km²) with a total of 24 guard towers. The size of a small town, the area was divided into five separate walled compounds for different types of prisoners. Each block contained a dining room, prayer room, exercise area and rudimentary washing facilities. Cells contained up to 40 people in a space four metres by four. By the fall of the government in 2003 the five compounds were designated for foreign prisoners, long sentences, short sentences, capital crimes and "special" crimes.

Map of Iraq highlighting Abu Ghraib

Under Saddam Hussein

See also: Human rights in Saddam's Iraq

Layout of the US-controlled Abu Ghraib prison

Under the government of Saddam Hussein the facility was under the control of the Directorate of General Security (Al-Amn al-Amm) and was the site of the torture and execution of thousands of political prisoners—up to 4,000 prisoners are thought to have been executed there in 1984 alone. During the 1990s human rights organization Amnesty International documented repeated events where as many as several hundred inmates were executed in a single episode. These included hundreds executed in November 1996, and several hundred members of the Shi'a denomination killed in 1998 and 2001. Amnesty reported that it could not produce a complete picture of events at the prison due to government secrecy. It was also the reputed location of Saddam Hussein's alleged shredder.

The section for political inmates of Abu Ghraib was divided into "open" and "closed" wings. The closed wing housed only Shi'ites. They were not allowed visitors or any outside contact.

Coalition prisoners were held and tortured in Abu Ghraib during the Gulf War, including the British Special Air Service patrol Bravo Two Zero."

Would be kinda useful to have this section inserted in the main page - what we have so far looks a lot like the Americans were the only people ever to abuse anyone at Abu Ghraib. Which is - hopefully - not intentional. 213.121.242.7 (talk) 14:48, 12 April 2011 (UTC)

Moved

According to information published today by Agence France-Presse, the new name of Abu Ghraib prison is Baghdad Central Prision.--MaGioZal (talk) 20:53, 12 February 2009 (UTC)

Pictures

If it is appropriate, I have access to dozens of pictures of the conditions within this prison. I am new to editing, and would prefer to submit these pictures to someone so they can approve of which pictures to upload (some are graphic).

Please let me know if interested.

Andy v001 (talk) 15:05, 9 March 2010 (UTC)andy v001Andy v001 (talk) 15:05, 9 March 2010 (UTC)

There are much more disturbing images that demonstrate the 'conditions' (wether current of not) in the prison better than the ones that can be found in the topic currently. An example is the one one with the pile of humans, with smiling people above it. --217.121.72.108 (talk) 08:55, 28 July 2013 (UTC)

External links

The external links section was extremely bloated and contained material that would better serve as references than external links, so I'm moving them here to serve as a list of possible references that can be used in the article:

• General Janis Karpinski was in charge of Abu Ghraib and now is a talk radio host Interview with Janis2nd hour of the Interview
• Map showing location - globalsecurity.org
• Prisoner abused by American soldiers at Abu Ghraib prison (Iraq, April 2004) (GRAPHIC!)
• Satellite Photograph - Google Maps
• Memo Reveals Bush may have OK'd Torture
• The Abu Ghraib Prison Photos – a collection of graphic photos showing torture and humiliation of Iraqi inmates by a group of U.S. soldiers in Abu Ghraib prison, released by The Washington Post, ABC News, The New Yorker, CBS and Global Free Press
• New Prison Images Emerge – The Washington Post May 6, 2004 article by Christian Davenport
• Chain of Command – The New Yorker May 9, 2004 article by Seymour M. Hersh
• Videos Amplify Picture of Violence – The Washington Post May 21, 2004 article by Josh White, Christian Davenport and Scott Higham
• Use of Dogs to Scare Prisoners Was Authorized – The Washington Post June 11, 2004 article by Josh White and Scott Higham
• After image: the meanings of Abu Ghraib
• Thanks Joe Darby – a site for expressions of support for Joe Darby, the soldier that exposed the graphic photos and video that brought the Abu Ghraib prison scandal to light.
• Abu Ghraib legal news and resources, JURIST
• HBO: Ghosts of Abu Ghraib HBO's documentary premiered February 22, 2006.
• An Iraq Interrogator's Nightmare, Washington Post 9 Feb 2007
• [1], Prison with a Past by Matthew McAllester
• Oral history interview with, Richard Vickery, a former Abu Ghraib prison guard from the Veterans History Project at Central Connecticut State University

Spencer^T♦C 12:31, 25 July 2013 (UTC)

External links modified

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Article Adds

We added the following information to the main page for our college course. Please let us know if there is any information that is needing more or less. All our information has been cited and completely researched.

