GHOSTS OF ABU GHRAIB - Documentary
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Not Synced[STATIC fades into HEAVENLY MUSIC CHORD]
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Not Synced[low-reverberating tone]
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Not Synced[ominous music]
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Not SyncedNow what I'm going to is strap down your arms to avoid any excessive movement on your part during the experiment.
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Not SyncedIs that too tight?
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Not SyncedIt's fine.
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Not SyncedOkay.
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Not SyncedThis electrode is connected to the shock generator in the next room.
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Not Synced[Buzz buzz]
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Not SyncedAnd this electrode pace is to provide a good contact to avoid any blister or burn.
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Not SyncedI'm now gonna shock of 75 volts.
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Not Synced[From off-camera] Hold!
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Not SyncedHe kinda did some yelling in there.
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Not Synced75 volts.
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Not Synced[Off-screen yell]
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Not Synced[Laughing] He yelled though.
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Not Synced[Off-screen] Please continue.
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Not SyncedThis will be at 330.
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Not Synced[Buzz and off-screen long scream]
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Not SyncedJust how far can you go in this thing?
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Not Synced[Off-screen] As far as necessary.
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Not Synced[Off screen shouting] I can't stand the pain, get me out of here!
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Not Synced[Overlapping] He can't stand it, I'm not gonna kill that man there.
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Not SyncedYou hear him hollering [unintelligible]?
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Not Synced[Overlapping from off-screen] 94. Those shocks may be painful, but they're not dangerous.
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Not Synced[Overlapping] Yeah but they're hollering, he can't stand it, what if something happens to him?
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Not Synced[Off-screen] The experiment requires that you continue teaching.
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Not SyncedYeah but uh, [nervous laughing] I'm not gonna get that man sick in there.
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Not SyncedI mean he's hollering in there.
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Not SyncedI mean who's gonna take the responsibility if anything happens to that gentleman in there?
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Not Synced[Off-screen] I'm responsible for anything that happens here.
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Not Synced[Off-screen] Continue, please.
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Not Synced285 volts.
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Not Synced[Buzz and screaming off-camera]
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Not Synced[Off-screen] Continue please.
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Not Synced[Ominous music turns lamenting]
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Not Synced[Voice over] That place turned me into a monster.
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Not SyncedI was very angry.
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Not SyncedYou know this being Abu Ghraib, change your whole mindframe.
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Not SyncedYou know, you can go from ... being a docile, you know and a ... jolly guy, and you go to Abu Ghraib for a few ...
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Not SyncedYou know you be in Iraq for- for a while, you know, you become, you know, a robot.
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Not Synced[Different voice over] It was a door I was afraid to walk through.
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Not SyncedYou know if you walk through it ... at which point do you say "It's enough"?
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Not SyncedYou know "What's- what's cruel enough?" How do you go back from that?
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Not SyncedAnd I was afraid that ... I- I just wouldn't come back.
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Not SyncedThat I would just ... get lost.
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Not Synced[Different voice over] Something in your brain clicks that ... everything you is- is normal.
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Not SyncedI mean y-you'll go crazy if you don't adapt to what you're seeing.
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Not SyncedYou gotta block it out. Y-You gotta do something to ... make your day go by.
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Not SyncedWithout going crazy.
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Not Synced[Music turns ominous again under the sound of a flying helicopter]
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Not Synced[Voice over of Pres. G.W. Bush] These acts of mass murder were intended to frighten our nation into chaos and retreat.
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Not SyncedBut they have failed.
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Not SyncedOur country is strong.
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Not SyncedA great people has been moved to defend a great nation.
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Not SyncedAmerica and our friends and allies join with all those who want peace and security in the world.
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Not SyncedAnd we stand together to win the war against terrorism.
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Not Synced[Different voice over] I was in an Algebra 2 class.
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Not SyncedAnd it was just a regular day, we were sitting down ready for class and then there was an announcement.
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Not SyncedIt just brought into real retrospect when my friend, uh, Chris, he leaned over and he's like,
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Not Synced"Hey aren't you in the Reserves?"
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Not SyncedI thought, "Yes. Yes I am in the Reserves. How is this gonna effect me?"
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Not Synced[Different voice over] The ultimate reason I joined was to ... be a part of the effort to make the country a safer place.
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Not SyncedI wanted to help protect our ... country so that this ... people that wanted to come in and attack us wouldn't have that opportunity again.
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Not Synced[Different voice over] It made me feel like ... we have to do something.
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Not SyncedIt made me feel like, you know, someone has to pay.
