Video image of President Bush during an interview with the Al Hurra arabic-language TV network on May 5 at the White House. (AP/Al Hurra) |
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Haider Sabbar Abed points at the picture showing a naked prisoner, posed for the camera with his head hooded, his hands behind his head. "That's me," Abed says.
The picture is among photos at the center of a storm over abuse of detainees by U.S. guards at Abu Ghraib prison. The case has exploded from an inquiry into guards' conduct into a wider review of prisoner deaths and an investigation into whether there was systematic abuse. President Bush has promised justice will be done.
Looking at the photos now seen around the world, Abed, 36, said today that all the investigations won't do anything for him.
"Will any of this restore my honor to me? My dignity has been crushed under foot," he told The Associated Press. "Bush says they (the guards) will be punished, but who knows? In all seriousness, do you really think they will?"
In pictures first shown by CBS, prisoners are shown stripped naked as guards taunt them and force them into humiliating poses. The prisoners' heads are hooded, but Abed said he recognized scars and tattoos on his body in the pictures.
"My mind is drenched with the memory of this. Every pose and position," he said.
An Army report on the investigation at Abu Ghraib lists a prisoner with same name as Abed, but U.S. officials did not respond to a query about him.
Abed, a Shiite Muslim from the southern city of Nasiriyah, said he was detained in July while visiting Baghdad to get some paperwork from his time in the military under Saddam Hussein.
He said he was being given a ride by a man he didn't know when the car was stopped by American soldiers because it was of a make often used in anti-U.S. attacks. The driver didn't have papers for the car, so the soldiers arrested him -- and Abed along with him, Abed said.
He said he spent the next three months at the Camp Bucca detention camp in southern Iraq, then was brought to Iraq's biggest prison, Abu Ghraib, on the western outskirts of Baghdad.
"Everyone treated me well," he said.
But when he and other prisoners beat up a fellow detainee who had been chosen by the Americans to run their part of the prison, Abed and six other men were taken from the tent camp where they had been held into Abu Ghraib's solitary detention area.
That's when their nightmare began, he said.
"First they beat us. They hit us all over," Abed said. "Then they tore off our clothes."
He said the abuse lasted for four hours, during which they were all kept naked, a particularly humiliating experience in conservative Arab culture.
At one point, he said, the men were forced to climb on top of each other in a pile. He pointed at a photo of seven nude men stacked in a pyramid. "That's me," he said, indicating the man at the bottom left of the picture.
The guards lifted his hood, and as a female guard stood in front of him, ordered him to masturbate, Abed said. They then pulled his hood back down. "I was standing there, then they took my hand and put it on the head of someone in front of me."
Throughout the abuse, the guards were taking pictures, Abed said.
Still naked, the prisoners were put in solitary confinement cells and for the next three nights were kept chained, Abed said. The first night, Abed said he was chained to the cell door, his face to the bars, the second night to his bed and the third night on the floor, his hands shackled to his feet.
The group was kept in the solitary cells for 25 days before being allowed back to the tent camp, Abed said.
In January, U.S. investigators interviewed Abed, showing him more than 60 of the pictures taken by guards, he said. He was released on April 15.
When the pictures became public, Abed said he was reluctant to come forward. But when approached by Arab television, he agreed to be interviewed.
"I wanted to alert the world," he said. "There are so many innocents being detained, people who have nothing to do with any violence."
"But I can do nothing now. I can't stay in Iraq. The shame is too great," he said.
The picture is among photos at the center of a storm over abuse of detainees by U.S. guards at Abu Ghraib prison. The case has exploded from an inquiry into guards' conduct into a wider review of prisoner deaths and an investigation into whether there was systematic abuse. President Bush has promised justice will be done.
Looking at the photos now seen around the world, Abed, 36, said today that all the investigations won't do anything for him.
"Will any of this restore my honor to me? My dignity has been crushed under foot," he told The Associated Press. "Bush says they (the guards) will be punished, but who knows? In all seriousness, do you really think they will?"
In pictures first shown by CBS, prisoners are shown stripped naked as guards taunt them and force them into humiliating poses. The prisoners' heads are hooded, but Abed said he recognized scars and tattoos on his body in the pictures.
"My mind is drenched with the memory of this. Every pose and position," he said.
An Army report on the investigation at Abu Ghraib lists a prisoner with same name as Abed, but U.S. officials did not respond to a query about him.
Abed, a Shiite Muslim from the southern city of Nasiriyah, said he was detained in July while visiting Baghdad to get some paperwork from his time in the military under Saddam Hussein.
He said he was being given a ride by a man he didn't know when the car was stopped by American soldiers because it was of a make often used in anti-U.S. attacks. The driver didn't have papers for the car, so the soldiers arrested him -- and Abed along with him, Abed said.
He said he spent the next three months at the Camp Bucca detention camp in southern Iraq, then was brought to Iraq's biggest prison, Abu Ghraib, on the western outskirts of Baghdad.
"Everyone treated me well," he said.
But when he and other prisoners beat up a fellow detainee who had been chosen by the Americans to run their part of the prison, Abed and six other men were taken from the tent camp where they had been held into Abu Ghraib's solitary detention area.
That's when their nightmare began, he said.
"First they beat us. They hit us all over," Abed said. "Then they tore off our clothes."
He said the abuse lasted for four hours, during which they were all kept naked, a particularly humiliating experience in conservative Arab culture.
At one point, he said, the men were forced to climb on top of each other in a pile. He pointed at a photo of seven nude men stacked in a pyramid. "That's me," he said, indicating the man at the bottom left of the picture.
The guards lifted his hood, and as a female guard stood in front of him, ordered him to masturbate, Abed said. They then pulled his hood back down. "I was standing there, then they took my hand and put it on the head of someone in front of me."
Throughout the abuse, the guards were taking pictures, Abed said.
Still naked, the prisoners were put in solitary confinement cells and for the next three nights were kept chained, Abed said. The first night, Abed said he was chained to the cell door, his face to the bars, the second night to his bed and the third night on the floor, his hands shackled to his feet.
The group was kept in the solitary cells for 25 days before being allowed back to the tent camp, Abed said.
In January, U.S. investigators interviewed Abed, showing him more than 60 of the pictures taken by guards, he said. He was released on April 15.
When the pictures became public, Abed said he was reluctant to come forward. But when approached by Arab television, he agreed to be interviewed.
"I wanted to alert the world," he said. "There are so many innocents being detained, people who have nothing to do with any violence."
"But I can do nothing now. I can't stay in Iraq. The shame is too great," he said.