Notable US Military Guards[edit source]

1.) Pfc. Lynndie England [1]

      Born on November 8th, 1982 in Ashland Kentucky 
      Military Active Status:
      US Army 1999-2998

2.) Spc. Sabrina Harmen [2]

      Born on January 5, 1978 in Lorton, Virginia
      Military Active Status:
      US Army

3.) Charles Garner Jr. [3]

      Born 1968 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 
      Military Active Status: 
      1988-1992 United States Marine Corp
      2001-2005 US Army 

4.) Ivan Frederick [4]

      Born in 1966 in Buckingham County Virginia
      Military Active status:
      1984 – 2004 US Army 

5.) Jeremy Sivits [5]

      Born on January 21, 1979 in Cresaptown, Maryland
      Military Active Status: 
      US Army till 2004
         

6.) Roam Krol [6]

      American Citizen but born in Russia.
      Military Active Status: 
      US Army

7.) Armin Cruz [7]

      Born in 1980 in Texas 
      Military Active Status:
      US Army

8.) Javal Davis [8]

      Born in 1977 in Roselle, New Jersey 
      Military Active Status: 
      US Army 372th military police company

New Introduction[edit source] Abu Ghraib prison (Arabic: سجن أبو غريب‎ Sijn Abū Ghurayb; also Abu Ghuraib, lit. 'Father of Raven', or 'Place of Ravens'[2]) now known as The Baghdad Central Prison (Arabic: سجن بغداد المركزي‎ Sijn Baġdād al-Markizī), was a prison complex in Abu Ghraib [9], an Iraqi city 32 km (20 mi) west of Baghdad that operated from its construction in the 1950s until its closure in the 2010s. It was previously occupied by terrorists in the area and later mass graves from the Saddam Hussein [10] era have been uncovered at the site. Murals of Saddam Hussein can be seen in the halls and along several walls with depictions of Saddam Hussein painted crudely. It was then turned to a location of a notorious American scandal, when the US took the prison for its own holding area for detainees captured in suspicion of terrorism. The detainees were horrifically tortured and abused be US guards until the abuse was uncovered. In 2003 after the invasion of Iraq, the U.S. transferred complete control of the prison to the Iraqi government in 2006 and Iraqi authorities completely closed it down in 2014.

Reactions To Abu Ghraib[edit source] There are many reactions to the Abu Ghraib prison. There are two distinct reactions that can be seen from people regarding the prison. Most Americans look on in shame and have a sense of shame for the goings on in that prison. Many Americans were outraged that the country that was a leader in Human Rights was implicated in the illegal torture and misuse of detainees across seas. Do to Americans shameful feelings towards the events all talk of the Aby Ghraib Prison has been quiet since the trials and sentencing of the US Military Guards that participated in the horrible events. Many Iraqi peoples felt fear and paranoia when confronted with the issue of Abu Ghraib. It didn’t take much for people to be taken in to the prison and fear overruled the sense of outrage at what was happening to the people. As fear of personal detainment and the need for financial stability, many people took monetary incentives to hand over people of suspicion during its time under American rule. This led to a lot of wrongly detained prisoners. However according to George R. Mastroianni [11]in Looking Back: Understanding Abu Ghraib; Abu Ghraib in a whole is up to our own personal debates for how we define the prison. Before the closings, many events took place, but do these define Abu Ghraib. Using the events to open our eyes to rules, laws, and behaviors that many nations and cultures use in places such as Abu Ghraib and war in general.

MrsAggie1114 (talk) 18:08, 4 May 2018 (UTC)

Edit Suggestions

We believe that the closure section could use some beefing up. It provides adequate information but could include more to help readers understand what is going on with it currently and if there are any new updates on the prison currently.

Also, The notable detainees section may benefit from having a short summery of the person who is listed. It doesn't have to be a full bio but just something to let us know who they are and why they were detained or something similar to that nature.

Just some thoughts that could make this article that much better for our readers.

MrsAggie1114 (talk) 18:15, 4 May 2018 (UTC)

Reaction section

A section like that would be great. The one that was just removed was terrible (unsourced and badly failing NPOV, even if the person who removed it is only here to push their own political views) and shouldn't be put back without some sort of sourcing. --JBL (talk) 16:39, 3 December 2018 (UTC)

For ease of discussion, here's what was removed:

Reaction to the abuses at Abu Ghraib usually entailed some form of disgust and horror. Most Americans look on in shame and have a sense of shame for the abuses that went on there. Many Americans were outraged that the country that claimed to be the leader of human rights was implicated in the illegal torture and mistreatment of detainees overseas. Due to Americans shameful feelings towards the events, all talk of the Abu Ghraib Prison has been quiet since the trials and sentencing of the U.S. military guards that participated in the horrible events.

Many Iraqi people felt fear and paranoia when confronted with the issue of Abu Ghraib. It didn’t take much for people to be taken in to the prison and fear overruled the sense of outrage at what was happening to the people. As fear of personal detainment and the need for financial stability, many people took monetary incentives to hand over people of suspicion during its time under American rule, leading to an increase of wrongfully detained prisoners.

--JBL (talk) 16:42, 3 December 2018 (UTC)

Israelis were the Interrogators

Numerous news articles reported that Israelis were employed as the actual interrogators because they spoke Arabic. This should be included in Wikipedia. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3863235.stm 47.202.49.36 (talk) 13:11, 16 August 2020 (UTC)