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Not SyncedIt's like we can't ... let two buildings get blown up and not do anything about it.
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Not Synced[Pres. G.W. Bush voice over] On my orders, the United States Military has begun strikes against Al Qaeda terrorist training camps
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Not Syncedand military installations of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.
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Not SyncedAnd we will do whatever it takes to smoke 'em out and get 'em running and we'll get 'em.
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Not Synced[Dramatic music]
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Not Synced[Tank shot]
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Not Synced[Voice over] The Geneva Conventions ... question doesn't really come up until the war in Afghanistan starts.
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Not SyncedAnd people start to come into the custody of our forces there.
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Not SyncedAnd so the Defense Department wants to know what is the status of the people we're catching?
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Not SyncedAl Qaeda and Taliban, uh, fighters?
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Not Synced[Ominous music]
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Not Synced[Government crowd muttering]
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Not Synced[Voice over] The four current Geneva Conventions were adopted in 1949.
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Not SyncedAnd they represent the standards against which all nations and all combating forces are gonna be- will be judged.
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Not SyncedThey're a binding international law.
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Not SyncedAnd they represent a humanitarian and human rights standard for the world.
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Not SyncedThey're important because the US Military has been frequently engaged in combat.
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Not SyncedAmerican forces are always at risk of being captured.
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Not SyncedAnd the Geneva Conventions protect American soldiers from ill treatment in the event of capture.
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Not SyncedAfter the American Civil War and up until the second World War,
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Not SyncedThe United States was consistently known for observing standards that were, in fact, higher than the Geneva Convention standards.
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Not SyncedAnd consistently advocating that all countries should operate to a level above the Geneva Convention standards.
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Not Synced[Voice over] At the Justice Department,
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Not Syncedwe did not think the Geneva Conventions applied in the war against Al Qaeda.
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Not SyncedBecause they did not sign the Geneva Conventions.
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Not SyncedAnd they don't follow any of the rules of warfare.
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Not SyncedAl Qaeda, if you look at what happened on 9/11, has no interest in following any of those rules.
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Not SyncedThey deliberately kill civilians, they deliberately target civilians.
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Not SyncedUm, they disguise themselves as civilians.
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Not SyncedThey don't take prisoners, as far as we can tell, instead they try to kidnap people and execute them on the web or on television.
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Not Synced[Different voice over] Officials in the White House,
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Not Syncedand particularly the Department of Justice, said Geneva Conventions shouldn't hold sway,
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Not Syncedand that kind of view finally triumphed.
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Not SyncedThe President made the decision in early 2002 that Geneva Conventions would not hold, um,
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Not Syncedand this was unprecedented in American history.
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Not SyncedNever happened before.
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Not SyncedThe war is a terrible thing.
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Not SyncedAnd it's always right on the edge of falling apart.
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Not SyncedUh, of- of awful things happening, and the only way -- sort of ironically -- uh, the only way to conduct a war
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Not Syncedin a civilized manner is to ensure that everybody understands what the rules are
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Not Syncedto the maximum extent possible.
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Not SyncedAnd when you start messing around with those rules,
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Not Syncedwhen you say they don't apply,
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Not Syncedthey're all terrorists so different rules apply,
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Not Syncednow you're in unlimited warfare.
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Not Synced[Voice over from footage] You know, be handled, uh not as prisoners of war,
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Not Syncedbecause they're not,
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Not Syncedbut as unlawful combatants, um, they- as I understand it, technically unlawful combatants
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Not Synceddo not have any rights under the Geneva Convention.
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Not SyncedThis war was a war that was going to depend, first and foremost on intelligence,
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Not Syncedthat is on information, uh, derived from prisoners of war.
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Not SyncedTherefore rules regarding interrogation -- what you could and couldn't do to prisoners -- uh, were absolutely central to fighting this new war.
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Not Synced[lamenting music]
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Not Synced[Voice over] The Department of Justice built a theory that essentially would render moot,
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Not Syncedrender powerless, the various undertakings that the United States had signed onto,
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Not Synceduh, that had prohibited torture.
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Not SyncedThe most obvious one is the convention against torture.
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Not Synced[Different voice over] The statute does not define many of the terms that it uses.
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Not SyncedIt doesn't say what "severe" means, for example.
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Not SyncedIt doesn't really contain any definition of "physical pain or suffering."
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Not SyncedSo our job was try to figure what did that statue actually mean?
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Not SyncedBecause the words are ambiguous, vague, and had not been interpreted before.
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Not SyncedYou know our office eventually issued a memo in August of 2002.
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Not SyncedTo the White House.
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Not Synced"Physical pain amounting to torture must be equivalent in intensity to the pain
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Not Syncedaccompanying serious physical injury, such as organ failure, impairment of bodily function, or even death."
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Not SyncedThe heart of this argument is to redefine torture so it is so narrowly conceived it essentially allows
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Not Syncedvery, very serious interrogation, uh, that cannot be construed to be torture.
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Not SyncedWhat this memo articulates is the view that torture's prohibited,
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Not Syncedbut torture's defined very, very narrowly to, uh, consist almost of, uh, imminent death
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Not Syncedor loss of bodily, uh, organ or function.
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Not SyncedUm, a- a definition of torture that was later criticized by another observer as
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Not Syncedthe kind of definition that probably would've justified most of what Saddam Hussein was doing in his prisons as not being torture.
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Not SyncedI can remember sitting in my office and I'm ... reading some of these memos ...
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Not SyncedIt was stunning it took- it- it literally took my breath away, I couldn't believe that I was reading this,
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Not Syncedand that it hadn't been shredded and burned and buried as- as the wild imaginations of- of some
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Not Synced[fumbling for words]
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Not Syncedlowly lawyer in the bowels of justice.
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Not SyncedThis should never see the light of day.
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Not SyncedBut now, suddenly, it's become US policy!
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Not Synced[ominous music]
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Not Synced[Pres. G.W. Bush voice over] Iraq continues to flaunt its hostility towards America and to support terror.
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Not SyncedThe terrorist threat to America and the world will be diminished the moment that Saddam Hussein is disarmed.
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Not SyncedAnd we believe he has, in fact, reconstituted with their weapons.
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Not SyncedThere's no doubt in my mind that- that he has weapons,
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Not Syncedchemical and biological weapons,
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Not Syncedand has been working on, uh, nuclear weapons.
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Not Synced[explosion]
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Not Synced[more explosions]
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Not Synced[Voice over] When we first got to Iraq we saw, you know,
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Not Syncedwell, blown up tanks, you know they were bombed from the sky.
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Not SyncedYou know, bullet holes everywhere.
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Not SyncedYou know, it was like going into a Mad Max movie.
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Not SyncedLike Mad Max: Return to Thunderdome.
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Not Synced[bang and hiss of missile launch]
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Not Synced[cheering in the background]
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Not Synced[muffled cheer and explosion in the distance]
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Not Synced[Voice over] Like wow, I'm at- I'm at war.
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Not SyncedLike wow.
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Not SyncedYou know we just like ... part of- part of you is like, "This is cool."
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Not Synced[machine gunfire]
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Not SyncedThen the other part of you is like, "Damn, oh. We gotta do this."
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Not SyncedBut, [unintelligible]
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Not Synced[gunfire]
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Not Synced[helicopter flying]
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Not Synced[Voice over] I remember, as we left Kuwait, I volunteered to be a gunner.
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Not SyncedIt was a twelve hour ride and I said, "I- I will gun, I'm new here, just tell me what I'm looking for, and I'll gun all day on this convoy."
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Not SyncedAnd I said, "But the only thing is the rules of engagement."
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Not SyncedAnd they all kinda looked at me.
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Not SyncedI- I'm like, "I need the rules of engagement. I've never been in a combat zone before."
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Not SyncedAnd they said, "Well, if it looks like the enemy, shoot it."
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Not SyncedI'm like, "No, no, I'm serious, now, if- I need rules of engagement. W-what constitutes the enemy, whatever."
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Not Synced"We just told you, Sergeant. If it looks like the enemy, shoot it."
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Not SyncedAnd I looked at 'em and I said, "You know, I've really never been outside the United States.
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Not Synced"Everything looks like the enemy to me out here."
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Not Synced[muffled shouting]
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Not Synced[ominous music]
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Not Synced[Voice over] Units in Iraq are picking up people on hunches and- and suspicions.
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Not SyncedUh, for instance, you'll get an intelligence report that someone driving a Black Opal,
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Not Syncedwhich is a model of car over there,
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Not Synceduh was involved in a- an IED attack.
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Not SyncedSo they'll just round up people with Black Opals and bring them in for interrogation.
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Not SyncedAny- any kind of hunch that- that, uh, these units had would- they would act on and arrest people.
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Not Synced[banging]
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Not SyncedThey w- They just arrested everyone.
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Not Synced[ominous music]
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Not Synced[rustling netting in the wind]
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Not Synced[Voice over] I heard there was over 30,000 people were executed over there during Saddam's regime.
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Not SyncedThat they're buried right there, most of them were.
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Not SyncedAnd, just ... pretty horrible stories.
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Not SyncedAbout prisoner tortures.
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Not Synced'Course there are ... pictures of Saddam all over the prison.
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Not SyncedThe place was horrible.
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Not SyncedAnd there were ... wild dogs running around.
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Not SyncedDigging up ... human bodies.
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Not Synced[Different voice over] It was a- a place inside a prison. Like the Death Chamber, that we called it.
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Not SyncedWhere it was two holes in the floor and hanging hooks, you know, so they hung people every day.
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Not SyncedThey'd hang like 80, 100 people a day, something like that.
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Not SyncedWhere we lived at, in our barracks?
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Not SyncedIt was two ovens in there that ... we... um, whatcha call it in- incinerator for bodies?
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Not SyncedIt was kinda like, okay, whoa. [nervous laugh]
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Not SyncedWhere are we living at?
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Not SyncedYou know how many lost souls or ... displaced souls are walking around here?
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Not Synced[Different voice over] It was very, very hot.
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Not SyncedThe heat index, uh, direct sunlight was ... 130?
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Not SyncedAnd the odor was, um ...
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Not SyncedI'll never forget the smell of Abu Ghraib.
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Not SyncedThe smell of sweat and trash and ... feces and urine.
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Not SyncedWafting through the air, it's just ... I will never forget the small of Abu Ghraib.
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Not SyncedJust a desert bowl of misery.
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Not SyncedIs the only way to describe it.
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Not SyncedAnd that place was just so dark.
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Not SyncedYou know and- and rooted in history.
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Not SyncedAnd we were like- felt like it was a haunted place.
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Not SyncedYou know, like, at nighttime there's certain hallways you wouldn't want to go down by yourself,
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Not Synced'cause ...
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Not Syncedyou know you're afraid there might be a ghost. Or something.
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Not SyncedAnd you knew if something was there it was- it was really pissed off.
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Not SyncedIt's- It's just the most surreal ... place, you know, you can imagine.
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Not SyncedIt's like a combination of Apocalypse Now meets, uh, The Shining.
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Not SyncedExcept that, you know, this is real and you're in the middle of it.
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Not SyncedMajor combat operations in Iraq have ended.
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Not SyncedIn the Battle of Iraq, the United States and its allies have prevailed.
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Not Synced[cheers]
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Not Synced[Voice over] We got- we got fuckin' at least three missiles here.
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Not Synced[BANG]
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Not Synced[metal clinking]
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Not Synced[explosion]
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Not Synced[Voice over] We requested resources and, uh, assistance many times.
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Not SyncedAlmost on a daily basis.
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Not SyncedUh, at some points practically pleading for resources.
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Not SyncedUh, not only for Abu Ghraib, but for all of the other prison facilities we were trying to restore and reopen.
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Not SyncedSomebody had this crazy idea, um, that they could restore all of the prison systems
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Not Syncedand get the new Iraqy guards retrained in the right way to do a, uh,
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Not Syncedan appropriate prison operation in 90 days or less.
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Not SyncedUh, there was no- there was no plan for anything.
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Not Synced[low ominous tone and drumming]
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Not Synced[Voice over] We get there and ...
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Not Syncedwe're told, "Okay, put your weapons away. Put your trucks away and park 'em, you're not gonna need them any longer."
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Not SyncedLike, "What are you talking about?"
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Not SyncedLike there's people over there, you know, said,
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Not Synced"Okay no, you're going to be prison guards. You're gonna augment the guard force inside."
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Not SyncedSo our commander was like, "Hey, what are we doing ... ?
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Not Synced"We're not ... corrections."
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Not SyncedHe's like, "Our guys have never been trained to do anything like that."
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Not SyncedSo, hence, we put our weapons away.
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Not SyncedOur tons of ammunition away.
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Not SyncedAnd then we became prison guards.
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Not SyncedWith no training whatsoever.
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Not SyncedAnd we're looking at each other, "What?"
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Not Synced"We, um, the 72nd MP Company is leaving.
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Not Synced"And we're going to take their place."
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Not SyncedIf there was ever a turn in moral, it was right there.
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Not SyncedThat I could see.
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Not SyncedEverything just hit rock bottom.
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Not Synced[dramatic drumming]
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Not Synced[Voice over] Abu Ghraib turned out to be the most attacked US position in Iraq.
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Not SyncedMe and the other guys shelled every day.
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Not SyncedShot at every day.
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Not SyncedEvery single day, all day, every day.
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Not SyncedAnd there was holes in one of the walls from shrapnel that a mortar had just hit.
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Not SyncedI think it was maybe a week before we came or a couple of days before we came.
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Not SyncedAnd, um, he was telling us how the guy was praying and a mortar hit and killed a bunch of prisoners.
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Not SyncedSo, uh, it made- you definitely didn't feel safe being there.
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Not Synced[Different voice over] The road outside the prison was the most dangerous road on the planet Earth.
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Not SyncedYou have more fatalities on that road,
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Not Syncedmore IED's on that road,
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Not Syncedmore shots fired on that road than any road in the world.
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Not SyncedYou could be walking- walking to your barracks,
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Not Synced[mimics sound of missile being shot] [boom]
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Not SyncedAw man,
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Not Synced"Incoming! Incoming!"
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Not SyncedOh, I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy.
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Not SyncedYup.
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Not Synced[drumming]
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Not Synced[fuzzy unintelligible rapping]
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Not SyncedThat's right.
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Not SyncedAbu Ghetto.
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Not SyncedGhetto Abu!
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Not Synced[Shouting] Oh, you know what I'm saying!
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Not Synced[BANG]
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Not Synced[Laughing, shouting, cursing, slamming]
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Not Synced[ominous tone]
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Not Synced[Voice over] In July and August, uh,
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Not Syncedthe prison population was fairly stable and- and I would say, at the highest numbers it was still less than 1,000.
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Not SyncedBy the end of September, it went to over 6,000.
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Not SyncedWe had, uh, just short of 300 Military Police personnel at Abu Ghraib,
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Not Syncedto guard thousands of prisoners.
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Not SyncedYou had the general population prisoners, which were basically a huge mass of humanity,
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Not Syncedyou know, thrown into a mud pit, surrounded by concertina wire.
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Not SyncedAnd then you had the hard sites, which was where the intel holds were at,
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Not Syncedas well as the insane, or the criminal.
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Not SyncedAnd then there was an even more- the most secure sections, where they had the women and the children.
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Not Synced[Different voice over] No, the feelings that we had were, you know the spouses or sisters or cousins of
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Not Syncedhigh value detainees that were being used as, "Okay well we have your sister, we have your wife,
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Not Synced"you know, you need to turn yourself in."
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Not SyncedSame thing with the little children. We had, like, nine year olds in there.
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Not SyncedI'm like, "W-w-why do I have a nine year old in a prison?"
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Not SyncedIt's crazy, but yeah, that's what was there.
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Not SyncedI was chosen to work at the hardest site 'cause I'm a female.
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Not SyncedAnd they needed females working 1B.
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Not SyncedAnd that's mainly where they stuck me when, uh, Megan Ambuhl wasn't working.
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Not Synced[Different voice over] In the hard site there was probably six or seven guards guarding ...
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Not SyncedI would say at least 1,000 detainees, if not more.
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Not SyncedAnd you had all those ... If all those prisoners got to coordinating at one time ...
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Not SyncedYou know, the guards that were inside of the compound would've been ...
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Not SyncedThey would've been dead.
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Not SyncedIt was ... It was such a ... scary situation to live under.
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Not Synced[Different voice over] The prisoners in the hard site were, like, the lowest scum of the earth,
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Not Syncedthe Al Qaedas, the Taliban, the Saddam Hussein Fedayeen, um, Wahabis, terrorist bad guys.
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Not SyncedAnd ... they were American killers.
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Not SyncedWe were told that these detainees were the worst of the worst and this information that we needed to get
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Not Syncedwas gonna save lives, it was gonna have- ...
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Not SyncedSomebody said at one point it was gonna have global implications.
-
Not Synced[Different voice over] I think the Military Intelligence Personnel were caught pretty much by surprise
-
Not Syncedby the number of, uh, prisoners being brought in that had to undergo an interview at least,
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Not Syncedor interrogations.
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Not SyncedAnd their assessment within the first couple of weeks was,
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Not Synced"Y'know ma'am, most of 'em are just guilty of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
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Not Synced"They don't have any information."
-
Not SyncedWell according to them, at that time it was around 75-80%.
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Not SyncedOf the people being brought in, really didn't have any information of value,
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Not Syncedor any information at all about terrorism.
-
Not SyncedThe interrogators that I worked with at Abu Ghraib were all extremely frustrated by
-
Not Syncedthe lack of intelligence they were getting, uh, during interrogations.
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Not SyncedAnd most of them attributed that to the fact that they- they had prisoners who didn't have intelligence to give them.
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Not SyncedThe interrogators who were in my unit spent all year there,
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Not Syncedand they were telling me that they got nothing.
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Not Synced[lamenting music]
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Not Synced[cars driving]
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Not Synced[explosion]
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Not Synced[Voice over] In the summer of 2003,
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Not Syncedthe insurgency grew at a very rapid rate.
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Not SyncedYou had the bombing of the UN Headquarters in August,
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Not Syncedthe bombing of the Jordanian Embassy,
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Not Syncedthe bombing of the Turkish Embassy,
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Not Syncedand then, at the end of October, the attack on the Rashid Hotel, where most American workers
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Not Syncedin the Green Zone were housed.
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Not Synced[Pres. G.W. Bush Voice Over] Thanks to the United States of America, fifty million people
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Not Syncedonce lived under tyranny,
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Not Syncedand today they live in freedom.
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Not Synced[clapping]
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Not Synced[gunfire]
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Not Synced[Different voice over] The American Military had no idea who these people were.
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Not SyncedHow do we fight an enemy we can't see?
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Not SyncedThe only way to do that is to interrogate enough people that we will get usable intelligence
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Not Syncedthat will allow us to nip the insurgency in the bud.
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Not SyncedAnd I think there was a degree of panic about the lack of intelligence and the lack of knowledge
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Not Syncedabout the insurgency.
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Not SyncedRumsfeld was, uh, openly irritated about it.
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Not SyncedUh, and, uh, and then we come to accounts in the summer of 2003, uh, of an intelligence briefing
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Not Syncedthat occurred at the Pentagon involving, uh, Rumsfeld, Cambone, a handful of other senior officers,
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Not Syncedand he's described as being openly angry, pounding his fist on the table, uh,
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Not Syncedand asking in a taunting way, uh, "Why is it that Guantanamo gets me good intel, just what I want,
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Not Synced"and I don't get this out of Iraq? I've had it with this, I want you to get Miller out to Iraq and
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Not Synced"Gitmo-ize the situation and do it fast."
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Not Synced[ominous music]
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Not SyncedMiller, by all accounts, is a man who is, in a way, Rumsfeld's kind of officer,
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Not Syncedwhich is to say he doesn't care about past practice, he doesn't care about tradition necessarily.
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Not SyncedWhat he cares about is getting results.
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Not SyncedAnd he established a system in Guantanamo, uh, that was based entirely around
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Not Syncedgetting information from these detainees.
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Not SyncedWhich is to say, using harsher interrogation techniques.
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Not SyncedI am telling you what I believe in every inch of my body to be the truth.
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Not SyncedAnd I have spent a lot of time on secure video with the people down there,
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Not SyncedI have talked to people who've been down there and come back,
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Not Syncedand I haven't found a single scrap of any kind of information that suggests that anyone
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Not Syncedhas been treated anything other than humanely, notwithstanding everything we have read and heard.
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Not SyncedAt the time there were rumors coming out of Guantanamo that prisoners were being abused.
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Not SyncedUh, certainly certain of the Human Rights organizations had, uh,
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Not Synceddetected those kinds of rumors and written letters
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Not Syncedto the Administration urging the Administration not to engage in this kind of practice.
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Not SyncedSo I think, uh, word was starting to leak out
-
Not Syncedas to something occurruing in Guantanamo.
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Not SyncedGeneral Miller, at Guantanamo,
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Not Syncedturned Guantanamo from a conventional US Military prison that would abide by the laws of war,
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Not Syncedinto a kind of ad hoc behavioral laboratory for the introduction, the use of
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Not Syncedextreme techniques.
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Not Synced[Different voice over] A lot of what we know about
-
Not Syncedwhat went on in the cells during interrogations at Guantanamo, we know from FBI Officers,
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Not Syncedwho went down and were working at Guantanamo
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Not Syncedand, uh, in essence observing what the Army interrogators were doing.
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Not SyncedWe have a number of emails and reports that have been declassified by these FBI people,
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Not Syncedcounter-terrorism officials who reported on what they saw.
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Not Synced"On a couple of occasions," he writes,
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Not Synced"I entered interview rooms to find a detainee chained hand and foot in a fetal position on the floor,
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Not Synced"with no chair, food, or water.
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Not Synced"Most times they had urinated or defecated on themselves and had been left there for
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Not Synced"18 to 24 hours or more."
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Not SyncedThese practices, when you see them on beurocratic documents,
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Not Syncedseem absolutely inoffensive, almost benign.
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Not SyncedUm, and this report is one of many, many we have from Guantanamo, simply reporting on
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Not Syncedthe flesh and blood reality of what those bureaucratic sounding names mean.
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Not Synced[ominous music]
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Not Synced[Different voice over] Donald Rumsfeld approved a memo in response to pressures from interrogators
-
Not Syncedin December of 2002 in which he approved all sorts of enhanced interrogation techniques.
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Not SyncedWhat he allows is solitary confinement, noise, light, dark, in other words, enhanced or extreme
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Not Syncedsensory disorientation.
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Not SyncedThey include stress positions,
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Not Syncedand they include a series of techniques designed to undermine the self-confidence of the detainee,
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Not Syncedand subsequently we learn that this includes sexual humiliation techniques,
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Not Syncedenforced nudity ...
-
Not SyncedWhat is most significant, um, is that in it, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, in his own name,
-
Not Syncedapproves, uh, the harshest interrogation techniques
-
Not Syncedthat have been approved in the history of our country.
-
Not SyncedOn the final copy of this so-called "Action Memo",
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Not Syncedyou see after Rumsfeld approves some of these practices, including forced standing,
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Not Syncedhe says- he writes at the bottom,
-
Not Synced"However, I stand for 8 to 10 hours a day,
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Not Synced"why is standing limited to four hours? DR."
-
Not SyncedDon Rumsfeld.
-
Not Synced[Different voice over] This is a hand-written comment written by Secretary Rumsfeld,
-
Not Syncedcould be considered, like, a wink and a nod to the interrogators, suggesting that nevermind the
-
Not Syncedactual limitations contained in the memorandum,
-
Not Syncedum, do what you have to do to get the information requested.
-
Not Synced[ominous beat]
-
Not Synced[Different voice over] General Miller is sent to Iraq,
-
Not Syncedto help them get more actionable intelligence from these thousands of security detainees.
-
Not SyncedAnd General Miller, without hesitation,
-
Not Syncedsaid, "Look, it's my opinion, you are treating the prisoners too well.
-
Not Synced"They don't know who's in charge.
-
Not Synced"And if you don't treat the prisoners like dogs,
-
Not Synced"you have effectively lost control of the interrogation."
-
Not SyncedAt the close of General Miller's visit,
-
Not SyncedLieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, overall Commander of US Forces for Iraq,
-
Not Syncedissued a memorandum for extreme techniques,
-
Not Syncedtechniques that can be seen to be in violation of US International Law.
-
Not Synced[Different voice over] I believe they thought they were interpreting the Geneva Conventions
-
Not Syncedand applying them.
-
Not SyncedI don't think they thought, "Well the Geneva Conventions don't apply."
-
Not SyncedAnd so I think what they thought they were doing
-
Not Syncedwas following, uh, those standards and trying to
-
Not Syncedcreate interrogation methods based on them.
-
Not Synced[Different voice over] There were so many changes in policies,
-
Not Syncedon what kind of stress positions you can use,
-
Not Syncedfor how long, and, um,
-
Not Syncedstuff of that nature.
-
Not SyncedThat it was kind of confusing.
-
Not SyncedIt was never clear to me what was allowed and what wasn't allowed in Iraq.
-
Not SyncedNo one ever could make anything clear to me.
-
Not SyncedWhen the questions were asked, it was like, "Hey, I dunno."
-
Not SyncedY'know, just- no one could answer questions for us.
-
Not Synced[Different voice over] All I remember is,
-
Not Syncedthe first day I worked at the hard site,
-
Not Syncedand that was- that was October 18th, I believe.
-
Not Synced'Cause I wrote a letter home.
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Not SyncedAnd uh ...
-
Not SyncedAll I knew was there's an interrogation going on.
-
Not SyncedAnd there was a prisoner nicknamed Taxicab Driver,
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Not Syncedwho was handcuffed to a window backwards, naked, in one of the cells.
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Not SyncedAnd there was an interrogator there.
-
Not SyncedI just left it alone.
-
Not SyncedI wrote back home saying I didn't agree with it.
-
Not SyncedAnd I went to work the next day.
-
Not Synced"W-what's- what's going on with the nakedness?"
-
Not SyncedIt's like, "Why are these people naked?"
-
Not SyncedYou know, I've never seen anything like that before in my life.
-
Not SyncedYou know, naked prisoners?
-
Not SyncedWith panties on their heads.
-
Not SyncedAnd in compromising positions, you know?
-
Not SyncedLocked up.
-
Not SyncedYou say, "What's- what's going on with that?"
-
Not SyncedI didn't understand that.
-
Not SyncedI got in there and there was this ...
-
Not Syncednaked kid who's old enough to be my- my younger sibling ...
-
Not Syncedyou know just- just naked.
-
Not SyncedJust hiding his shame with his hand, uh, trying to answer these questions.
-
Not SyncedAnd no, we ...
-
Not SyncedNo one raised ... any objection or any concern,
-
Not Syncedit was just ...
-
Not SyncedIt was just business.
-
Not SyncedAnd our business, [unintelligible] was sometimes conducted naked.
-
Not SyncedThe nudity and the shackling of the prisoners was every day, every day occurance.
-
Not SyncedThe prisoners that came in had to be strip-searched,
-
Not Syncedno matter what, just as a security.
-
Not SyncedUsually they came in with a sandbag on their head
-
Not Syncedbecause their handler didn't want anybody to know
-
Not Syncedthey were there, or didn't want them to see
-
Not Syncedanybody else who was there.
-
Not SyncedSo they stood around naked with a sandbag on their head, standing on a box,
-
Not Syncedor holding something not knowing where they were,
-
Not Syncedor what was going on.
-
Not Synced[ominous music]
-
Not SyncedWe know that, uh, after General Miller's visit to Abu Ghraib Prison, and to Iraq in August/September 2003
-
Not Syncedthat, uh, the MP's were removed from the control General Scarpinski,
-
Not Syncedwho was the Commander of Military Police for Iraq,
-
Not Syncedand placed under the control of Military Intelligence.
-
Not SyncedThe MP's were then no longer part of, if you will, the kind of incarceration staff.
-
Not SyncedThey were moved to be part of the interrogation staff.
-
Not SyncedSo the MP's had the job of softening up,
-
Not Syncedcreating the conditions for effective interrogation by the Military Interrogators.
-
Not Synced[Different voice over] What happened when we got to Abu Ghraib is
-
Not SyncedMilitary Intelligence was placed in charge of us.
-
Not SyncedMI and OGA, who is CIA, and all these other corporations,
-
Not Syncedthese civilian contractors that- that didn't answer to anyone like us,
-
Not Syncedwould come in and tell our MP's, "This guy needs to have a bad night."
-
Not Synced"What kinda bad night?"
-
Not Synced"Use your imagination."
-
Not Synced"You can do this, this, this, this, stress positions, loud music, do whatever you wanna do to 'em.
-
Not Synced"Just make sure they don't sleep."
-
Not Synced"We need that information."
-
Not SyncedThe MI people, the specific handlers, would have me
-
Not Syncedgive the guy, give whichever detainee lots of showers during the day, like,
-
Not Syncedthey would say, "This guy's really dirty, we want you to give him lots of showers.
-
Not Synced"We want you to stand in there and point and laugh at him. And, y'know, just be there while he's-
-
Not Synced"so he's definitely aware that I'm standing there. While he's fully nude."
-
Not SyncedLike, "Hey, hey, Sergeant Davis, you take these numbers down.
-
Not Synced"Prisoner number 111777," or something like that,
-
Not Synced"he needs to be up at 4 o'clock in the morning, go to bed at 4:30 and be up at, y'know up 5:15,
-
Not Synced"go to bed at 7 o'clock. You know, um, this person's number, blahblahblah, do this, do that.
-
Not Synced"You know, take the radio and put the megaphone up to it and keep him up all night long.
-
Not Synced"Bang the garbage cans, slam the doors,
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Not Synced"know if they go to sleep, you know, throw water on 'em," like that, y'know.
-
Not Synced"Keep him awake. You know make sure that- make sure that life is hell tonight."
- Title:
- GHOSTS OF ABU GHRAIB - Documentary
- Description:
-
Ghosts of Abu Ghraib is a 2007 documentary film directed by Rory Kennedy. It is an examination of the events of the 2004 Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse scandal. The film premiered January 19, 2007 at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival. The film aired on HBO on February 22, 2007. It was also shown at the Human Rights Watch Film Festival on March 23, 2007 and at the Cleveland International Film Festival on March 25, 2007. Working Films coordinated the US national community engagement campaign with Ghosts of Abu Ghraib. It brought together the National Religious Campaign Against Torture, the American Civil Liberties Union, faith groups and others to end US policy sanctioning torture.
- Video Language:
- English
- Duration:
- 01:18:17
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Flik edited English subtitles for GHOSTS OF ABU GHRAIB - Documentary | |
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Flik edited English subtitles for GHOSTS OF ABU GHRAIB - Documentary |